- Font Size:
- Default font size
- Larger font size
BY PATRICK GUINANE
pguinane@nwitimes.com
317.637.9078 | Friday, June 27, 2008 | (2 comment(s))
INDIANAPOLIS | The legislative labyrinth surrounding Indiana's property tax system proved too difficult Thursday for a state oversight panel to navigate.
The Local Government Property Tax Control Board punted on about $5 million in appeals sought by the city of Gary, it's sanitary and stormwater districts and Gary/Chicago International Airport.
Members of the state panel said they had little clue what the General Assembly's intentions were this spring when it extended the deadline for local government to appeal tax shortfalls sustained last year. The board unanimously decided to let Cheryl Musgrave, commissioner of the Indiana Department of Local Government Finance, sort out the situation.
Lake County tax bills went out so late last year -- in December -- that Gary and its sister agencies didn't know how short they would be until the county distributed tax collections in March. City officials now say that assessment errors and taxpayer appeals shorted Gary at least $4.4 million while sapping $521,000 from its sanitary district, $100,000 from the airport and $73,000 from the stormwater district.
State law typically requires local government to take out a newspaper ad announcing any anticipated appeal of its property tax levy, which Gary and the sister agencies didn't do when advertising annual budgets last fall.
But city officials question how they were supposed to forecast shortfalls they didn't know about until the county distributed property tax collections six months later.
Back to story 2 comment(s)
- It wasn't clear, concise or focused on the topic in the story.
- It was a personal attack, vulgar, explicit or degrading, used actual or implied profanity or contained potentially libelous statements.
- It accused someone of being guilty of a crime.
- It promoted violence or illegal acts.
- It contained telephone numbers or street addresses, or e-mail addresses and links to Web sites other than nwi.com or government agencies.
In no way do these comments represent the views of The Times or Lee Enterprises.
Passionate views, pointed criticism and critical thinking are welcome. Name-calling, crude and profane language and personal abuse are not welcome.
Reader comments will not be edited - they will be approved or declined. They may be used in the print edition of the newspaper.
If you feel a posted comment has violated these guidelines, please email our New Media team the commenter's name, the comment and a link to the article.
For more information please read our Terms of Service.
Hey Hen wrote on Jun 27, 2008 1:11 PM:
That was the one election promise he didn't tell them about in his famous "10 Promises" ad campaign before the election. It is the only promise he's kept though.
Promise 11: If re-elected, I plan to do all I can to increase the tax burden on Hammond property owners. "
Wet Hen wrote on Jun 27, 2008 6:00 AM:
Better still let him make them up from his re-election war chest. "