By Karen Francisco, The Journal Gazette
kfrancisco@jg.net
• In LaPorte County, the Indiana Department of Local Government Finance twice approved the county's 2006 property assessment before declaring it was based on illegal ratio studies and must be redone, delaying delivery of local funding and depriving homeowners of property tax rebates.
• In Rush County, the auditor's office was the first in the state to submit its 2007 ratio study for assessments but learned after repeated phone calls that the state had misplaced it and it had to be resubmitted. Final approval didn't come until January of this year, prompting the Republican county auditor to write to Gov. Mitch Daniels charging DLGF is "hostile."
• In Johnson County, Clark-Pleasant Community School Corp.'s $60 million middle school project was rejected by the DLGF commissioner because she believes the district's tax rate is already too high. When school officials submitted a scaled-back project, Commissioner Cheryl Musgrave refused to look at it.
• In Allen County, Citilink officials asked for and were granted a tax levy appeal by the DLGF in November when it was discovered that taxes weren't collected for recently annexed areas. In February, the DLGF reversed its decision and said that the revenue couldn't be collected without retroactive approval by City Council, putting the transit system at risk of budget cuts that would slash service to riders who depend on public transportation for jobs, school and doctor visits.
Why does the name of a small state agency keep popping up in newspaper accounts across the state? Why is a department long considered a partner with local government and school finance officials now accused of trying to make them fail?