Some townships sitting on large cash reserves

As 2009 neared its close, Indiana’s townships were sitting on large piles of cash. All told, they had more than $200 million — nearly a year’s worth of cash sitting in their bank accounts.

And that is before the townships got their annual December tax payment from the state. After the payment, they had about $300 million, a number reported last month by the Indianapolis Star.

Some townships had millions of dollars; some had almost nothing. Some were certainly saving up for major purchases; some were not.

All together, though, the townships had nearly as much in the bank before their December payments as the $220 million in property tax dollars they got that year, according to a Herald-Times analysis.

Put another way, if the townships didn’t receive a dime of tax money in 2010, they could have used their cash to operate without cuts almost until the year’s end.