"To date, 52 counties are making progress toward providing all data required for the DLGF’s review. A July 23, 2007, letter issued to various counties throughout the state indicated counties have until Aug. 15, 2007, to submit their missing data, or provide a plan and timeline on when they will provide it. The DLGF will implement sanctions, which can include withholding the non-compliant county’s budget order, or withholding property-tax relief credits."
In the September 23 Journal Gazette:
"In all, the agency is seeking 19 data sets from all 92 counties, though only three are considered priorities for compliance.
Of the 11 northeast Indiana counties, five are compliant: Adams, Huntington, Wabash, Wells and Whitley. The six that aren’t are Allen, DeKalb, Kosciusko, LaGrange, Noble and Steuben."
What's that you say O'Day?
"Allen County Assessor Stacey O’Day said she has sent the final priority data set to the Department of Local Government Finance several times. Much of the back-and-forth relates to technical software issues, not the data itself, she said.
'Sometimes it’s like finding a needle in a haystack, going through 150,000 records and finding a couple of commas or zeroes that are in the wrong place,' she said. 'All of us are dealing with that.' "
Haystack, and I thought it was about assessing property.
So what does the Indiana Department of Local Government Finance do so as to not embarrass Allen County with their Harrison Square project?
But just four days after the tax control board hearing, the state sent a letter to the city extending their October approval deadline by 90 days, to Jan. 16.
Four day after the hearing, the Mayor and all his friends knew that the Harrison Square bond approval would be delayed until at least January 16!
Mayor and Friends can not be happy, but Governor Daniels don't care and had this to say, "Daniels defended the move Friday, saying the data is needed to fully understand the property tax problem and fashion a solution.
'I think enforcing deadlines that used to be ignored is a good idea,' he said, while acknowledging that the Fort Wayne project was different from most because it doesn’t depend directly on property tax revenue.
'The good news is that the relevant official up there did finally comply with the duty last night, and so the light is now green,' Daniels said.
As Randy Borror tries to cover for Fort Wayne, "Rep. Randy Borror, R-Fort Wayne, said he appreciates the fact that Musgrave is holding county officials accountable.
'At the same time, the local entities are not necessarily the ones to blame since no one held them accountable in the past. I would hope (the state) would use good judgment when you are talking about large projects of any kind needing review by DLGF,' he said. 'You know if people are being obstinate or really trying to comply. I get it, and I think the message really needed to be sent. I certainly think they have received the message.'"
No Randy you don't get it and thanks for the letter that expressed your wait and see what the people will do before you commit to protecting the property owners.
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