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It's Our Money Mitch!
...and we want the interest too.
For some time, the state's Department of Local Government Finance has been withholding about $1.2 million in property tax replacement credits due to the botched reassessment. On May 21, 2008, DLGF finally decided the county had provided it with enough information to release the money. (It looks like the actual amount released is about $1.6 million.)
Good news, to be sure, BUT ...
Not content to have cost this county (including our schools and other units of local government) over a million dollars in interest on borrowed funds, DLGF will continue to withhold PTRC money for the succeeding years.
I thought you might find the following exchange of e-mails interesting:
From: Mari H Miller [mailto:millermh@bcingov.us]
Sent: Friday, May 16, 2008 3:54 PM
To: Musgrave, Cheryl
Cc: goresw@bcingov.us; warnerw@g-uts.com
Subject: Fw: Brown County Pay-2006 Auditor Data
Ms. Musgrave,
I believe this is the last piece of data that you requested from Brown
County before releasing the PTRC being withheld. Can we be expecting
the funds soon?
Thank You,
Mari H. Miller
Brown County Auditor
P.O. Box 37
Nashville, IN 47448
From: Musgrave, Cheryl [mailto:CMusgrave@dlgf.IN.gov]
Sent: Wednesday, May 21, 2008 1:49 PM
To: Miller, Mari H
Cc: goresw@bcingov.us; warnerw@g-uts.com; Volz, Jeff; Voris, Victoria
(DLGF); Michalak, Mary Jane
Subject: RE: Brown County Pay-2006 Auditor Data
Auditor Miller,
I have good news for you: the withheld PTRC will be released today (or
tomorrow, paperwork depending) as a result of the data compliance
achieved as per agreement.
PTRC will be withheld again starting tomorrow (or the next day, again,
paperwork depending). This newly withheld PTRC will then be released
when the 06 pay 06 data compliance is achieved.
Congratulations to all involved for achieving this milestone!
Cheryl Musgrave
From: Steve Gore [mailto:fire107@sbcglobal.net]
Sent: Thursday, May 22, 2008 4:51 PM
To: Kurt Young
Subject: FW: Brown County Pay-2006 Auditor Data
There is little reason for more PTRC withholding for our county after the tremendous amount of catch up work we sent over the past 6 months. If that's not enough good faith, it can't be done at all.
Because I believe the good faith has been demonstrated more than enough (thank you so much, Steve Gore, for your hard work and that of your staff), I have sent the following to our Democratic representatives in the Indiana General Assembly:
From: Kurt A. Young [mailto:kurtyoung@aol.com]
Sent: Friday, May 23, 2008 11:22 AM
To: Simpson, Vi; Welch, Peggy
Subject: DLGF
Senator Vi Simpson
Representative Peggy Welch
Vi and Peggy:
Our previous assessor started this whole mess. At the time, her mis- and malfeasance was called to DLGF's attention, but DLGF did nothing, aside from endless and largely pointless dithering over reassessment contract terms, to help us correct the situation. We got rid of her in the primary two years ago. Since Steve Gore took office, he and his staff have worked tirelessly to straighten that office out.
In the meantime, our county has become essentially broke. As I understand it, Brown County has incurred over a million dollars in interest expense, counting borrowing by schools and other governmental units.
Frankly, I fail to understand how further punishing the taxpayers of our county is going to accomplish anything. Driving us deeper into debt seems to be an irresponsible decision by the state. As I see it, good government practices try to avoid debt and needless expense to taxpayers. At this point, the only people benefitting from DLGF's actions are bankers. And the people suffering are our taxpayers.
If we were sitting back and doing nothing, I could understand DLGF's punitive actions. But we are not, and I don't. What DLGF fails to recognize is that in the end they are not punishing officeholders. (The assessor responsible for this mess is long gone.) Instead, they are punishing the people who are paying the tab. To me, this is unconscionable.
I have to wonder whether this isn't a deliberate effort to make local government look less than competent. In so doing, our current governor can advance his plan to remove many of its functions from elected officials and place them in the hands of appointed, more "qualified" individuals.
Ultimately, in my view, the incompetence created by the state can be used by the state as an argument to privatize the people's business, thus eliminating any incentive to be efficient and, especially, responsive to citizens.
I am writing you because I think writing the governor's office would be futile. I don't have an answer to this problem beyond a general change in our state's approach to government, which can only be achieved through the electoral process. For now, at least we still have the ability to vote for our public servants. But I would urge the General Assembly to take a careful and critical look at the power given to DLGF. Unchecked, it is creating serious hardship in Brown County and, I suspect, elsewhere.
Flexibility and discretion can be wonderful tools to have available when problems arise, but if the person holding the office does not keep the interests of the public at large uppermost, such tools can be powerful instruments of harm. At this point, I believe her decisions have demonstrated that the current DLGF commissioner has no concern for the public interest.
I, for one, am very tired of Brown County having to suffer because of an artificial lack of funding created by the State of Indiana. My message is
simple: It's our money. Send it.
The bottom line is that our current governor is spending money on traffic circles in Carmel while we pay interest on loans needed just to keep Brown County operating day-to-day. Brown County has worked hard to correct the mess created by our former assessor and will continue to work hard. The governor's henchman in charge of the DLGF should have released our money some time ago ("paperwork pending" my eye), and they shouldn't keep another dime of it.
This sorry excuse for a governor has got to go, and he can take Ms. Musgrave with him.
Sincerely,
Kurt A. Young, Chairperson
Brown County Democratic Central Committee
