Shelby County will get more than $1.1 million back after the state discovered it shorted most of Indiana's counties in funds due to a computer glitch.
The money could help out financially strapped entities, such as the City of Shelbyville, because much of the money municipalities will get can be used in their general funds.
The 91 affected counties will receive a total of $206 million and about $500,000 in interest from local option income tax funds. Those funds should arrive sometime in the next few days, according to an Association of Indiana Counties memo Thursday.
LOIT is a tax counties can charge on income to help generate revenue for services. In Shelby County, the rate is about 0.35 percent of a worker's taxable income.
The state didn't properly count some individiuals who filed quarterly income reports. About 11 percent of taxpayers are required to estimate what they're supposed to pay for county and state income taxes quarterly and write these amounts on separate lines. Typical examples include people who are retired people or self-employed.
The miscalculation was for fiscal year 2011 and the first four months of 2012.
For Shelby County it means the county will collect an extra $918,000 for 2011 and $230,000 for 2012.
The money will be distributed to Shelbyville and Shelby County towns, and some of it will go to schools and other tax collecting entities,County Auditor Amy Glackman said. It's unclear yet how much each entity will get. Glackman said the state will send her directions on how to disperse it.
For those in charge of local government's finances, it was good news.
"It was good to hear really, we'll just have to keep our fingers crossed and hope it turns out well," Shelbyville Clerk-Treasurer Frank Zerr said. "We'll gladly take what we can get when it comes to revenue."
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http://www.shelbynews.com/articles/2012/04/06/news/doc4f7e06df0d435375200666.txt
