The Munster Town Council has authorized the use of about $2.5 million from five municipal funds for various appropriations.
Clerk-Treasurer Dave Shafer explained that the town administration needed authorization to use the money in those funds as additional appropriations and that only the Town Council can grant that authority.
The council acted on the resolution’s second reading following a public hearing last week at which no one spoke.
Those surplus funds include $1.6 million in the tax increment financing account.
The rental inspection fund has an additional $7,025, while there is $66,622 in the self-funded liability fund and $492,089 in the town’s water cash operating fund.
These funds are considered “reporting only," meaning that no other agency controls the use of that money.
Munster’s redevelopment operating fund contains $312,452 in extra money. This is a controlled fund and requires additional approval from the Indiana Department of Local Government Finance, said Town Manager Tom DeGiulio.
The documents for the redevelopment operating fund have been forwarded to the DLGF in Indianapolis. That agency is required to issue a determination within 15 days of receiving the request for that fund, he said.
“The DLGF does not approve or deny the additional appropriations for the reporting-only funds,” DeGiulio said.
These appropriations are part of Munster’s 2012 budget that was approved by the state earlier this year.
