A second state agency jumped into the local fray Thursday and decided the Porter County Council should be back in charge of reviewing and signing off on the budget of the Valparaiso Community School Corp.
The decision by the Indiana Department of Local Government Finance comes a week after the Indiana State Board of Accounts issued a contrary opinion saying the Valparaiso City Council should approve the school budget.
The State Board of Accounts reversed its opinion in light of the stand taken by the DLGF, said state Rep. Ed Soliday, R-Valparaiso.
DLGF Commissioner Brian Bailey wrote that the City Council would review the budget if the school district was contained entirely within the boundaries of the city or if the city created the school district.
Neither of these conditions apply, he said. The school district extends into unincorporated Center Township and the school district was created in 1957 in a joint effort by the city and Center Township.
"Further, if the City Council performs the adoption, voters and taxpayers in Center Township outside the city will have no elected representative answerable to them who will be responsible for school budget and tax adoption," Bailey said.
He warns if Porter County fails to adopt the school budget by Nov. 1, the most recent annual appropriations and annual tax levy are continued for the ensuing budget year.
The entire issue surfaced earlier this year when the county learned that new state legislation requires it to approve proposed budgets of appointed school boards.
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