Monroe County Schools Cannot Recover Some Revenue from Auditor Error

From the Bloomington Herald-Times:

The Monroe County Community School Corp. has learned it will not be able to appeal for some of the revenue lost because of a property tax calculation error the county auditor’s office made.

MCCSC was one of numerous governmental entities that lost funding due to the error.

The district’s initial loss totaled $338,055, and affected the district’s capital projects fund, referendum fund, debt services fund, transportation operating fund, bus replacement fund and retirement fund.

Originally, school officials thought they could appeal the $45,000 lost in the transportation operating fund, but recently learned that according to state statute, shortfall appeals are available for “civil taxing units.”

“Civil taxing units” are defined to exclude school corporations.

“I really don’t understand that,” said Tim Thrasher, comptroller for MCCSC. “I can’t think of a logical reason that we would have been singled out.”

When asked to comment, Jenny Banks, director of communications for the DLGF, wrote, “The Department of Local Government Finance applies the statute as written but we cannot comment as to the policy reasons that informed the General Assembly’s decision.”

Without a way to recoup the transportation operating fund revenue, the district will have to absorb a total of $230,000 in lost revenue.

Under state law, the corporation is required to recoup the revenue lost in the debt services fund and retirement fund, Thrasher said, because “the district is “required to levy a tax sufficient to retire the maturing debt and interest on the debt.”

They will do so through a tax increase. “That’s part of the reason our tax rate is higher, because we have to recoup that in debt service fund,” he said.

Although all of the funding lost is important, Thrasher said losing the transportation funding is “the one that really hurts of all the funds because things are so tight,” he said.

Thrasher said county commissioners have worked closely with the district in efforts to help with the appeal. Thrasher has also relayed his concerns to the Indiana School Board Association and asked them to put the issue on its next legislative agenda.

http://www.heraldtimesonline.com/stories/2012/10/25/schoolnews.mccsc-wont-be-able-to-recover-lost-230-000.sto