Saturday, August 31, 2013

Tribune Reports Chesterton Transfers TIF Funds to Municipal Accounts

From the Chesterton Tribune:

The Chesterton Redevelopment Commission has transferred nearly half a million dollars into three separate municipal accounts.

One of three transfers was to cover a shortfall in the General Fund. A second, to reimburse the CEDIT account for a number of projects pursued in the town’s tax increment financing district. The third, to cover the town’s share of a new computer software platform purchased by the Utility but installed on a town-wide basis.
 
The commission made those transfers--totaling $441,934.78--at its meeting Monday night, by unanimous resolution.
 
The largest of the three transfers was of $179,397.50 into the General Fund, to pay debt service on the bond issued to finance the municipal complex on 15th Street. Attorney Chuck Lukmann attributed the shortfall to miscommunication and confusion between the Clerk-Treasurer’s Office and the Indiana Department of Local Government Finance (DLGF). As a result, updated information on the bond obligation wasn’t submitted to DLGF, which subsequently didn’t approve the line item in the 2013 budget.
 
The second largest transfer was of $162,537.28 into the County Economic Development Income Tax (CEDIT) Fund, to reimburse CEDIT for a number of projects and expenditures--such as roadwork--which qualify as TIF projects but were not originally pursued as such.
 
The last transfer was of $100,000 to the Utility’s Operating Fund, to pay for the town’s share of the new software platform installed by Tyler Technologies.
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