The Indiana Department of Local Government Finance (DLGF) on Tuesday granted approval to the City of Greensburg to move ahead with its proposal for the reestablishment of a Cumulative Capital Development Fund (CCDF).
The decision comes on the heels of an August meeting in which the proposal was met with opposition from more than 100 local taxpayers who had signed a petition objecting to the tax increase that would be necessary to finance the fund.
The approval allows the city to move forward with a tax increase from $.0264 per $100 of assessed valuation to $.05 per $100 of assessed valuation beginning in 2014.
A comprehensive document received Tuesday by the Daily News detailing the findings of the DLGF during their investigation concludes that the DLGF “has not been presented with any evidence that the City (of Greensburg) intends to use Fund (cumulative capital development fund) money for illegal purposes or that the Fund’s establishment was legally defective,” leading to the measure’s approval.
The Greensburg Common Council conducted a public hearing June 10 and adopted an ordinance to reestablish the CCDF a week later. This news was met with uneasiness from a group of local taxpayers who signed a petition that forced a public hearing on the matter.
Those opposed questioned the City’s use of the funds; the potential financial impact on families in a recovering economy; previous city projects and expenditures; and numerous other instances in which taxpayers could be negatively affected by the increase. The public hearing, which was conducted by DLGF staff attorneys Michael Duffy and David Marusarz Aug. 7, revealed that the projected annual increase paid by property owners who had signed the petition was slightly more than $7 each.
Part of the debate centered on whether the CCDF would serve as a means to realize the City’s needs or merely its wants.
A rather vocal group of concerned citizens expressed their fears the fund would be used for unnecessary projects in lieu of those in which the city is specifically in need.
In the end, the DLGF found in favor of the proposal stating the department found no evidence the City’s proposal was in violation of state laws. The notification detailing the DLGF’s finding also states a municipality may institute a CCDF “without first having exact plans for the revenue generated” and that the purposes of the may legally be used to fund certain city projects, such as Veterans Way and airport expansion. Greensburg Mayor Gary Herbert has previously told the Daily News the money generated by the reestablishment of the CCDF would not be used to fund either project, though both served as further sources of contention against the reestablishment of the CCDF.
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