From the Terre Haute Tribune Star:
To cover outstanding bond debt, the Terre Haute Sanitary District is dipping into the city’s sewer fee revenue, a city official said this week.
Chuck Ennis, a member of the Sanitary Board of Commissioners and city engineer, told the five-member board Tuesday that the state’s property tax caps have taken a toll on the sanitary district’s ability to cover its outstanding bond debt, a large part of its budget.
As a result, revenue raised through sewer fees is being used to help cover outstanding sanitary district bond payments, he said.
“The tax caps are absolutely killing us,” Ennis told the commissioners Tuesday morning in City Hall. The district’s property tax revenue has fallen “dramatically” since the caps took effect, he said.
For several years, the sanitary district received about $7.6 million in property tax revenue to cover its outstanding bond payments, Ennis said. However, due to the tax caps, that revenue has been shrinking.
In 2012, for example, the sanitary district’s approved budget called for approximately $7.7 million in property tax revenue. However, due to the tax caps, the actual amount received was roughly $6.3 million, according to city figures.
The difference was made up using wastewater treatment facility user fees, Ennis told the board.
In November of last year, the Terre Haute City Council voted to increase sewer rates to cover multi-million-dollar improvements to the wastewater treatment plant. H.J. Umbaugh & Associates, an Indianapolis-based accounting firm, calculated what sewer fees needed to be to cover the improvements and to cover lost property tax revenue for the sanitary district, said Leslie Ellis, city controller. However, the reduction in sanitary district property tax revenue has been greater than expected, she said.
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http://tribstar.com/local/x31538589/Sanitary-district-needs-user-fees-to-pay-debt-caused-by-tax-caps
