The city of Bloomington and Monroe County owe about $378,000 and $35,000 respectively to the Monroe County Community School Corp. after TIF districts received tax money that should have gone to the school district in 2012.
The amount is about $12,800 less than what the state auditor told the city and the county to pay to the school district, because past due taxes and late fees will be withheld, said Monroe County Auditor Steve Saulter.
But the school district will have another chance to get that money back, according to Tim Thrasher, director of business operations for MCCSC.
“They also indicated that for 2013, if there are late collections, we would receive those,” Thrasher said. “So we may lose some on the front end, but gain some on the back end.”
The school district will receive the extra money after errors at the state and local level gave tax money meant for the school district to city and county tax increment financing districts.
TIF districts typically collect all property taxes in order to pay for infrastructure or debts because of infrastructure improvements. A 2011 amendment allows school districts that levied additional taxes after April 30, 2010, to collect those taxes within the TIF districts for 2012 and later. A referendum for MCCSC was put in place in November 2010.
However, errors were made by both the Monroe County Auditor’s Office, under former Auditor Amy Gerstman, and the Indiana State Auditor’s Office, which failed to account for the change. The change in legislation was unknown to the current auditor, Saulter, until Thrasher brought it to his attention.
Saulter said legislative changes are sent to the auditor, and it is the auditor’s responsibility to pass them down to the staff. It is unclear whether Gerstman knew about the change and failed to tell the staff, or whether she was unaware of the legislative changes. “We did not receive anything,” said Saulter, who was part of Gerstman’s staff. “That never came to us.”
Repayments are split between two TIF districts in the county and six districts in the city.
Bloomington and Monroe County TIF districts collected a little less than $6 million in 2012.
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County and city officials are also working on other issues with the TIF districts.
A mistake by the auditor’s office under former Monroe County Auditor Sandy Newmann left some properties out of the TIF districts that should have been included.
Saulter’s office hopes to get the error cleared up before it sends the official tax abstract to the state on March 15.
