justin.schneider@heraldbulletin.com
Taxing districts in Madison County received a rate this week.
But with collections due in December and disbursement not expected until January, the situation for local units is more taxing than ever.
Kevin Brown, financial analyst for the Anderson Community Schools Corp., said without the spring and fall draws, the district was forced to borrow $22 million to cover expenses.
“What it has done is create a situation where we continue to accrue interest and that will result in a higher cost to the taxpayer,” Brown said. “Never in my tenure have we been this late in collecting.”
On Friday, Madison County published rates for all 39 taxing districts in the county. Bills are expected to go out in mid-November with a due date of Dec. 10.
Tax bills were delayed because of state legislation passed in 2006 adopting a market-based system for assessment known as “trending.” Instead of a full-fledged reassessment, counties will perform trending based on real estate sale prices.
Brown said ACS has borrowed more than normal from the Indiana Bond Bank and swapped funds between accounts to make up the shortfall. He worries that money will be delayed even longer should collections come in slowly.
“It’s unfortunate, it’s a negative for everybody,” Brown said. “We need to put pressure on the people in Indianapolis to do something to get us beyond this situation that we’ve found ourselves in.”
Spring tax bills are normally due May 10 and fall bills Nov. 10.
David Bier of Anderson said he paid his property taxes out of escrow on his first house. When he moved, in 2001, he began seeing the bill and he’s not looking forward to the Dec. 10 due date.
“December is a tough time of year for a lot of people,” said Bier, 58. “Your heating costs go up and you usually have expenses because of the holidays. It’s a bad time to ask people for money.”
Bier said he paid attention to the property tax delay, using the extra time to set aside money for both spring and fall payments.
Green Township Trustee Greg Valentine said not getting a mid-year draw from the spring tax collection has been the most difficult part.
“Basically we’re in pretty good shape. We’ve got enough to cover energy assistance, which is our basic need other than fire assistance,” Valentine said. “The biggest problem is that we didn’t receive that tax draw on July 1 or June 30 from the first period. I’m not sure how we’re going to get that now.”
Valentine said he expects the draw from both collections to arrive in December or January. He expressed sympathy for schools, who lose out on the most funding and can least afford it.
“The school corporations are the ones who really get hurt,” he said. “They’re having to borrow to pay the bills. I just hope they can get both of those draws sometime around the end of the year.”
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7:41 p.m.: Billing delay taxes local units
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