A house erroneously valued at $400 million is being blamed for budget shortfalls and possible layoffs in municipalities and school districts in northwest Indiana.
County Treasurer Jim Murphy said the home usually carried about $1,500 in property taxes; this year, it was billed $8 million.
Most local officials did not learn about the mistake until Tuesday, when 18 government taxing units were asked to return a total of $3.1 million of tax money. The city of Valparaiso and the Valparaiso Community School Corp. were asked to return $2.7 million. As a result, the school system has a $200,000 budget shortfall, and the city loses $900,000.
Officials struggled to figure out how the mistake got into the system and how it could have been prevented. City leaders said Thursday the error could cause layoffs and cost-cutting measures.
This shows how government will always eat whatever food you put in front of it, whether or not they really need it. Valparaiso will now do with less. Orlando could learn a lesson.
I've always thought the library was one of the best uses of tax money and Orlando has a great system. I paid about $40 in property taxes last year that went directly to the library system and they fine the heck out of people for late returns. The two together result in a multi-million dollar budget they can't begin to spend. Now the library is practically a blockbuster video store with a ton of DVD titles. Lately, they began stocking X-Box games. Too much money. And yet the county complains that they don't have enough money for schools.
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