Data Entry Error

Maybe it's just me, but I'm a little sensitive to any kind of government's bass-ackwards usage of common words when it comes to taxation.

A house erroneously valued at $400 million is being blamed for budget shortfalls and possible layoffs in municipalities and school districts in northwest Indiana.

An outside user of Porter County's computer system may have triggered the mess by accidentally changing the value of the Valparaiso house, said Sharon Lippens, director of the county's information technologies and service department. The house had been valued at $121,900 before the glitch.

County Treasurer Jim Murphy said the home usually carried about $1,500 in property taxes; this year, it was billed $8 million.

Budget shortfalls? It's not like they "cut taxes." They overspent! Waaaaay over spent money they never had.

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.

Lesson here? Any government will spend as much money as it thinks it can.

If I were an up and coming Porter County politician, I might be campaigning on a "rainy day fund" platform.

We're from the government, and here to help. Posted by AlexC at February 11, 2006 11:25 AM