CROWN POINT | State and Lake County officials have ended some of their taxing differences.
Local Government Finance Commissioner Melissa Henson asked the state auditor on Thursday morning to release millions of dollars in property tax replacement credits to the county, said Renee Lambermont, a spokeswoman for the commissioner.
The release is the result of the county auditor's office sending to the Department of Local Government Finance data that involve tax deductions, exemptions and bills for the county's roughly 250,000 properties for the years 2004 and 2006.
Auditor Peggy Holinga Katona said Thursday that "every department is working from the same page now."
"We will continue to work with the Department of Local Government Finance in partnership to share the data they need," she said.
State officials said they will use the information to create a database of Indiana's 3 million real estate parcels to better analyze how changes in tax policy will affect property owners.
The state has been battling with almost all its counties over such data and has withheld or threatened to withhold money from at least five other counties.
Katona said the problem in Lake County arose from incompatibility between the county's and the state's computers.
"We have worked very hard with our software provider as well as our information technology department to meet all of the state standards," Katona said.
She said her staff also has had to spend time correcting erroneous data provided by other government agencies.
Lambermont said the county should receive $4 million within days and another $4 million as early as next week.
The money in question, called property tax replacement credits, are sales taxes the state collects and passes on to local government to reduce its reliance on property taxes.
The state withheld $4 million last month and was preparing to halt more before the resolution. Katona said the standoff didn't cause any financial difficulty to the county and money was never denied to local schools or municipalities.
