VALPARAISO | Believe it or not, Valparaiso homeowners, the checks are in the mail. All 6,600 of them.

Property tax rebate checks arrived from the Porter County treasurer's office Thursday, and city staff and volunteers, including Mayor Jon Costas' mother-in-law, Marjorie Larson, began stuffing them in envelopes and mailing them out Friday. Clerk-Treasurer Sharon Swihart said she hoped to get the last ones sent today.

The checks range from about $10 to more than $200, depending on how much each person's tax bill was for 2006, payable in 2007. A letter is included with the checks explaining the reason homeowners are receiving the rebate.

"In 2006, the city annexed about 600 homes and began providing city services to these new residents in early 2007," the letter states. "In 2007, we sought and obtained an increase in our property tax levy sufficient to provide services to these newly annexed areas.

"Because Indiana residents pay their taxes in arrears (2006 taxes are paid in 2007), the newly annexed areas will not begin paying taxes for these services until 2008. So, there is a 'gap' between the time when the city services are needed and the time that new residents begin paying taxes. In most cities where this gap occurs, existing residents end up paying higher taxes for the increased load. We didn't want this to happen."

The city used $325,000 of its county economic development income tax revenue to give homeowners not in the annexed areas a rebate of about 7 percent of the city portion of their property tax bills. The one-time rebate ensures existing homeowners don't pay the increase in property taxes to serve the annexed areas.

Swihart said she talked to one woman whose rebate was $24. She told the woman it wasn't much, but the woman said she would be able to go out to lunch a couple of times with it. Costas, whose property tax bill is slightly less than $9,000, got a rebate of almost $200.

Volunteers included Mikayla Rosenbaum, 9-year-old granddaughter of clerk's office employee Debbie Rosenbaum, who put about 600 stamps on envelopes Friday. Rosenbaum said she took her granddaughter to the IMAX to reward her efforts. The total cost of postage for the rebates is about $2,700.