Times Staff Report

DYER | The town is prepared to receive $2.5 million in TIF money this year, funds that will go toward payment of outstanding bond issues.

However, the dispersal of the money will depend on the timely mailing and receipt of 2007 tax bills, officials said.

Like other municipalities, Dyer has had to resort to internal and external borrowing while continuing to wait for its latest tax draw payments from the state.

The town's Redevelopment Commission, for example, recently borrowed $803,000 from the town's Sanitary Board in order to meet its bond payments.

The Sanitary Board, like Dyer's Water and Stormwater Utility boards, collects revenue from monthly utility fees.

During the past year, Dyer's Redevelopment Director Rick Eberly said he has worked to reconcile the town's list of TIF properties with the county's. The town found many of its TIF properties were undervalued, meaning Dyer was not receiving the revenue it was entitled to, he said.

"Rick felt our efforts had a lot to do with it (the additional TIF money)," Redevelopment Commission President Connee Trepton said in regards to Eberly's report.

New construction and an increase of completed units within the TIF district also raised Dyer's share of the draw, she said.