CROWN POINT | State Rep. Charlie Brown is joining a chorus of thousands of Lake County taxpayers wondering why their property tax rebates were hijacked by the county's circuit breaker.

"I have gotten a number of complaints, and my rebate was all zeros," Brown said Monday.

Lake County Auditor Peggy Katona said Monday nothing was done improperly.

She said the state auditor's office directed her to reduce the 133,380 rebates mailed last week by $9.7 million because thousands of property owners received their full tax break last year under the circuit breaker.

She provided The Times with an e-mail from Dan Bastin, settlement director of the state auditor, indicating the $9.7 million should be distributed to local taxing units like city, town, township and county government.

Brown, who voted for the legislation that created the rebates, said he never dreamed this would happen. "The circuit breaker should not have impacted the rebates."

He is asking Democratic House Speaker Pat Bauer to look into whether the county had the authority to do this. A spokesman for Bauer's office couldn't be reached Monday for comment.

Brown said, "I asked them to find out what is right because I've got to respond to these folks who are calling me and saying why did you have me wait all this time and get nothing back."

Katona said, "If it was up to me, I would give them all their rebates. They should have known there would be a problem in Gary and Hammond because they have a large number of homes with capped taxes because of the circuit breaker."

Taxpayers began complaining early this week that instead of receiving rebate checks, they got letters from the auditor's office stating their rebate was smaller than their circuit breaker credit so all they got was a facsimile of a check for zero dollars followed by the warning, "NON NEGOTIABLE."

Lake County has been offering a 2 percent circuit breaker credit -- which caps a home's property tax bill at 2 percent of its gross assessed value -- for the past four years. The circuit breaker benefits about 30,000 homeowners, primarily in Gary, Hammond, East Chicago and Whiting.

Local government pays for the tax relief by forgoing the taxes normally collected from those homeowners, but the circuit breaker credit is a mystery to many because it isn't mentioned on local tax bills.

Katona said county residents did receive $28.1 million in rebates last week.

"They're happy with me," she said.

She said the county used interest money from investments, not tax dollars, to distribute the rebates.