John:
The City Controller requested the Evansville Sewer Utility prepay the 2015 PILOT  in December 2014 which the Utility Board and management approved.   This is a prepaid item on the Sewer Utility accrued financial statement so it is not a DLGF or SBOA issue.   It is not a loan and was reported properly, which was confirmed by our financial consultants.  As you know, this payment has no effect on utility bills.    You cite the City of South Bend.  South Bend holds large General Fund cash balances and have for many years.  South Bend’s Civil City property tax rate for 2014 = $ 3.4314 per $ 1,000,while the Civil City of Evansville property tax rate = $ 1.4881.  So South Bend’s property tax rate is 230% higher than Evansville’s.  Will you propose to City Council to raise property tax rates to South Bend levels so Evansville can build up the General Fund?   Please see analysis below.   Ft. Wayne has spent all their Rainy Day Fund, and they win awards for financial reporting every year.   Ft. Wayne’s ratio of Combined Balance General Fund and Rainy Day Fund dollars per population (your statistic) is similar to Evansville.  Where did you get the operating cost figure?  My point is you can “cherry pick†statistics and fund balances to make Evansville look good or bad all day long.
Russ # # #
So now Russ is upset that Evansville has not won any accounting awards (like Ft. Wayne has –and Ft. Wayne is in the same cash pickle as EVV) ? Evansville should win for worst accounting, not the best.
Seriously, I don’t know what a 2015 PILOT is, but since a request for prepayment was made by Rusty, and the City could show that influx in the General Fund Cash, it seems to me that Russ has made Friend’s point for him.
Russ makes a good argument about property tax rate disparity with South Bend , but I don’t trust him enough to accept that explanation. Would have to do a little auditing. To bring it closer to home, Darmstadt also has more General Fund Cash than Evansville. What is Darmstadt’s tax rate vs. Evansville’s ?
PILOT=Payments in lieu of Tax. We have a few Pilot organizations in town, such as public housing.
Glad to see Russ Lloyd reads the CCO, I’m surprised with all of the remedial accounting classes he takes that he finds the time !
Psst.., its raining. 😉
no you fell asleep huffing urinal cakes again…don’t eat those blue mints!!!
I don’t think much of Lloyd, Winnecke, Friend, Weinzapfel, Reicken, Mosby or any of their ilk. That said, the article by Lloyd appears to be more of a response and not an attack.
So noted. Corrected the headline.
Thanks
Editor
Russ might be right about those taxes?
See where Vanderburgh County assess at 0.78% of value.
St Joseph county, South Bend, is at 1.13%. I thought 1% was max?
There is that variable of home value between these to different counties.
There is likely more to this, would like someone to shed more light on this!
Arm,It’s very, very difficult to compare something like that correctly. You pretty much need 2 comparable house same size, same type neighborhood. You have special taxing districts that don’t fall under the 1,2,3, percent guidelines. I think EVSD has a school tax like that.
I think Russ pretty well put Friend’s stuff in the street.
I cannot believe that the cited civil city tax rates are comparable. It has been reported that a bout 30 percent of South Bend is tax exempt because of Notre Dame and St. Marys. They may be large institutions, but when you compare the exempt properties in Evansville, you will find that a considerable amount of Evansville property is off the property tax rolls.
I believe the comparison of Evansville and South Bend is an apples and oranges comparison. The only way to make a true comparison is, as has been mentioned, a comparison of assessments of real property in the two cities AND a line by line comparison of the two cities’ budgets.
There is an old saying that “figures don’t lie but liars figure.” (anon)
Comments are closed.