township surplus revenues: good news, but mostly bad news

From Mark Alesia, Tim Evans, Heather Gillers and Mark Nichols at the Indy Star (hat tip: C-J for reproducing their work, including the informative table at the bottom)...

The good news: they're being relatively frugal and have monies set aside. The bad news: they're taking too much of our money!

The 1,008 townships in Indiana have amassed more than $200 million in taxpayer money that is stashed in reserves, yet no one -- township officials, state officials or lawmakers -- has made any effort to curb the property-tax collections that generated the surplus.

In some cases, the reserves represent more than 10 times the township's annual budget -- far more than necessary for even the most prudent rainy-day fund, according to financial experts.

And despite tough times, the massive reserve includes $50 million in unspent money that was raised specifically to benefit the poor.

The growing bankrolls are fueled, at least in part, by a system that encourages townships to collect the maximum amount of property taxes allowable every year, regardless of need. If townships don't raise the maximum, the amounts they can raise in following years are reduced....