When Knox City Council met last week, Clerk-Treasurer Jeff Houston told the members that he received a notification from the budget division of the Department of Local Government Finance about their EDIT account. The notification was about the estimated tax distribution for the EDIT account in 2018.
Houston explained that the edit account has been used for many different purposes throughout the years but it deals specifically with revenue based income tax and wages.
Representatives from the DLGF informed the clerk-treasurer about an estimated deficit in the coming year.
He told council members, “For 2017, this year, we’re receiving $394,734. We are projected, to only bring in next year $359,826. So that’s a difference next year of a projected loss of revenue of $34,908.”
He said after receiving this information he contacted the auditor’s office as well as the Starke County Economic Development Foundation. The SCEDF is currently working with the city’s financial advisor Todd Samuelson of Umbaugh investigating why the number projected for next year is so low.
Councilman Jeff Berg suggested that maybe it has something to do with the decline in population. However, Mayor Dennis Estok said that since unemployment rates have essentially stayed the same, he didn’t think that was the issue. However, Berg said it could help to ramp up population and continue with quality of life projects, such as what’s recently been accomplished at the park.
Houston added that these numbers have been off in the past since sometimes there is lag time associated with when the data is collected. He advised everyone to wait until the final figures come in at the end of the year before any definitive actions are taken.
