Starke County Economic Development Foundation Executive Director Charlie Weaver spoke with Knox City Council members about an estimated deficit in the city’s CEDIT account at their meeting last Tuesday.
Back in October, Clerk-Treasurer Jeff Houston mentioned that he received a notification from the Department of Local Government Finance indicating that there would be a projected loss of revenue of $34,908 for next year. He told members that sometimes those figures can be off but also assured them that the SCEDF was working with representatives from Umbaugh to get to the bottom of it.
At the most recent council meeting, Weaver informed members that after speaking with the city’s financial advisor Todd Samuelson of Umbaugh and Associates, he had a better understanding of why next year’s numbers are lower than the figures from 2017.
“The CEDIT money is raised by income tax on everybody within the county but it’s not distributed that way.” Weaver explained, “It’s distributed to the three towns within the county based upon your tax levy. What happened is you guys paid off a bond, so your share went down.”
Mayor Dennis Estok asked about what specific bond they had paid off and Houston replied that they just finished paying off a fire truck. He said they also had to refinance for the Community Center renovation project which could have also had an impact. Houston then thanked Weaver for sharing that information since he had recently received verification that the estimated figures are indeed correct.
Weaver told members that a similar situation happened to North Judson a few years ago and he said he wished he knew then what he knows now. He said fortunately, this will only affect Knox for one year and that figures should return to normal following the 2018 fiscal year.
