Restaurants, hair salons, a defunct dollar theater, even Little League baseball teams. These businesses are among nearly 1,200 in Allen County that owe the state of Indiana unpaid sales taxes totaling $6 million.
The Indiana Department of Revenue is listing tax-delinquent businesses in an online database in compliance with a new state law. The businesses listed have expired registered retail merchant certificates because they didn’t pay delinquent sales tax debts – meaning they’re operating illegally.
The new law requires the agency to post the names, addresses and county locations of more than …

Long apprehensive about the cost of regional transit, Mayor Greg Ballard says he is now ready to talk about it.
The mayor plans to hold public forums in 2010 to hear whether Indianapolis residents want to pay for transportation upgrades such as adding light rail and expanding IndyGo into a comprehensive system.
Those discussions, as well as the recommendations early next year of a private-sector task force, will help to determine his position when transit advocates again ask the Indiana General Assembly to create public funding options in 2011.
Ballard has long said …

West Lafayette schools on Tuesday will present to the Tippecanoe County Council a referendum question the school district hopes to place on the May 2010 ballot.
The referendum, if approved, would raise an additional tax levy of up to 43 cents per $100 assessed value for seven years following voter approval.
What’s next
On Wednesday, the West Side school board voted to proceed with the referendum. The board contends that without additional funds beyond state revenue and local property taxes already imposed that district will not be able to continue to meet its …

By AMANDA HAMON • The Journal and Courier • November 19, 2009
A change in the way county assessors value property in West Lafayette’s New Chauncey neighborhood drove up many residents’ land values this year, assessors said Wednesday.
“Many of you received land value increases, but that dropped your structure value,” eliminating the worry of significantly higher property tax bills next year, Eric Grossman of the assessor’s office told a crowd of more than 30.
On average, New Chauncey residents’ 2009 land value increased by 64 percent from last year, according to a Journal & …

SOUTH BEND-A gloomy thought struck World War II veteran Ray Unruh last week on Veterans Day as he read his recently delivered property tax bill.
The $1,600 he was paid for four years of military service during the war would fall short of his $1,800 tax bill, which jumped 47 percent from last year’s $1,200 bill.
Granted, when adjusted for inflation, $1,600 in 1940 would equal more than $24,000 today. But that fact doesn’t make Unruh feel any better.
Quantcast
The South Bend 90-year-old searched his “Special Message to Property Owner” statement for reasons …

A proposal to let Indiana cities adopt their own income taxes is receiving a tepid response from mayors in this corner of the state.
Similar proposals, put forth by the Indiana Association of Cities and Towns, have come forward in past years but never made it into law. This year, though, the notion may gain momentum as cities scramble to find ways to replace revenue they stand to lose from limits placed on their collections of property taxes.
Evansville, for instance, can expect to lose $3.9 million in 2010 as a result …

By Daniel Lee
Posted: November 4, 2009

On Tuesday night, balloons and confetti fell in celebration of a landslide election victory that clears the way for a new $754 million Wishard Memorial Hospital complex.
Soon — according to Marion County Health and Hospital Corp. — the wrecking ball will begin to tear down the vacant hospital and health buildings, between West Michigan and West 10th streets Downtown, to be replaced with an ultra-modern 1.2 million-square-foot hospital complex with roughly 300 inpatient beds.
Indianapolis Mayor Greg Ballard called the election about 8:30 p.m. Just minutes …

For profit entities, whether they be insurance companies or hospitals, are often demonized by the left-leaning politicians and media pundits. Examples such as the Canadian and British Health systems are often used as evidence of national healthcare that works for everyone. Sign Big has been fighting to educate Hoosiers of the dangers that this type of reliance on government causes. In response, we are called racist, immoral, entitled, and a host of other terms that skirt the true issues at hand.
We live in a world of unlimited wants and scarce …

By MAX SHOWALTER • mshowalter@jconline.com • October 31, 2009
Fast-track progress has been made on phase one of the Meadow Lake Wind Farm in White County.
Groundbreaking ceremonies were held in mid-April, and 121 turbines — each standing 262 feet in height — began generating electricity last week.
Houston-based Horizon Wind Energy is developing the project at a pace that has surprised Walt Kelley, the owner of Kelley Ridge Farms, a 2,400-acre corn and soybean operation west of Brookston.
“A core group of us like the windmills, and we’ll take every one they can …

By AMANDA HAMON • ahamon@jconline.com • October 30, 2009
The West Lafayette City Council approved a 2010 city budget Thursday that’s about $546,000 greater than this year’s.
The budget, which totals $18,483,922, didn’t undergo any changes since it last was voted on in September, said Judy Rhodes, the city’s clerk-treasurer.
“We’ve crafted a budget that’s frugal, but that doesn’t compromise any services to residents of the City of West Lafayette,” Mayor John Dennis said.
The budget passed 5-1. Paul Roales, D-District 1, cast the only dissenting vote; Peter Bunder, D-District 2, didn’t attend the …