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Sunday, July 06, 2008
Ind. Gov't. - "Musgrave's first year as Department of Local Government Finance marked by achievements and conflicts"
Bryan Corbin of the Evansville Courier & Press has a long story today on the longtime Vanderburgh County official, elevated by Governor Daniels to head the Department of Local Government Finance. Some quotes:
INDIANAPOLIS - After outraged homeowners took to the streets one year ago to protest sudden increases in their tax bills, the governor turned to a longtime Vanderburgh County official to take control of the state agency that is gatekeeper over property taxes and local spending.Here are some earlier ILB entries on Cheryl Musgrave's tenure:Cheryl Musgrave said she had to change the culture and mission of the agency she now leads, the Indiana Department of Local Government Finance, from one that was a "rubber stamp" for local politicians' spending to one that is now an advocate for Hoosier taxpayers.
Musgrave's no-nonsense style and depth of assessing knowledge appear to have achieved results in correcting botched assessments; but her yearlong tenure also has drawn sharp criticism from some local government officials.
Her current job as commissioner of the Department of Local Government Finance has made her the final authority on budgets and tax rates for counties, municipalities, libraries and school districts, and - until last week - on school building projects. Some local officials, though, complain the agency that used to work with them now works against them. They criticize the agency, its employees and Musgrave herself for what they view as a heavy-handed approach and hostile attitude toward local officials.
Some of the harshest criticism comes from the superintendent of the rapidly growing Clark-Pleasant School Corp. in Whiteland. In what is believed to be a first for her department, Musgrave in April rejected a $60 million new middle-school building project the district had proposed. She cited the tax burden on the district's homeowners and the leveling off of enrollment growth in saying no.
"If I felt like there was a reasonable rationale for this denial, I guess I could sleep better," fumed J.T. Coopman, the Clark-Pleasant school superintendent. Coopman said the middle school project had been planned for years to cope with the burgeoning 6,000-plus enrollment and students stuck in portable classrooms. The school district won its signature-petition-gathering contest against project remonstrators.
Now Clark-Pleasant officials are appealing Musgrave’s ruling to the Indiana Tax Court, where a judge will decide. "I don't know where the idea came in that they (the department) had to be the watchdog," Coopman said. * * *
Musgrave's resilience and single-mindedness are familiar to Vanderburgh County voters. For 10 years the Republican served as county assessor, and was an innovator in posting assessment data online. For two and a half years she was a Vanderburgh County commissioner, and helped lead disaster-relief efforts after the deadly November 2005 tornado. Musgrave also occasionally got into dust-ups with other county officials who didn't share her enthusiasm for technology projects.
But when Daniels named Musgrave as head of the state agency last July, it meant big changes. No longer an elected official, Musgrave now is an appointee of the Republican governor -- and her continued tenure likely hinges on his being re-elected this fall over Democratic opponent Jill Long Thompson.
Musgrave now stays in Indianapolis during the week but commutes on weekends to Evansville, where her husband Bob Musgrave still lives. She finds "a lot more partisanship" in state government, at the Legislature, than when she was a county government, she said.
Ind. Law - "Legislative patchwork befuddles state panel"So reads the headline to a story by Patrick Guinane in yesterday's NWI Times: INDIANAPOLIS | The legislative labyrinth surrounding Indiana's property tax system proved too difficult Thursday for a state oversight panel to navigate. The Local Government Property Tax...
Posted in The Indiana Law Blog on June 28, 2008 01:22 PM
Ind. Gov't. - "Department of Local Government Finance at the center of property tax upheaval"
That is the headline to this long and fascinating opinion piece today in the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette, written by Karen Francisco. Just a sample:One of the agency’s highest-profile missteps was on display last week, when the commissioner backed off...
Posted in The Indiana Law Blog on June 15, 2008 01:28 PM
Ind. Gov't. - "New online toolkit available for public construction protesters"
Pam Tharp of the Richmond Palladium-Item reports, in a story later picked up by the AP, that:Residents who want to object to new public construction projects now have an online toolkit to help them. The Citizen's Petition and Remonstrance Toolkit...
Posted in The Indiana Law Blog on January 13, 2008 12:27 PM
Ind. Gov't. - DLGF puts assessed value and sales information onlineBoth Lesley Stedman Weidenbener of the Louisville Courier Journal (here) and John Byrne of the Gary Post-Tribune (here) have stories today about the Department of Local Governmental Finance's website, offering statewide data on sales and assessments. From the LCJ:The Indiana...
Posted in The Indiana Law Blog on September 14, 2007 09:47 AM
Ind. Gov't. - "There's too much wrong to do anything but fix it"
The Indianapolis Star has an outstanding editorial today headed "There's too much wrong to do anything but fix it." The ILB will pick up right now on just one of the many important points made, near the end of the...
Posted in The Indiana Law Blog on July 29, 2007 08:19 AM
A press release from the Governor's Office:INDIANAPOLIS (July 13, 2007) – Governor Mitch Daniels today appointed Cheryl Musgrave, president of the Vanderburgh County Commission, as the new commissioner of the Department of Local Government Finance. Musgrave replaces Melissa Henson, who...
Posted in The Indiana Law Blog on July 13, 2007 10:17 AM
Posted by Marcia Oddi on July 6, 2008 12:04 PM
Posted to Indiana Government