The head of Indiana's taxing authority tendered his resignation this week after it was discovered that $205 million in
local income tax revenue hadn't been distributed to counties, the second such oversight in months found to have happened
on his watch.
John Eckart, the Department of Revenue's commissioner, will step down at the end of the current tax season after seven
years in charge of the agency, state budget director Adam Horst said at a news conference Thursday. He did not specify when,
exactly, that would be.
Two other top revenue officials, Chief Information Officer Roy D. Gabriel and Chief Financial Officer Darrel Anderson, also
left after the error was discovered, Department of Revenue spokesman Bob Dittmer said.
Horst blamed the problem on a programming error. A similar error caused state budget leaders to lose track of $320 million
in corporate tax collections over four years. That error was discovered in December.
"It's all you can do at this point," Horst said, when asked about restoring public trust in the state's
accounting.
The revenue department says the mishandled money will be distributed with interest to the 91 of Indiana's 92 counties
that have local income taxes. Horst said the state is searching for an outside auditor to review the agency's procedures.
Marion County and the city of Indianapolis said it would receive an additional $41 million from the adjustment. Indianapolis
Mayor Greg Ballard said the funds would be directed toward future budget shortfalls.
Hamilton County will receive $17.3 million in additional distributions, not counting interest, the state said. Hendricks
County will receive nearly $5 million, Boone County will get nearly $4 million; Johnson $3.8 million; Morgan $3.7 million;
Madison more than $3 million; Hancock more than $2 million; and Shelby about $1.1 million.
Indiana's Legislative leaders, Republican House Speaker Brian Bosma and Republican Senate President Pro Tem David Long,
requested a say in who is selected for the audit and demanded that the findings be reported to the Assembly's budget leaders.
Democrats initially requested an independent audit of the Department of Revenue last year after the $320 million error was
discovered, but were rebuffed by promises the administration would conduct its own review.
Horst said he told Gov. Mitch Daniels about the problem Tuesday and alerted legislative leaders about the problem Wednesday.
Daniels left on a private trip to Israel Tuesday and was not immediately available for comment.

















IBJ Conversations
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Mis-handling of money, awarding multi million dollar contracts for decades to friends and contributors and other clearly called out garbage has been winked at by the AG, the IG and the FBI.
When it comes to common people calling out the state administration and their commissions wrong doing the state officials circle the wagons, protect their friends and keep right on handing out paydays. Some people calling out the messes even to the IBJ have been ignored and ridiculed as crazy people.
So some of have tried so take your smurky laugh and put your smart aleck behavior to some good use. You clearly have no idea what you are talking about.
Maybe the IBJ should start re-assessing some of the other complaints they have received about some of the commissions they refuse to look at as well.
Just because we as citizen cannot do the job of running a state budget does not mean we shouldn't expect official that are experts in their field to accurately do their job. If a doctor did a poor job on a surgery, no one would say "oh well I can't do any better, so I guess it's okay the patient didn't live". Also, everyone in the state has been hurt by this error. You would have to live under a rock to not hear about all the budget cut backs in public safety and school funding. This effects everyone in the state.
I have to wonder about the postings which praise Mitch.
He gave individuals tax increase as he reduced corporate rate.
He gave those who use the toll road higher cost in selling a interstate and using the 80 years of income to "balance the budget" this year.
He gave money to private schools claiming teachers are failures...but not the students and their parents. He hired IBM and fired IBM but Mitch is too important to testify about the need to fire IBM. He selected the friends of Mitch to represent the state of Indiana in the legal case. He selected the company to represent Indiana for the State Fair (and they are unlimited in the amount being charge) -- what happened to competitive bidding and Indiana's attorneys. He did build more jails and we do have more people in State Prisons...I'm not sure this is a good idea. He remove inheritance taxes so the filthy rich can pass down the kingdom. He removed union power so we can all work for less...anything for his corporate friends. He works to ignore the immigration problem, as business who hire for low wages want. The list goes no.
With these facts....how can any anyone other than the paid political agents for Mitch continue to give praise? Perhaps wealthy business owner can love Mitch, but not the working people of Indiana. Yes, Mitch's press releases claim great results, but we are smart enough to know the truth?
-> Not seeing all you Hoosiers stepping up to say you can do it better...
Perhaps not in this situation - and the state can't do anything about it until the lawsuit with IBM is settled, but I'll wager I can do a better job leading the task of the FSSA.