Subscribe
Jobs
Cars
Real Estate
Apts
Classifieds
Shop
The drama from the mayor’s office in Muncie continues. First, a recount. Then a public battle with the fire department. Now Mayor Sharon McShurley is defending charges that she unlawfully claimed two homestead property credits.
Delaware County Auditor Judy Rust, a Democrat, determined that the Republican mayor underpaid taxes on a rental property by $7,155 over a seven-year period. McShurley has continued to claim a homestead credit on the house even though she married in 1996 and began claiming a credit on another property co-owned with her husband.
The two credits were revealed in a review the auditor did of county tax records last year. Rust billed the mayor for only seven years of payments because electronic records are available for only that period.
But McShurley protested the charge, arguing that she and her husband were overcharged for taxes on their Kosciusko County lake home for 10 years.
When they discovered the error and tried to have their bill adjusted, officials there claimed that state law prevented counties from crediting taxpayers for more than three years of overpaid taxes.
The Department of Local Government Finance agreed with the mayor, noting that a property owner can be charged for only three years of an improperly claimed homestead deduction.
McShurley said she felt she was “taking a stand for the taxpayer.” Whether Muncie taxpayers, who have seen city services slashed by a revenue shortfall, will appreciate the mayor’s gesture remains to be seen.
If there’s a silver lining to be found in the economic downturn, it might be the reduced construction costs benefiting some important community projects.
The Renaissance Pointe YMCA project, scheduled to begin next month, is one of those.
Marty Pastura, YMCA president and CEO, said lower bids are part of the reason the cost has been reduced to $6.5 million. Some features of the building, including a second-floor track, were pared to cut costs, given the poor climate for fundraising.
Reduced demand for construction translated to costs 10 percent to 15 percent lower than expected. It also allows the construction schedule to be compressed, with the building expected to be finished in a year’s time. The new YMCA, which will replace the Old Fort and Southeast branches, will be an attractive addition to the Renaissance Pointe housing project, destined to make a family-friendly project even more so.
