Little did the Carroll County Council know when they adopted an ordinance in September of 2008 that their actions set in motion events that would lead the Indiana Department of Local Government Finance to change (perhaps only slightly, but change they did) their management of Local Option Income Tax levies for all Indiana counties.

The DLGF should be applauded for not only recognizing a flaw in their system but then talking about it. It is commendable that state staffers took the time to understand what happened in Carroll County and decided to establish a different method of how things are done in their office to avoid a similar situation in other counties.

“We acknowledge that upon receipt of the original ordinance in 2008, we did not identify that the county intended to reduce the rate in the second year. We apologize for the oversight and have put provisions in place to ensure this does not occur in other counties…”

It was at the council’s request that DLGF recently visited the council meeting to discuss the situation. DLGF could have refused, but they did not.

County council members were adamant that they followed the rules when they created the ordinance to adopt the tax rate. They explained the situation to the DLGF representative at the meeting, several times.

The DLGF representative was adamant about how the state statute dictated that the county could not do what the ordinance indicated would be done, also several times.

It seemed to be a friendly stand-off at the end of the meeting. Only after a telephone call from the DLGF to clarify the situation was the county situation fully understood in Indianapolis.

The DLGF could have recognized a problem and made the management change without making it public knowledge, but they did not. That is commendable.

And the knowledge that a change for the better has been made for the future, thanks to Carroll County, serves to remind everyone that going forth with integrity is worth the effort.