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More changes to the Kosciusko County Prosecutor's Office and Sheriff's Department were approved Thursday by the Kosciusko County council.
The council approved the increase in responsibilities for former sheriff Al Rovenstine in the Title IV-D office. Rovenstine, an assistant in the department, goes after "deadbeat" parents who fail to pay child support. While the position already existed, the council's approval increases the assistant's duties, and they approved a salary ordinance to pay Rovenstine $1,149.42 biweekly.
Funding for the Title IV-D office comes from the state returning to the county a percentage of the delinquent child support collected.
County prosecutor Steve Hearn reported on wanting to use the deferral program funds to pay for a part-time prosecutor designated to handle criminal cases only. The county council approved the position.
Katie Howe, an attorney with the prosecutor's office, reported on the IV-D office and requested an additional case worker. The council approved the advertisement of the additional case worker.
According to information provided by Howe, Kosciusko County IV-D office had 2,803 cases as of October and only four IV-D workers. They handle 701 cases each.
An additional appropriation for four new jailers for the county jail was given the green light by the council, but the salary ordinances for only two were approved. The salary ordinances for the other two will be approved in July. The full-year jailers will be paid $28,344 this year while the other two jailers to be hired later this year will receive $14,172 for the year.
Since the investigator for the county prosecutor's office will now work out of and be paid for by the county sheriff's department, the council approved a salary ordinance of $1,456.89 biweekly for that position in the sheriff's department budget and the reduction of $36,357 out of the prosecutor's budget. An additional appropriation for the position was approved.
In another matter, the council discussed the state inventory tax. When the tax is taken off, Kosciusko County could supplement the shortfall by putting on an income tax and increasing the County Option Income Tax, but the increase could be used only for additional homestead credit, which businesses do not qualify to receive. A county councilman said that voting for the removal of the inventory tax now would be like voting blind since there is no way of knowing what the county's tax rates will be because of the change in the reassessment process.
By the 2006-pay-in-2007 reassessment, the inventory tax will be eliminated. The inventory tax represents approximately $6.5 million in collections for all Kosciusko County entities.
As for the reassessment itself, tax bills will likely arrive in late summer at the earliest. By March 15, the county must make notification of the late tax bills, according to county auditor Sue Ann Mitchell. There still will be two tax collection dates, she said, with the Nov. 10 date being definite.
According to information from the Department of Local Government Finance, provided by Mitchell, as of November 2002, only about 10 counties in Indiana were still collecting data for the reassessment. Sixty counties had fully operational software, but data entry and completion of the assessment work are behind schedule in large part because of software issues. Sixteen counties reported they didn't know when the software system would be operational.
Wells County already sent out assessment notices containing new property values, eight counties reported they planned to do so in January and 30 counties expect to send reassessment notices by the end of March. Fourteen others expect to by the end of April, while a total of 69 expect to by the end of July. About 23 counties did not expect to have assessment notices out until August 2003 or later.
In other business, the county council:
• Tabled until March the Kosciusko County Convention and Visitors' Bureau 2003 budget request of $363,500 and request for the $17,353.44 remaining from the 2002 budget.
• Approved a salary of $40,000 per year for the Emergency Management Director.
• Approved the authorization of Kosciusko County Surveyor Dick Kemper to use $25,566 from the surveyor's section corner perpetuation fund to pay for the surveyor's portion of the Geographical Imaging Services aerial photography. The monies are allocated to the fund by the county recorder at a rate of $5 per deed recorded.
• Approved the transfers of $554 and $527 for the county assessor's office.
• Approved a salary ordinance amendment for the pay of $914.44 biweekly for a counter deputy supervisor for the county auditor's office. The increase was made mid-year and missed with the 2003 salary ordinance. Also approved for the auditor's office was the part-time pay of $9 for Beth Krull.
• Approved county recorder LaShawn Brumfield's request to change the contract for software from Manatron to ACS.
• County commissioner Ron Truex reported that a representative of ES&S, who may provide new voting machines for the county, will give a presentation to the commissioners at 9 a.m. Tuesday.
Members of the Kosciusko County Council are Tom Anglin, Harold Jones, Brad Tandy, Charlene Knispel, Maurice Beer, Larry Teghtmeyer and John Kinsey. They regularly meet at 7 p.m. in the county courthouse, Warsaw, on the second Thursday of every month.
