The State has apparently found another accounting error to the tune of about $200 million to supplement the $300 million mistake discovered in December. The error discovered in December had been shortchanging the state’s general fund. The more recent error has to do with counties option income taxes and economic development income taxes.
The State Board of Accounts has made county specific numbers available here. Looks like the distribution to my home county of Tippecanoe was about $5 million light for 2011 and 2012.
Clearly, this is all Dick Lugar’s fault.
The blame game begins. The concerns mount as to exactly what is the state of the state’s financial status. If 100s of millions can be unaccounted for or unallocated, what about mere 1000s or 10s of 1000s let alone 100s of 1000s. Another factor is that the state must approve every computer program used in every local governmental unit thus have to wonder as to how good it is–might want to discuss with local officials as to what they think of the software they have to use.
What Joe said.
If these had occurred during Kernan’s brief administration, during the 2004 election cycle when Daniels was running against him, Daniels
would have had the news media butcher Kernan for being an
incompetent administrator (remember the ex-convict who worked
as a state pension funds employee?) where Kernan got ripped to shreds.
These days, there isn’t much criticism directed towards Daniels as an
incompetent administrator by the news media. Heck, Horst didn’t
even want to bother to immediately report it to Daniels because Daniels was going on a vacation to Israel.
Jim Shella will probably give this story under 3 minutes on tonight’s show.
Well, um, yeah. He’s on the last year of his term and he’s not running for election. The big political news story is the Senate primary.
All about timing.
Joe, izzat a reason, or an excuse? Eight years ago a $200 million paper deficit was the worst thing that had happened to Indiana since the 1913 Flood, though it was due in toto to the necessary adjustments in accounting both Republican and Democratic legislatures had employed basically forever. If $500 million in accounting incompetence isn’t news now, because “it’s all about politics”, then when does the fact that this was all flim-flam become a story? Only if Daniels decides to run for something?
And the Lugar-Murdock race is the important thing? That’s like saying Jersey Shore is the most important thing on television.
DR:
He was asking why it was not getting more pub – just gave my opinion. Gregg is trying to get it to stick to the Republicans but I don’t know that it will have the legs to matter in November.
I didn’t say that the Lugar/Mourdock race was the most important, I just said I thought it was going to be the big news story for the next 4-6 weeks. What’s going to get the most coverage is often not the same as what should be getting the most coverage.
You mean the ghost of Jim Shella?
I just remember all the shrieking that happened when the state “ran out of money” and I can’t figure out how NOBODY went through the books and realized that half a billion dollars was unaccounted for. I get that audits are hard and that the state has a collection of incompetence going on in the capitol but still, holy shit.
Doghouse has a theory I like: because they didn’t want to. Not having the money meant sticking it to the teachers and the poor and preaching austerity that our Governor believes in, but does not follow
Maybe Matt Tully read my comment yesterday morning and borrowed my idea for his column later in the day?
http://www.indystar.com/article/20120406/NEWS08/204060370/?odyssey=mod|newswell|text|IndyStar.com|p
This “error” isn’t any one persons’ or any one partys’ “fault”. It’s the natural and expected outcome of decades of “artful” accounting created by years and years of programs, regulations, tax codes (the biggest reason) added and fostered by both party’s. We add like 4k new laws a year, how could any rational person NOT expect a cluster fark in virtually every department eventually? In short, it’s everybody’s fault.
“Error.” Error?
Indiana is basically in control over its own tax code and its own interpretations and implentation. If the Daniels adminstration did not think that it could implement the government it sought so successfully, it should have resigned or asked for help from the party that at various times ran the show.
We should give Richard Murdock a promotion for his good work
I would like to hear more information about how the error occurred before I blame anyone. All accounting issues are not created equal. Some are the responsibility of management, some the responsibility of a clerk. Some the responsibility of a poor system that was designed by somebody who retired and didn’t tell anyone how it works.