When the Porter County Council meets Thursday to get a status on this year’s property tax bills, they should hear some good news for a change.

The Indiana Department of Local Government Finance has finalized a budget order that includes the final 2008 tax rates for the Michigan City School Corporation, removing one of the logjams that have delayed Porter County’s 2009 tax bills.

With those tax rates now in, Porter County will finally be able to issue ‘08 tax bills for the three Pine Township tax districts in the Michigan City School system. Those bills haven’t gone out yet, since LaPorte County has not yet certified the required assessed values. Porter County, in turn, will not get a final 2009 budget order until it completes its tax settlement for 2008, including the Pine Township numbers.

Last week, the DLGF decided that since the assessed values still aren’t done in LaPorte County, it would use the most recent values -- from 2005 for taxes payable in 2006 Ð in order to expedite the tax work in both counties.

Porter County Council President Bob Poparad, D-1st, said he’s looking forward to Thursday’s special council meeting, since it appears that progress is finally being made on this year’s tax bills.

In addition to the tax rates for Pine Township, Poparad said the county’s new tax software system is expected to go live any day now, clearing another tax bill hurdle.

“We’re going to move forward as fast as we can,” he said.

Poparad said he thinks county departments clearly got the message from last week’s special meeting, when council members expressed extreme frustration over the delayed tax bills and threatened to slash budgets if the lack of progress on the tax bills continued.

The special meeting this Thursday, set for 5 p.m. at the County Administration Center, will likely include continued discussion over whether the county should issue provisional bills, which would be based on the 2008 bills, as an interim measure before the actual ‘09 bills are ready.

DLGF communication specialist Amanda Stanley said the DLGF did discourage counties from issuing provisional bills this year, but that the department will support counties that choose to issue them.

This year is a transitional tax year, with a number of significant changes in property taxes that could make reconciling the provisional bills more challenging than normal.

Those changes include the elimination of the state’s property tax replacement credit and a significantly lower state homestead credit. In addition, homeowners will get a new supplemental homestead deduction, and some taxpayers will benefit by the state’s new tax caps that will be phased in beginning this year. Further, the state has now assumed full costs of certain funds that used to be paid for through property taxes, which could in turn cause a fairly sizeable drop in the overall tax rates.

To assist counties that choose to issue provisional bills, Stanley said the DLGF will calculate scaling factors and help counties with the calculations.

So far, she said the DLGF has completed the calculations for two Indiana counties considering provisional bills. One of these is Lake County, which has since decided not to issue provisional bills because it expects to have its certified assessed values needed for the ‘09 bills within the next few weeks.

The other county considering provisional bills is Elkhart County. The DLGF has approved that county’s provisional bill format, but Elkhart County has not yet finalized its decision.

Porter County officials are considering provisional bills because they might be done sooner than the actual 2009 tax bills. That in turn would provide an infusion of tax funds for municipalities, schools and other taxing units that are struggling due to the delayed tax bills.