Published: July 10, 2008 11:11 pm         

City seeks $7.5M loan to cover shortfall

Late property tax disbursements causing financial difficulties

TERRE HAUTE — The city of Terre Haute plans to bid out a $7.5 million loan within the next couple of weeks to cover a financial shortfall caused by late property tax disbursements from the state.

“Basically, we are being forced to pay more money because the state Legislature cannot get it together,” city councilman Norm Loudermilk, D-3rd, summed up Thursday evening at the council’s “sunshine meeting” — a meeting to make public ordinances set for a vote at the council’s meeting next Thursday.

Loudermilk’s statement drew some applause from those in attendance, and Mayor Duke Bennett said the city might change its budgeting plans to accommodate what he said could eventually become a one-time-per-year disbursement from the state instead of the traditional biannual disbursement.

Vigo County property tax bills should be out in August, he said, and payments should begin coming in by September. Municipal budgets are designed to receive those funds in May and November, and the school corporation also is borrowing millions to bridge the gap, he said.

“It should be a low interest rate,” Bennett said, explaining that the short-term loan will be paid off by the incoming tax money before Dec. 31. “We have to put this out for bid and everyone’s already clamoring for the business.”

No opposition to the plan was presented Thursday, so Bennett said the office will begin preparing the bid documents with anticipation of the loan application being approved at next week’s business meeting.

Prior to the council’s official meeting, members of the Terre Haute branch of the NAACP approached the group in response to recent acts of vandalism of a racist nature.

“The NAACP has come tonight to express concerns about recent acts of hate in our community,” said branch president Theressa Bynum.

A Nazi swastika was recently found painted onto the front steps of a local church, and another found at a Thai restaurant, she said.

The restaurant owners did not report the vandalism out of fear, she said.

“Americans fought and won a world war against a people who raised that ugly symbol,” she said, recounting other acts such as the burning of the letters “KKK” into the yard of a black family, as well as the hanging of a noose at Indiana State University.

Most people are appalled at things like this, she said, but their silence allows them to continue.

Kendall Boyd, a former Terre Haute city attorney and the first black to hold that office, suggested the council and community sponsor a “peace rally” or “peace march” to demonstrate unity against such acts, and to support the passing of a “hate crime” law in Indiana.

Councilmen George Azar and Loudermilk said they would support such a project if planned, and would invite state representatives to give proponents an opportunity to make their case for the new law.

Brian Boyce can be reached at (812) 231-4253 or brian.boyce@tribstar.com.