When you’re looking to make data-driven decisions for local government financing, don’t overlook a great tool from the Purdue Center for Regional Development (PCRD): Rural Indiana Stats. This site features a capacity-cost index, calculated by Dr. Larry DeBoer, that helps everyone from local residents to local elected officials understand what resources are available to them …

~by Dr. Larry DeBoer, Purdue University Tax season is coming up. This year, federal income taxes are due on May 17th. Indiana’s state and local income taxes are due on April 15th. The first installment of the property tax is due on May 10. You pay your motor vehicle excise tax with your vehicle registration …

~by Dr. Larry DeBoer, Purdue University If you want to be remembered in economics, get yourself a curve. There’s the Lorenz curve, the Laffer curve, the Kuznets curve, and, probably most famous, the Phillips curve. Phillips was A.W. Phillips, an economist from New Zealand who worked in London. In 1958 he drew a curve connecting …

~by Dr. Larry DeBoer, Purdue University Predictions are hard, especially about the future. Yogi Berra said that. (Unless he didn’t. Yogi also said, “I never said most of the things I said,” so we really don’t know.) Though some predictions are harder than others, we are confident about this one: Property tax bills for farmland …

~by Dr. Larry DeBoer, Purdue University Forecasts? Don’t talk about forecasts. You kidding me?  I just want to know what’s happening now! With apologies to Jim Mora, that’s our problem. What’s happening in our economy, right now? In the first week of March, we’d have answered that gross domestic product above inflation grew 2.4 percent …

~by Dr. Larry DeBoer, Purdue University Rents are falling in San Francisco. Keep that in mind as this column wanders along. The wizards in Harry Potter’s Britain use many forms of transportation. Brooms, but also floo powder, portkeys, flying vehicles, the Night Bus. Perhaps the most frequently used form of transportation, and certainly the most …

~by Daniel Walker, Community Planning Extension Specialist, Purdue Extension/Illinois-Indiana Sea Grant  Online course certifies planning officials and interested residents as Master Citizen Planners Purdue Extension and Illinois-Indiana Sea Grant have opened enrollment in American Citizen Planner – Indiana, an online training course for local planning officials and interested residents. Participants learn about core planning issues, …

~by Dr. Larry DeBoer, Purdue University We got trouble, my friends, with a capital T. The Indiana state budget closeout for fiscal 2020 was held in mid-July, so we have a good idea of how bad things are. Revenues fell 8 percent below forecast for the year, 23 percent from March through June. We used …

Purdue Extension provided a free workshop for local leaders to learn about Indiana’s property tax system and explore trends in local and regional property tax data on Friday, March 13, at the Purdue Extension Lake County Office.  Local government officials, community leaders, and residents from Lake and Porter counties participated in the workshop. Workshop participants …

Lake County Extension collaborated with the Lake County Clerk’s office and the Board of Elections & Registration to present the “Local Government Leadership: Running for Office” workshop on January 7, 2020. 24 community members attended the session, held in the Purdue Extension building.  Participants learned about the election process and the required forms for candidacy …