Daniels said tax collections in March and April were strong and that he was confident the state would end the fiscal year on June 30 with a fourth consecutive budget surplus. The most recent monthly revenue report, for April, showed that revenues for this fiscal year to date exceed that forecast by $133 million.

Meanwhile, spending is being held below the level lawmakers set in the current budget. Daniels said the combination means the state can accelerate the final repayment of debts owed to local governments.

"I believe we responsibly pay now," he said.

During an extended period of deficit spending earlier this decade, the state delayed payments totaling $761 million to schools, universities and local governments. It is essentially a bookkeeping maneuver that pushes spending obligations into future budget cycles so they do not count against the current one.

The state has repaid $518 million of those back payments since 2006.

All $316 million owed to schools was repaid in 2006, while $131 million of $343 million owed to local governments was returned in May 2007. About $40 million was returned to higher education last fiscal year, and another $31 million was repaid this fiscal year.

A remaining $31 million owed to higher education will be distributed in the next fiscal year that begins July 1.

The money being repaid to local governments will be sent to auditors in all 92 counties, and they will be responsible for distributing the appropriate shares to other taxing units.

The amounts for the counties ranged from a high of $30.5 million for Marion County to a low of about $178,000 for Ohio County.

Greene County will receive $646,986 and neighboring Sullivan is slated to get $576,444.

Daniels noted that the property tax relief and restructuring law enacted by the General Assembly this year will mean "some adjustments" for local governments, and "we thought this cash arriving early might help them."

When fully implemented in 2010, homeowners' property tax bills will be capped at 1 percent of their home' values, with 2 percent limits for rental property and 3 percent caps on business property.

The tax caps are projected to save property taxpayers about $524 million in 2010, but that is money schools and local governments would not get that year. The law does set aside $120 million for schools over the next two years to soften the caps' impact.

Opponents of the caps said they would force many schools and local governments to cut services or raise local income taxes to offset future budget shortfalls caused by the caps.

Amounts of money each county will receive can be found at the following link:

http://www.in.gov/gov/files/Press/paymen...