Sec. 3. (a) This section applies to Lake County’s categorizations, allocations, and distributions under IC 6-3.6-5.

     (b) The rate under the former tax in Lake County that was used for any of the following shall be categorized under IC 6-3.6-5, and the Lake County council may adopt an ordinance providing that the revenue from the tax rate under this section may be used for any of the following:

(1) To reduce all property tax levies imposed by the county by the granting of property tax replacement credits against those property tax levies.

(2) To provide local property tax replacement credits in Lake County in the following manner:

(A) The tax revenue under this section that is collected from taxpayers within a particular municipality in Lake County (as determined by the department of state revenue based on the department’s best estimate) shall be used only to provide a local property tax credit against property taxes imposed by that municipality.

(B) The tax revenue under this section that is collected from taxpayers within the unincorporated area of Lake County (as determined by the department of state revenue) shall be used only to provide a local property tax credit against property taxes imposed by the county. The local property tax credit for the unincorporated area of Lake County shall be available only to those taxpayers within the unincorporated area of the county.

(3) To provide property tax credits in the following manner:

(A) Sixty percent (60%) of the tax revenue shall be used as provided in subdivision (2).

(B) Forty percent (40%) of the tax revenue shall be used to provide property tax replacement credits against property tax levies of the county and each township and municipality in the county. The percentage of the tax revenue distributed under this item that shall be used as credits against the county’s levies or against a particular township’s or municipality’s levies is equal to the percentage determined by dividing the population of the county, township, or municipality by the sum of the total population of the county, each township in the county, and each municipality in the county.

The Lake County council shall determine whether the credits under subdivision (1), (2), or (3) shall be provided to homesteads, to all qualified residential property, or to all taxpayers. The department of local government finance, with the assistance of the budget agency, shall certify to the county auditor and the fiscal body of the county and each township and municipality in the county the amount of property tax credits under this section. The tax revenue under this section that is used to provide credits under this section shall be treated for all purposes as property tax levies but shall not be considered for purposes of computing the maximum permissible property tax levy under IC 6-1.1-18.5-3 or the credit under IC 6-1.1-20.6.

As added by P.L.243-2015, SEC.10. Amended by P.L.197-2016, SEC.70.