School district must repay misdirected taxes

COLUMBUS (AP) -- A tiny Western Ohio school district must repay nearly 175,000 in income tax payments it erroneously received from workers at a Bexley company.
The Ada Exempted Village School District received a letter from state tax officials explaining the error and directing them to repay the money, district treasurer Christy Beaschler said.
The mistake happened when software used by the company incorrectly routed income tax payments from 13 employees' paychecks to the Ada school district. The incorrect payments, supposed to go into the Bexley school district's coffers, were sent to Ada by the state beginning in July 2005 and continuing into this month, according to the Ohio Department of Taxation's letter.
The Ada school district, about 80 miles northwest of Columbus, will repay the money to the state in two payments, a 113,000 transfer in the next week and a 61,550 payment in July, Beaschler said. The district won't have to make any cuts, despite losing the funds.
"It's going to hit this school year's budget pretty hard," Beaschler said. "Fortunately, we were able to absorb it right now."
Messages seeking comment were left Friday afternoon with the taxation department.