Home Improvement to the Nth Degree

Ever since Jim Bob put that new deck on the double wide, property values have gone soaring...this is the strangest story I've seen in a long time...

Misvalued House Causes Ind. Budget Woes
"A house erroneously valued at $400 million is being blamed for budget shortfalls and possible layoffs in municipalities and school districts in northwest Indiana. The house had been valued at $121,900 before the glitch. County Treasurer Jim Murphy said the home usually carried about $1,500 in property taxes; this year, it was billed $8 million."

One would expect that last sentence to have been enough to clue someone in before they got in a rush to spend the windfall. Incidentally, that's the 400 Million Dollar House in the photo to the right...read on, friends:

"Most local officials did not learn about the mistake until Tuesday, when 18 government taxing units were asked to return a total of $3.1 million of tax money. The city of Valparaiso and the Valparaiso Community School Corp. were asked to return $2.7 million. As a result, the school system has a $200,000 budget shortfall, and the city loses $900,000."