CROWN POINT | The Lake County auditor is preparing to mail an additional $9.7 million in property tax rebates in the coming week to about 30,000 homeowners who nearly missed out on the state tax relief program.

Michael Wieser, director of finance for the county auditor's office, said Friday the checks have been sent to the printer and should be in the mail by early next week.

Controversy over rising property taxes spurred the Indiana General Assembly to vote last year to reduce the tax burden by issuing rebates, including $39.2 million earmarked for Lake County property owners.

The auditor's office mailed out $28.1 million in rebates four weeks ago, but Lake County Auditor Peggy Katona, acting on advice from a state employee, said her office held back the $9.7 million from homeowners who already had received help from the county's circuit breaker program. The circuit breaker caps taxes at no more than 2 percent of homes' assessed value.

A number of taxpayers complained they had waited months for a rebate and received letters stating they would get nothing.

One of them was State Rep. Charlie Brown, D-Gary, who had voted for the rebate and complained that Lake County was wrong to withhold the money.

Gov. Mitch Daniels agreed with Brown and announced May 16 he was ordering state and county officials to release the money, circuit breaker or not.

The governor blamed "innocent confusion" about the situation. Lake is the only county in the state with a tax circuit breaker.

Lake County Council President Larry Blanchard, R-Crown Point, previously said the money to back up those checks likely would be loaned from county government coffers.

But Wieser said Friday that the money is being drawn from property tax replacement credits -- a state fund used to reduce local property taxes. Lake County municipalities would have received those funds initially.

The governor's office doesn't cover $1.2 million in rebate money that is being withheld from property owners who have been delinquent in paying last year's taxes.