The Casper-based Troopers Drum and Bugle Corps crossed a big line last month on its road toward competing nationwide again with other corps, its director said Tuesday.

Mike Ottoes met with the executive committee of Drum Corps International in Dayton, Ohio, where he and others outlined the progress the organization has made since its ejection last fall.

"The executive committee has given a vote of confidence for full participation as a Division I touring drum corps for the 2007 season," Ottoes said.

This vote of confidence probably will be made official when the state Division of Criminal Investigation holds it annual meeting in September to reverse its decision to terminated the Troopers' membership in the national coalition. The DCI did so in September 2005 "due to internal and external compliance issues, spanning several years."

The Troopers, nicknamed "Wyoming's Musical Ambassadors," announced a week later that it would not march in 2006 and would use the year to rebuild.

The parent DCI - formed in the early 1970s in part by Troopers founder Jim Jones - apparently liked the Troopers' progress, Ottoes said.

"I'm very encouraged by it," he said. "One of the major goals was to have this head nod from DCI in April," he said.

But some painful work needs to be done.

Last month, the Wyoming Division of Workers' Safety and Compensation placed a tax lien for $16,365 against the Troopers Drum and Bugle Corps, according to public records.

The Troopers knew the bill was coming, the Casper-based organization's board director Milward Simpson said.

"Fortunately, this is one we can take care of," Simpson said.

The Troopers knew that they would be hearing from the workers' compensation division as the organization sorted through its finances, Simpson said.

"We're hoping to get that paid off this week," he said.

Most employers in Wyoming participate in the state workers' compensation program, in which they pay an insurance premium to the state to cover work-related injuries in exchange for employees not suing the employers.

However, DCI's major concern with the Troopers' financial behavior centered on failing to submit tax information in a timely manner for more than five years. Since 1996, the corps had not filed its Internal Revenue Service Forms 990. The forms are required of all 501(c)3 nonprofit corporations that receive more than $25,000 a year in revenue and are not religious organizations.

The IRS recently has responded to four or five years' worth of the nine Forms 990 submitted by the Troopers, Simpson said.

The Troopers may owe penalties and fines for their late filings after the IRS completes its review of all the 990s, Simpson said.

If so, the Troopers probably will ask the IRS to mitigate some of those fines and penalties, he said.

"We're hoping for the best," Simpson said. "Our hope is when we get everything from all nine years, we won't have to do too much."

Reporter Tom Morton can be reached at (307) 266-0592, or at Tom.Morton@casperstartribune.net.