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Saturday, May 10, 2008
Election Is Over; Tax Bills To Follow
The state has finally approved tax rates for last year's taxes based on the reassessment of real property in Marion County according to the Star's Tim Evans. The good news is that tax bills for many will be falling because the reassessment added $4.5 billion to the county's total assessed valuation from what you were originally billed last year. The bad news is that you will be making a third payment this year to offset the difference between the amount you paid based on the old rates and assessments and the new rates and assessments, along with two additional payments for this year's taxes. Bills to cover the third payment are expected to go out in June, while this year's tax bills won't be mailed until August.
The bad news is that the assessment went up $4.5 billion. I own a small building which houses my business in Marion County. I have 6 employees. The assessment is going up by 60% and the tax is more than doubling according to the Star web site. Another example of government incompetence. I have a professional appraisal showing the old assessment was $1K too high. I plan to appeal.
ReplyDeleteThe property tax relief was just a Mitch Daniels shell game.....most of us will see our tax bills go up.....the rate will be lower but our assessments are higher....the bottom line is that My Man Mitch's property tax relief plan means higher taxes.......Mine went up a little oveer $500 a year....plus you are accurate, we still owe property tax money for last year.
ReplyDeleteThe property tax relief was just a Mitch Daniels shell game.....most of us will see our tax bills go up.....the rate will be lower but our assessments are higher....the bottom line is that My Man Mitch's property tax relief plan means higher taxes.......Mine went up a little oveer $500 a year....plus you are accurate, we still owe property tax money for last year.
ReplyDeleteHow did Mitch force the local school districts to have top heavy administrations? How did Mitch force schools to build mulit-million dollar swimming pools. How about football stadiums? Schools are 50% or more of your property tax bill. I didn't Mitch was on the board of every single school district in Marion County!!!
spooknp ..you are right, some school systems went over the top....most are scraping to get by....but MMM proposed by increasing the sales tax 1% and pull tabs and couple of other adjustments that we would receive property tax relief.....my point is that I am paying 1% more in sales taxes and MORE property taxes.......MMM knew the school rates when he put together his proposal....we have been taken advantage of....but November will be here before we know it.
ReplyDeleteFor your primary residence, you can file a Request for Property Tax Improperly Collected. Attorney John Price wrote the document in response to the initial court ruling. The court asked what "administrative remedy" was requested by the homeowner to collect property tax fees in payment toward the school fund.
ReplyDeleteThe document is a permanent link on the right hand side of the HOOSIERS FOR FAIR TAXATION blog.
Spook:
ReplyDeleteWhile I agree Daniels didn't create the problem, he can be faulted for two things:
(1) waiting until the last year of his first term to take any action; and
(2) coming up with a bait and switch shell game and selling it as "relief" just so he'd look like he did something when most people are going to get hosed.
It was a colossal waste of time to have the Indiana General Assembly even address this issue because in the end it just changed how you pay it, not what you pay for most people, and arguably many are worse off. I'm certain Daniels would not have offered a proposal THIS year had Mayor Ballard not defeated Bart Peterson.
I can't call this a property tax "crisis" because that connotes the unexpected. Governor Daniels KNEW this was going to happen the day the Supreme Court changed our system, and yet he sat by and did nothing. I can't fault him alone, of course, because anybody (including a boatload of Democrats) could have offered a bill. However, he's the only one running for Governor right now who had the authority to try ANYTHING before 2008. He didn't. That's not leadership.
Assuming the tax bill actually goes down 30%, there's still the problem that the number of bills we're getting has gone up by 50%.
ReplyDeleteDo the math.
Sometimes you can only lead if the people you lead will follow. Our legislature is a joke. It is a smaller version of congress all about gotcha politics. Remember the democrats opposed raising the cigarette tax increase to pay for health insurance for the poor. I can only figure they did so because they didn't think of it first. The interstate around Indianpolis is getting to be dangerous since it is so crowded and it negativley afffects commerce when you spends so long in traffic jams. He proposed another bypass only to be opposed by both parties. Supposedly to save family farms which we all know if a joke. The democrats need to get over the daylight savings time which was a quality of life issue, the toll road whihc was just a source of waiting money. Government needs to learn to run like a business.
ReplyDeleteHowever, he's the only one running for Governor right now who had the authority to try ANYTHING before 2008. He didn't. That's not leadership.
ReplyDeleteWell, the other party, Democrats, did nothing for years either. They are also running someone. Using your reasoning, why should anyone vote for any Democrats or Republicans? The simple fact is that while MMM shares some blame, it is very, very little if you ask me. It seems the Democrat party is trying everything to deflect the blame away from schools being the #1 "problem" with property taxes. Sorry, but most schools went crazy with building. Schools seem to be the worst when it comes to image. Schools want this fancy, Taj Mahal building, claiming it helps with education. Give me a break. I grew up in one of the slower growing suburban communities. Our grade school was the old town school that was decades old. It worked for what was needed at the time. The middle school during this time, was never really finished, and was built as nice as could be. Again, it provided the basics. Our school never had a swimming pool or fancy auditorium, and I graduated in the mid-90s. That being said, I have seen many of my classmates, younger and older, go one to college to become lawyers, doctors, small business owners, etc.. Twelve color brick patterns, clock towers, natatoriums, raised running tracks around the gym, brick and stone football stadiums do NOTHING for education. What they do is provide for property taxes to go sky high, and provide a "all eyes on me" attitude by the district.
I have said this on other boards: Teachers who work for schools that spend millions on image, instead of function have no leg to stand on when they want to complain about their benefits. You will quickly see a teacher's picket line form when there are talks of pay or benefit cuts, yet the teachers never picket massive football stadiums, bell towers, fancy arch ways, etc.. Those things add up to millions upon millions that could have been directed toward the classroom.
Our vanity will cause our downfall.