Tax Bills Finally Mailed

Marion County homeowners are finally being mailed a reconciliation tax bill for their last year's taxes. The Star's Tim Evans quotes Marion Co. Treasurer Mike Rodman as saying that 90% of homeowners will see a reduction in their original tax bill from 2007 before Gov. Mitch Daniels ordered the reassessment. The savings to homeowners from the reassessment, according to state OMB Director Ryan Kitchell, is $42 million. The reassessment shifted some of the tax burden borne by homeowners to businesses, which were found to be under-assessed on the whole.

Evans explains that the tax rebates homeowners were originally scheduled to receive last year will be mailed in July. The Marion Co. Auditor is expected to distribute $47 million in rebates. Recall that the property tax rebates were funded by House Speaker Pat Bauer's plan to sell slot machine franchises to the state's two horse race tracks in Anderson and Shelbyville for about $500 million combined. If you combine the reduction from the reassessment with the property tax rebate, homeowners in Marion County should save about $90. That's the same amount taxpayers were required to pay annually in higher income taxes under Mayor Bart Peterson's 65% hike in the tax rate. But as Rodman explains, overall tax bills for 2007 will be higher than 2006 tax bills.