Thursday, February 21, 2008

85% Of Home Reassessments Up In Marion County

The legislature had better not think of finishing its business this year until it gets down to some serious property tax relief or we're going to see a property tax revolt in a couple of months that will make last year's protests look like a walk in the park. Marion Co. Assessor Greg Bowes tells the Star's Tim Evans that at least 85% of the county's homes will see an increase in the assessment they received on their tax bills last year. Although overall homeowners will receive about a 6% reduction in their bill because of higher business assessments, it means the reassessment will produce no relief for the homeowners hit hardest last year and will actually increase others even more. The example of Robert Chandler in Evans story explains what's going to make many homeowners unhappy:

Robert Chandler is among the homeowners who hoped reassessment would provide some relief after his property tax bill doubled last year.

No such luck.

The new value for Chandler's home, 2001 N. Alabama St., is almost double the assessment used to calculate his 2006 bill. That's likely to mean his taxes will be higher, too.

He won't be alone. Nearly 2,000 of his neighbors in Center Township, as well as about 1,000 homeowners in Washington Township, are expected to see assessments that are double or more than the assessments used to figure their 2006 bills.

Chandler said he was surprised by the new value.

"I thought the assessed value on the last bill was about right. My complaint was the amount of taxes I was paying in comparison with what others were paying, including some commercial properties," he said.

"I'll be very interested to see what the new rate is. My question right now is, could I sell my house for that (new assessed value)?"

The reassessment valued his home at $629,900 -- an 18 percent increase over the original 2007 bill and 81 percent higher than the value used to calculate his 2006 bill.

"If that's typical of what they've done, this issue is not dead by a long stretch," he said of the citizen uprising that helped prompt Daniels to order a reassessment. "It looks like the perfect storm is still out there."

Meanwhile, House Speaker Pat Bauer and the House Democrats decided to make a mockery of Gov. Mitch Daniels property tax relief plan by changing the cap from 1% of a home's assessed value to 1% of the homeowner's household income. It's a telemarketers dream because everyone's household income in Indiana will now become public information. Why don't we just put everyone's tax returns online for the world to view? It's also a tax dodgers dream as well. Many wealthy people benefit from huge trust funds which spin off a little income a year, yet they live in a multi-million dollar home paid for with their inherited wealth. Many self-employed people traditionally show little income. There's no end to the list of the ridiculous scenarios one could conjure up under this inane approach. You would have thought Bauer would have learned from his absurd plan from last year to finance a property tax rebate check for all homeowners financed with the sale of slot machine franchises to the state's two horse race tracks.

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

Do you ever get the feeling that our state legislators don't take voters very seriously?
Think about it, what was the voter turnout in the Indianapolis mayoral election? If memory serves me correctly it was only about 26 or 28% of all eleigible voters. Hardly a mandate.
Looks like to me that Melyssa and her activists have their work cut out for them. So far no one at the State House really takes them seriously.
Nothing has changed, no reform at all. Just a shell game of moving money around. Crawford's amendment is clearly a pandering for votes in his district even if it gets lifted out, which it will.
Yes, all hell is going to break out very soon but nothing will change.

Anonymous said...

Once taxpayers get their '07 tax bills, all hell is going to break loose for Daniels. Then they will get their '08 bills a few weeks later. There will be rioting in the streets!

Anonymous said...

First of all, an increase in assessed value does not necessarily mean an increase in your tax bill - in fact, your AV could go up, and your tax bill could remain the same, or even go down.

Second of all, if their houses were truly that underassessed, that has nothing to do with the Legislature - it simply means that local Marion County officials CONTINUE to do their job poorly - and force everyone else in the rest of the state to deal with the fallout from their panicky legislators seeking to "fix" the problem.

Anonymous said...

I don't know anything about this revolution, but this amendment is simply asinine. Glad to see that our elected reps are taking this problem so seriously.

Anonymous said...

Unfortunately for open and transparent government, Crawford is just putting in a poison pill so the D's have leverage when all this nonsense goes behind closed doors for compromise.

I am a democrat, but I am appalled at the power weilded by the teachers union and the school administrators. They hide behind the kids and there isn't enough money printed to satisfy their greed. And the elected democrats look like so many bobble-head dolls before them.

The school spending needs to be brought under control and fast, or no amount of legislative tomfoolery will help the tax situation.

I think these legislators are after only one thing - to get reelected. They don't give a whit about how much taxes we all have to pay.

We need referenda in this state. All of our elected officials have let us down. We need the power to change things ourselves.

Zappatista said...

Doesn't Center Township have a "war chest" upwards of 10 million dollars that is THE TAX PAYERS MONEY??? That is NOT being used to help tax payers, but rather "collect" property? Seems to me that the residents of Center Township should get a rebate towards their property taxes! This would not solve the problem, but the $$$ is rightfully theirs....NOT DRUMMER'S.

Anonymous said...

I just called Lowe's, Home Depot, and Menards...they are going to increase their local stores orders for torches and pitchforks.

Anonymous said...

9:27, if your tax multiplier remains the same then the new higher assessed value will result in a tax increase.
Nothings changed.......yet. But don't look for any real relief as a lot of special interests are trumping the taxpayers at the State House.
The man down on Alabama got hosed. Ten years ago you wouldn't want to drive down that street. So much for an incentive to revitalize an area.

Anonymous said...

Here is Indiana's current “tax cut” plan:

•Reduce the increase in tax deductible property taxes and shift the entire tax burden to non-deductible sales taxes.

•Increase the local income tax

•Reduce no government spending

•Result: NET TAX INCREASE

We've got to quit governing like this!

The bipartisan government-reform panel led by Indiana Supreme Court Chief Justice Randall Shepard and former Gov. Joe Kernan recommend the elimination of 1,155 units of government and 5,833 fewer elected officials statewide saving $400 million each year.

Message from former Governor Joe Kernan:
http://www.indianachamber.com/

BSU Study: Kernan-Shepard Recommendations Give Big Savings EACH Year
http://www.insideindianabusiness.com/newsitem.asp?id=27617

Anonymous said...

Why all the anger about the wording of this "tax cap" that the Politicians intend to eliminate anyway?

Please remember:

A property tax shift to sales tax is not a tax decrease.

A local income tax increase is not a tax cut.

A property tax cap is not possible without a decrease in government spending.

Taxpayers should be angry at the entire tax crisis solution considering it will actually increase your taxes.

Just add 1% to the sales tax on the accessed value of your home to see how this works.

Anonymous said...

"Patrick Bauer" and "learn" do not belong in the same sentence.

Anonymous said...

For the last 32 years we have made house payments. We're out of that maze now, and are renting and liking it very much. Plus we're saving gobs of money. Check out why at peoplepowergranny.blogspot.com. And of course, vote in my poll on which you prefer.