Council holds tax discussion
 By
Heather Mangold
City Editor
Local legislators and members of the community
met with the Indiana Advisory Commission on Intergovernmental Relations
on Tuesday to discuss concerns about property tax reassessment in Indiana.
In 1998 the Indiana Supreme Court ruled that the
state regulations for the assessment of real property were unconstitutional.
Following the ruling, the Indiana Tax Court had to adopt new constitutional
regulations by June of 2001 and that the reassessment under those rules
had to be completed by March 2002. Members of the community as well
as representatives from the council attended Tuesday's meeting to discuss
the issue at hand.
The council held a panel for community members
to discuss property tax reassessment in a small table-talk style, where
approximately eight to ten people gathered around tables to express
their concerns.
The council raised two main questions for the group
to consider. The first was to determine what state and local governments
need to do to make reassessment work and the other was to decide what
the most important issues are, related to reassessment that affects
households, businesses, agriculture, local and state governments.
"We want to do the right thing because we've worked
on this for a long time," said Rep. Sheila Klinker, D-27.
Potential problems with the reassessment that were
recognized at the panel were shifts in tax payments, problems administering
new rules, changes in state and local procedure as well as the effects
on diverse stakeholders.
One concern held by panel attendants was the problem
that, with the new reassessment, new people would have to be hired in
each of the counties of Indiana to properly assess property values and
to implement the new reassessment guidelines.
"It's going to be difficult to find people that
are able to do the job that we require," said Larry Lahrman, a tax assessor
from Tippecanoe County.
People discussed the problem with finding qualified
people to do the job and this also included finding people who were
willing to go through training and only be guaranteed temporary employment
for an undetermined wage.
New staff working on reassessment will most likely
be required to upgrade existing computer hardware to run new software
systems. The change will require conversion of current property records
from the old computer system to the new. According to the council, this
effort has not been successful in other counties and would require a
significant investment of staff time to enter data for each of the property
records in the new system. Newly trained members of the reassessment
effort will be required to assess property based on the new system.
Overall, the night's purpose was to raise awareness
about property tax reassessment. Following the meeting, letters will
be sent to Gov. Frank O'Bannon and local political leaders to determine
the outcome of the reassessment plan.
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