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County Council Frets Tax-relief Law
Officials believe it will cause distress for cities, towns, schools.

Deborah Sederberg
The News-Dispatch

LA PORTE - While it may cause distress to cities, towns, libraries and other entities, circuit breaker legislation promises no long-term property tax relief, several of the La Porte County Councilmembers believe.

"First of all, nobody understands that whole bill" councilman Jerry Cooley said. "But I believe (after all the confusion) we'll be right back where we are now in two years."

Cooley said during the first year, property tax replacement will come from slots at race tracks. In the following year, about half will come from that source.

"In two years, we're scheduled to reassess, and property values will rise and so taxes will rise."

A few years ago, when the legislature deleted the inventory tax, the replacement burden fell on the backs of property owners, he noted.

"I'm looking for permanent relief."

State Rep. Scott Pelath, D-Michigan City and State Sen. Jim Arnold, D-La Porte, voted against the circuit breaker, Councilman Mark Yagelski said. Arnold was one of only six senators to vote against the legislation, he added.

"I'm 100 percent against the bill," Yagelski said. "I don't know how they think local option income tax is going to help. We're all going for the same bucks and the local option tax will not be enough."

Cooley said no one ever asked county council members for input, yet the law puts budget responsibility of municipalities, school corporations, libraries and other entities squarely on the council shoulders.

County attorney Shaw Friedman predicted Michigan City and the Michigan City Area Schools will be among the hardest hit taxing bodies.

"In county government, we'll have to pink slip some people," Yagelski said.

Township assessors and their employees, for example, must re-apply for jobs with the La Porte County Assessor by June 1 if they hope to keep their jobs as assessors.

Some township trustees also serve as assessors in their township. Friedman said they would retain their trustee jobs.

Three townships have assessors who are not trustees, Center, Michigan along with Coolspring Townships.

The new law says assessors of townships with 15,000 or more properties to assess can ask for a voter referendum on the matter.

That's what Michigan Township Assessor Terry Beckinger intends to do.

Yagelski said that referendum will appear on the November ballot.

Yagelski said the council will need to form committees to work on implementing the many requirements of the new law.

"We're going to have to gather the hard numbers" from communities, school districts, libraries and other entities affected, he said.

Friedman said it might be wise to work with Cender & Company, a Merrillville firm that serves as a financial consultant to the county in other matters.

The council took no action on that matter.

Council member Rick Mrozinski suggested meeting with the city councils of Michigan City and La Porte.

Yagelski hopes to have such a workshop meeting in Michigan City followed by the County Council's regular meeting.



Contact Deborah Sederberg at dsederberg@thenewsdispatch.com.