Posts in this topic

[Southsider2k12]

http://heraldargus.com/articles/2012/02/22...dd639085647.txt

Reaction varies to reconciled property tax bills

By Tim Moran
Published: Wednesday, February 22, 2012 5:05 PM CST
Staff Writer

LA PORTE COUNTY — The reconciled property tax process is not sitting well with some La Porte County residents and one has voiced his strong opposition to the idea of paying for an assessment from 2007.

Recently, property owners in La Porte County were sent statements for 2007-pay-2008 property taxes after a reassessment order was issued by the state of Indiana.

Dave Pelham, who owns a 50-acre lot in La Porte County, said it was “kind of a shock” to open the mail and find a bill for $15,000, which would be the difference in the assessed value from the original 2007 assessment, which he already paid nearly $1,600.

After speaking with a member of the county treasurer’s office, Pelham said he was told the assessment was that much higher because portions of the acre’s area were rezoned from wetlands to residential.

“I was told if it were rezoned woodlands - that would eliminate 75 to 80 percent of the tax,” Pelham said.

The notice originally sent to property owners earlier this month, stated that any amount billed for would become “delinquent” after Feb. 24, a date that has now been pushed back to early March.

Pelham also questions the validity of a tight payment deadline on an issue that took officials nearly four years to resolve.

“It’s not right,” he said. “They take years to get the information to us - and without warning - they want us to pay within two weeks,” he said, noting that the treasurer’s office was closed for two of the business days within the two week span.

On the local business side, Marquette Mall General Manager Laura Tubbs said “nothing out of the ordinary” struck her when the reassessment was sent to the mall.

“It seemed like a standard bill,” she said.

But while residents and businesses are on the hook for the difference in values - cities, schools and libraries in the county are the benefactors.

Chip Claussen, controller for the Michigan City Public Library, says the body is relying on funds that have already been appropriated to them, but if property owners do not pay the tax, the library could be in for “a rude awakening.”

“We have had to borrow and not spend all of the appropriated funds if that situation arises,” he said. “All we can do is wait and see if the bills come in.”

Claussen said he would like to see the library collect not only the amount pledged to them from the 2007-2008 bills, but also to have invoices for reassessments from the 2008-pay-2009 period as well as the 2009-pay-2010 period be mailed this year.

“We do not want to cut back on service to our patrons,” he said. “But if we do see the revenue we could explore adding more e-books, which other libraries are doing.”

Claussen, who has served as controller for less than a year, said the property tax in Indiana is “about one-fourth” of what it is in his home state of Wisconsin.

“In Indiana, the property taxes are actually pretty low,” he said.

Pelham said he is appealing his property assessment through Michigan Township, calling the reassessment process “wrong.”

“I don’t think it’s right to do this to the little guy,” he said.