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1/21/2008 11:28:00 AM Email this article • Print this article

The home of La Porte County Assessor Carol McDaniel located on Indiana 4 in Lincoln Township. Anthony Lambré/The News-Dispatch

County Assessor's Assessment Down More Than $25K
McDaniel’s property spiked from $72K to $195K in 2001, but has fallen in years since.

Laurie Wink
The News-Dispatch

LINCOLN TOWNSHIP - While assessed values of property spiked during the past few years, the assessed value of the home of La Porte County's assessor has fallen - by tens of thousands of dollars.

The drops between 2003 and 2006 followed a huge increase in 2001. In 2001, the property of La Porte County Assessor Carol McDaniel and her husband, John, jumped in assessed value from $72,500 in 2001 to $195,000 in 2002.

The McDaniels live on East Indiana 4 in Lincoln Township. John McDaniel is the township trustee and assessor. They live in a 1,750-square-foot prefab house with an attached garage that was built in 1973.

The News-Dispatch talked to John McDaniel to find out about missing assessment data for 2004 and substantial drops in assessed value of the McDaniel property.

In 2003, the assessed value of the McDaniel home fell to $168,600 - a decrease of $26,400. John McDaniel said the reduction could be due to depreciation, an appraisal and a $3,500 assessment error.

In 2006, the value of the McDaniel home fell again, to $162,600. The declines came at a time when most Hoosiers were seeing increases in their assessed valuation.

McDaniel said he has "absolutely no idea" why data for assessment year 2004 is missing from property card information recorded for years 1999 to 2006.

"If mine's missing, others must be missing," he said, adding he thinks years may not be listed when no property changes or transactions occurred.

Springfield Township Trustee-Assessor Howard Conley said missing data is not unusual and he's seen cases in which data are not "picked up by the courthouse."

The McDaniels live in an area filled with what is described as "agricultural homesteads" where John McDaniel grows about an acre of sweet corn on his two acres of land.

The McDaniels improved their residential property by adding a detached garage in 1979 and a utility shed in 1998.

The appraised value of the McDaniel property jumped from $72,500 in 2001 to $195,000 in 2002 following a statewide reassessment that affected nearly all Hoosier property owners.

McDaniel had a licensed appraiser value the home in 2003, when he wanted to borrow against it, and the appraisal came back as $168,600, causing the assessed value to drop from the high of $195,000.

Conley said older homes were depreciated according to a state schedule until new assessment manuals came out several years ago.

"It used to be the older the home, the more it depreciated," Conley said.

Carol McDaniel was unable to explain the assessment numbers on her property during a deposition last fall for a tax appeal filed by R. Keith Sandin. Sandin is challenging 2004 and 2005 property assessments.

A transcript of the deposition shows she repeatedly said she was unable to explain data on her own property card.

For tax year 2007, McDaniel said assessments in Lincoln Township are increasing because of an influx of Chicago residents who are paying high prices for property on Fish Lake. Lakefront property that used to be valued at $60 per frontage foot is now $360.

"It's killing us," he said. "They're driving up property evaluations. My land went from $9,000 an acre last year to $20,000 an acre this year."

Hey, depreciating the original value of the house may be a way of setting prop tax...

So what would her property actually be worth on the open market, anyone know?

I have no idea what her place would sell for. You'd have to look at some comps to really know.