At $7.20 Gary's property tax rates lead the state for second year in a row

A review of the rest of the state's 92 counties shows Gary is well above the second highest rate, which is in the shadow of Notre Dame's Golden Dome where South Bend property owners are to be taxed at $5.98 per $100 assessed value.

High tax rates normally translate to unwelcome high tax bills.

Griffith Town Councilman Rick Ryfa said he and other town council members worked hard during last year's budget sessions to keep its public spending so low that the town hall's tax rate is dropping nearly 1 percent.

"People need to know that," he said.

However, Ryfa said their good work is masked by by county government, Griffith schools, library and other taxing districts whose spending is pushing Griffith's total tax rate up 8 percent over last year. 

The Indiana Department of Local Government Finance's tax bill calculator indicates Griffith's rate increase would add $92 to a homestead with an assessed value of $100,000.

The calculator indicates Gary's new tax rate will add about $10 to a homestead with an assessed value of $100,000.

Although Gary's tax rate shot up by more than 23 percent over last year, the average Gary homeowner's tax bill increase is muted by the state's circuit breaker system, which caps homestead taxes at 1 percent of assessed value.

The state calculates tax rates by dividing the amount of money local government units plan to spend in a given year by the total assessed value of real estate within each county, municipal, school and special taxing district.

The average tax rate of all 118 taxing districts in Lake, Porter and LaPorte County is $2.64 cents per $100 assessed value.

The communities of Michigan City, LaPorte and LaCrosse had the highest tax rates in LaPorte County. Most of the rates in that county are down this year.

Porter County's tax rates are in decline in 27 of its 30 city, town and township taxing districts. Hebron, Valparaiso, Chesterton and Portage had Porter County's highest rates.

Outside of Gary, Lake's other city, town and township taxing districts will have tax rates ranging from $5.40 cents per $100 assessed value for a small section of Lake Station to $1.70 per $100 assessed value in unincorporated St. John Township.

Residents of Gary and other high tax rate cities are protected by the state's circuit breaker system, which caps the maximum bill they can receive.

Mike Wieser, director of finance for the Lake County Auditor's office, said, "Sometimes when you speak of tax rates it means absolutely nothing to their tax bills. Gary's bills will be the same as last year, if their assessed value is the same."

Gary Mayor Karen Freeman Wilson said the circuit breaker system "is a good deal for taxpayers but a nightmare for governmental entities. You will find that Gary and its (associated government) units lose much more revenue to the circuit breaker tax caps than any other community in the state."

Gary's rates, which have been the highest in the county the last two years, rose by more than 23 percent this year.

Wieser and Edward Gholson, chief deputy of the Calumet Township assessor's office, said the rate jump reflected a $100 million drop in the city's assessed value because of a lack of growth in commercial and industrial market value, a drop in the Majestic Star Casino's value and the city taking large numbers of abandoned parcels off the tax rolls.

Tax rates must rise if a community's assessed value falls and local government doesn't reduce spending sharply.

Heather Garay, Hammond chief financial official, said city officials have budgeted to spend less than the amount the state would allow them to collect, but the city's tax rate rose because its assessed value also declined.