INDIANAPOLIS - Delays in processing the 2008 property tax bills across Indiana are expected to cost the state's taxpayers millions of dollars. Officials say spring property tax bills will be late this year because most counties have yet to submit information the state needs to set tax rates.
The delay in collecting 2008 taxes, as well as holdups in last year's bills - only recently straightened out after a reassessment - could cost taxpayers in Marion County $30 million to $50 million, officials there estimate.
If things had gone correctly, the first of two bills sent each year would have arrived in mailboxes by Friday and payment would be due by May 10. The second bill typically is sent out in the fall. This year, however, virtually every county will be late sending out bills, meaning taxpayers' deadline to pay also will be pushed back.
Some counties are months late in sending their assessment data to the state because they still are catching up after last year's reassessments. That means some homeowners might not be notified until late summer or fall what they will owe, leaving local school districts, towns and other government agencies scrambling to cover operating expenses.
Local governments were expected to borrow money to cover their costs until taxes can be collected and distributed. Taxpayers will foot the bill for interest on any loans those localities borrow.
Vanderburgh County is the first of two counties to get its assessed valuations approved by the state, and after a public hearing Tuesday in Evansville, Vanderburgh County Auditor Bill Fluty hopes the state will certify all the local property tax rates soon.
While the county is unlikely to mail bills in time for the original payment due date in mid-May, Fluty said he and County Treasurer Z Tuley hope to get the bills out by the end of May.
Fluty estimated it could take two weeks or less between receiving official rates from the state and getting the billing statements printed, processed and mailed to taxpayers.
From then, taxpayers will have 15 days to pay to avoid state-imposed penalties of up to 10 percent.
Once taxpayers remit payments, Fluty hopes to get the property tax revenue distributed to local units of government - the county, city of Evansville, schools and library - by June 30, the end of the fiscal year.
Other counties aren't on as rapid a timetable.
"We're hoping at least by August to send our tax bills out," Warrick County Auditor Larry Lacer said, adding it depends on when the state certifies the county's tax rates. Warrick County likely will be able to avoid the need to borrow, he said.
Posey County is one of the counties trying to catch up on last year's bills before it can get to this year's.
"We hope we can mail a tax bill out in June," Posey County Auditor Joleen Elpers said.
That will be the 2006 property tax bill, originally payable in 2007, delayed for a year because of state-ordered reassessment of business property in Posey County. It will be a reconciliation bill between the amounts taxpayers paid last year and what they owed after reassessment, she said.
Then, the 2007 tax bills payable in 2008 will be mailed sometime later this year, as will last year's property tax rebate, she said.
"We have a lot of work to do, don't we?" Elpers said.
Gibson County also was ordered by the state last year to conduct a reassessment of commercial property because of assessing disparities. It has not yet determined when reconciliation bills will be mailed there.
"It's not going to be for a while yet," Gibson County Treasurer Jim Kolb said.
In Indianapolis, the focal point of last summer's property tax crisis, Marion County Treasurer Michael Rodman said the delays in resolving 2007 tax bills mean the first installment of 2008 bills likely will not go out until November.
Under state law, the Indiana Department of Local Government Finance is required to make sure property taxes are processed on time. But Mary Jane Michalak, spokeswoman for the agency, said it relies on township and county assessors to submit data on time. But some assessors say the state has not helped them figure out changes in the tax system.
The Department of Local Government Finance is processing most county tax rates in the order they are received.