State: Howard County assessment correct

Howard County officials received a measure of vindication Thursday when state officials confirmed last year's property tax assessment was done in accordance with state guidelines.

The announcement by the Indiana Department of Local Government Finance means county officials here won't be required - as Marion County officials were - to redo the assessment.

In other words, Howard County homeowners' property tax bills are correct.

"I'm not surprised because everything that was done here was done according to the state's rules and regulations, and was approved by the state prior to any [tax bills] going out," Center Township Assessor Sheila Pullen said Thursday.

Howard County Assessor Jamie Shepherd was similarly pleased with the state's verdict, and said her main focus going forward "is to see what we can do to offset property taxes and give relief for the 2008 taxes."

Both Shepherd and Pullen say massive tax breaks given on business personal property and inventory are largely to blame for the large increases many homeowners received this year.

Thursday, Pullen was reviewing the assessments of Haynes International, Chrysler and Delphi operations in Center Township, where property tax breaks mandated by the Indiana General Assembly reduced the assessed value of the three businesses by a combined $403 million this year alone.

Haynes, with a total tax value of $59.8 million, had a value of just $5.65 million for tax purposes, once abatements and investment credits were applied, and inventory was removed from the equation, Pullen said.

Further tilting the balance is all of the tax-exempt government, charity and church-owned property in Center Township, Pullen said.

That exempt property was worth about $300 million in 2007, a figure Pullen expects will increase thanks to a recent state law which allows churches to hold up to 150 acres tax-free.

"I love my church, but it has gotten to the point where maybe we ought to ask all of these exempt properties to at least pay enough to support services like police and fire," she said.

When angry taxpayers come to her office to ask why tax bills have risen so steeply, Pullen said she has an answer ready.

"I tell them that when the Legislature and the governor give all these credits to business and they make all of this property exempt, it shifts everything over to residential property taxpayers," she said.

Both Pullen and Shepherd said they will take that message to the Legislature next week, when State Sen. Luke Kenley, R-Noblesville, hosts hearings on the issue.

Officials in Gov. Mitch Daniels' administration, however, have consistently claimed increased local spending (such as the 10 percent jump in spending in Marion County this year) is mainly to blame for the increases.

Department of Local Government Finance Commissioner Cheryl Musgrave said that message resonated at a public hearing on the property tax crisis in Indianapolis Wednesday.

"The governor listened to requests of both the local elected officials and more than 350 taxpayers at the public hearing on Wednesday," Musgrave said. "One woman's comments captured the tone of the meeting when she put local officials on notice and asked the governor not to reassess, but to focus on other relief for high property tax bills brought about by increased local spending."

The state said Thursday that 10 other counties have passed reviews by the state Department of Local Government Finance as having done assessments properly this year and will not have to do them over. They are Benton, Cass, Clay, Fayette, Jackson, Jefferson, Monroe, Newton, Vanderburgh and Wabash.

Five other counties - Dubois, Hamilton, Hendricks, Tippecanoe and Washington - already were cleared.

But in recent weeks, Daniels had announced that he was ordering all property be reassessed in at least four counties - Delaware, Gibson, Marion and Posey - because there was evidence that high percentages of commercial and/or industrial properties were undervalued.

The state Department of Local Government Finance suspected that undervaluing those properties shifted a disproportionate share of taxes onto residential property owners. Taxpayers in the four counties were told to pay this year what they did in 2006, and any changes following the reassessments could be reconciled on next year's bills.

The Associated Press contributed to this story.