By John Byrne, Post-Tribune staff writer
Homeowners convinced their property assessments are ridiculously high this year will soon have a convenient on-line ally as they try to make their case.
The Indiana Department of Local Government Finance announced Thursday that property assessment and property sales data collected from around the state will soon be available on its Web site.
The site will include data on how much a specific property has sold for, and the amount of money at which it is assessed.
Users will be able to access the information by typing in a property owner's name or an address, and thereby see whether their properties were valued similarly to comparable residences or businesses nearby.
DLGF Commissioner Cheryl Musgrave told reporters she expects the information, compiled by the state from each Indiana county during this year's "trending" property reassessment, will be on-line by the end of next week.
While members of the public have always been entitled under state law to these types of property information, Musgrave said said it is unprecedented for all of it to be available in one place.
"I think this goes a long way to helping taxpayers see whether their properties have been accurately assessed," she said.
Officials in Northwest Indiana expect a record number of property owners will appeal their assessments this year, in light of predicted steep increases in tax bills around the state.
For 2007 only, property owners can appeal their assessments for 45 days after they receive their bills.
In Porter County, officials hope to have the bills in the mail Sept. 22.
In Lake County, the timeline remains sketchy.
Assessment data from Lake County was recently deemed acceptable by the DLGF, Musgrave said Thursday.
That means that unlike in a handful of other counties, Lake County's assessors will not be forced to redo their assessment work.
State officials are now awaiting a final piece of Lake County's assessment data, before trying to certify Lake County's 2007 budgets.
That process may take more than a month, though DLGF spokeswoman Mary Jane Michalak was optimistic the department will complete it in a shorter time.
"It's not like we have a bunch of budgets we're working on right now," Michalak said.
Once they have the budgets, local officials can set tax rates, print and mail out bills, a process which will take several more weeks.