The Department of Local Government Finance has cited the assessment work in Tippecanoe County as “outstanding.” That might explain why I’ve been more detached in my blogging about the property tax issue. It’s a lot tougher to remain calm when it’s *your* house burning.
State officials found no reason to order a reassessment in Tippecanoe County. Also earning that distinction were Dubois, Hamilton, Hendricks and Washington counties.
Lesley Stedman Weidenbener has an article on the “model assessing” done in Washington and Dubois Counties.
In a related matter, her article shed light on something that had been confusing me. The General Assembly had passed legislation this year allowing an increase of county income taxes for 3 purposes – #1 capping growth of property taxes; #2 providing relief for existing property taxes; and #3 public safety. But, you couldn’t do #3 without first doing #1 & #2. According to Ms. Weidenbener’s article, Marion County was given special dispensation to raise the public safety income tax if they only did one of the first two. Advance Indiana did a good job of covering the Marion County income tax debate, but I couldn’t figure out under what authority Marion County was raising the public safety tax since I was unaware that Marion County had received special treatment by the legislature.
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