Township Assessors' Jobs in Hands of Voters

(posted Oct 12)

The fate of Marion County's eight township assessors is dependent on whether voters vote no on referendum 1 to retain their assessors. A yes vote transfers their jobs to the county assessor. Ending the township assessor position is another step in consolidation.

Marion County Assessor Greg Bowes and Wayne Township Assessor Mike McCormack each made 20 minute presentations on referendum 1 at the Oct 8 Pike Township Resident's Association meeting.

Not all of the audience members were convinced that transferring the township assessor's powers will solve the assessment problems.

Although the county assessor has not actually appraised property, Bowes noted the township assessors' skills were at the heart of the lack of uniformity in assessments. "We have nine township assessors that have different skill levels that come to table with different educations and different prior experiences." He also blamed nine different management styles as a factor in the inequities.

Wayne Township Assessor Mike McCormack said his office often relies on the International Association of Assessing Officers (IAAO) instead of the Department of Local Government Finance for appraisal guidance because of DLFG's inconsistencies. He said the consolidation will not save money nor make the appraisal process more efficient. The township assessors were blamed for under assessing commercial and industrial properties that resulted in the increase in residential property taxes.

McCormack explained the difference in assessments among like properties is often based on the exemptions the owner is allowed to claim. He said that people are often not complaining about the assessment, but how much they were paying. "We do our work. There are two reviews before it gets certified. One by the county assessor, who has the right to do an equalization if he sees a problem to correct it." Then it is reviewed by the DLGF. "If you didn't have all of those people in the governor's front lawn, do you think you would have had reassessment in this county. No!"

He said the reassessment that was done by an outside vendor was not without errors. He said so far 37 appeals from Manatron's reassessment has returned about $41.1 million in assessed value to the taxpayers. He said the company has under assessed Wayne Township by $1.5 million.

Bowes said 78 percent of taxpayers are happy with what was done by Manatron. He acknowledged that whenever the county gives money back, it does hurt the budget, but he doesn't expect more than six percent of the 340,000 parcels to appeal. The number now is about 4.5 percent. Allison Transmission filed a tax appeal May 8.

State Representative Phil Hinkle wanted to know the assessed value of parcels being appealed and not the percentage, but Bowes said he did not know because to file an appeal only requires a name, address and parcel number, without citing a estimated value of the property.

Retired CPA Dee Saul said the residential assessments use 1999 construction cost tables, while Manatron used commercial assessments based on 2005 construction costs as prescribed by the DLGF. He said that led to the 21% appeal rate for commercial properties because it created inequities. He said the IAAO requires current construction costs, but it is being ignored. Saul expressed his concern that a high rate of tax appeals would cause the county's 67 budget units to have shortfalls.

Mary Jane Michalak, Director of Communications for the DLGF, said "it is true that the 2002 General Reassessment Guidelines contain cost information as of January 1, 1999, meaning that the 1999 cost tables are still being utilized until the 2011 General Reassessment. However, through the application of the neighborhood/annual adjustment factor, the costs are updated to reflect the current valuation date. In other words, the 1999 costs are to be "trended" per the Annual Adjustment rule, 50 IAC 21, to reflect the values based on the assessment year. For example, a Jan 1, 2006 valuation date for March 1, 2007 assessments pay-2008."

Bowes said that is the reason why we need one county assessor to read the rules one way, instead of nine different ways by different township assessors. He also noted five reasons why the tax bills "exploded" that had nothing to do with assessments. He blamed ending the inventory tax, a 50% increase child welfare tax, changing the property tax replacement credit, lowering the homestead credit and a 10% increase in county spending.