Wednesday, March 28, 2007

Fort Wayne seeking property tax release

Senate bill by Thomas Wyss is requesting to designate certain areas in Senate bill 369 as housing maintenance areas. Fort Wayne's bi-partisan coalition zoing body, have their fingers crossed that this bill after being revised over at least for time with pass the senate.


Summary of Legislation: This bill allows a municipal legislative body to designate an area within the municipality as a housing maintenance area. It provides that the total territory of all housing maintenance areas in a municipality may not exceed 5% of the territory of the municipality. The bill provides that a person that makes certain maintenance expenditures on qualified residential property in a housing maintenance area is entitled to a credit against municipal property taxes.


This bill provides that the maintenance expenditures are eligible for the credit only if they are paid to a contractor licensed by the municipality. It provides that the credit equals the result of: (1) 50% of the amount of the person's maintenance expenditures; divided by (2) the number of years for which the person may claim
the credit and provides that the credit may not exceed 50% of the person's municipal property tax liability.

The bill requires an ordinance designating a housing maintenance area to specify: (1) the categories of residential property that are eligible for the credit; (2) the number of years for which a taxpayer may claim the credit (not to exceed ten years); (3) the municipal department responsible for administering the credit;
(4) any limits on the eligibility of a person to claim a credit because of unsafe building violations or health and safety violations; and (5) the types of maintenance for which a credit may be claimed.

This bill would be effective in January 2008.

No comments:

Post a Comment