It seems so long ago when Allen County first increased the resident tax bill. But, it was back in 2002. Back than the elected and appointed officials tried to hide the fact that they were taking advantage of the taxpayer under the mandate for properly assessing property.
Bills were delayed, provisional bills were sent out, informal minor readjustment to folks properties assessments, and so called computer glitches. Over 2000 homes just in Wayne Township taxes were reconfigured, saving these taxpayer over $30 million. Wayne Township makes up around 49,000 parcels out of the 153,000 parcels taxed in Allen County.
$30 million is a lot of money, but it pales when compared to the amount officials collected in the overall over assessment of properties in Allen County. Over 4700 official property assessment appeals were filed back in the 2002 reassessment that carried over into 2004. The residents will never know the true number of appeals of Allen County properties because many folks were made deals off record by assessing officials. After surviving the provisional bill a little over a hundred appeals were filed, and the damage of misinformation had been planted.
By 2005, the folks of Allen County had been beaten into submission. It appeared that taxpayers could not figure out just how to appeal their property taxes or how to fight city hall at the same time. Taxpayers would only filed 834 offical property assessment appeals, according to Ryan Keuneke, Allen County Chief Deputy assessor of the Allen County Assessor Office. Keuneke received his level II certified assessor-appraiser license in May, 2007, according to the certificate on the wall of the assessor office.
Nevertheless, elected and appointed officials would be inspired by the apathy of the taxpayers who had been beaten into submission to collect even more revenue from the taxpayers under the new annual trending of property in the State of Indiana.
These are the same folks who are working on the budget.
With trending local assessing officials decided that they would not just trend property values that increased in neighborhoods with new construction, improvements or sales. Local officials would increase has many deep pocket residents and low value properties under the trending process. The taxpayer would not be any wiser.
Over 5,369 official property appeals have been filed as of August 13, 2007. This number will increase because the deadline for filing is September 4, 2007. But, the number of official appeals will not truly reflect how many folks who have challenged their property assessment.
According to an article in the Journal Gazette, About half of her appeals have been resloved, she said, the she being the the Aboite Township Assessor Caroly Berghorn. The July 24, 2007 article stated, "most of the 457 appeals filed in her township were residential properties.." And the article stated, "Berhorn said she typically reduces the property values if the owner can provide sufficient evidence." But it says nothing about these 12 perrcent going before the PTBOA.
The State is aware of the hook or by crook methods of local official and a new requirement is that every appeal go before the Property Board of Appeal, but guess what they are not. Local officials do not like the State having oversight over their cities and towns. Deals are still being made over the counter in the assessing offices, to hide the fact that trending was not properly conducted in Allen County.
If every appeal went before the PTBOA the State of Indiana would have a more accurate record of the erroneous assessment in Allen County. Including the fact that an accurate count of assessment would throw Allen County into an automatic reassessment. Plus if folks get their property below the 2002 assessed value they can request a refund of taxes collected in 2004 and 2005. But many folks have lost their money from the over assessment of properties that started back in 2002, as contribution to local officials who lied to it constituents.
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