The Indiana House of Representatives passed Governor Mitch Daniel property tax relief for homeowners. However, some slight modifications to HB 1001 were made by the legislators. Some of the modifications were targeted at seniors with fixed income, to rental property owners with an increase in the deduction on tax returns for low income families. Another amendment was to revise a provision allowing the state's oversight division for property taxes, the Department of Local Government Finance to ignore assessors' criminal behavior of failing to follow the rules in figuring the value of property. The old rule:
1. An individual assessment is deemed accurate if it is a reasonable measure of true tax value as defined in the reassessment manual;
2. A technical failure to comply with the procedures of a specific assessing method does not violate the assessment rule if the individual assessment is a reasonable measure of true tax value; and
3. Failure to comply with the reassessment guidelines does not, in itself, show that the assessment is not a reasonable measure of true tax value.
The changes offered under HB 1001 only requires that folks follow the rules, which is what homeowners have been screaming year after year when arguing the unfair assessment of their property, "under this proposal, the section of the assessment rule cited above would be voided and an assessment would be deemed an unreasonable measure of true tax value if there is a failure to comply with statutes, rules,
regulations, manuals, guidelines, bulletins, or directives adopted by the DLGF."
The HB 1001 failed to include criminal charges against assessors who fail to follow the rule which would be a deterrent to the over assessing of property by these incompetent and scheming officials.
There are other necessary amendments that needs to be included in the property tax relief, such as returning the undetermined amount of money that was stolen from churches that should have been exempt from taxation, or given an extension in filing for the exemption. Also, the 2% property tax such be reduced to 1% for this year because of the fraudulent assessment of many of the property under the flawed trending conducted by many of the assessing officials and ignored by the DLGF.
The bill now moves to the Indiana Senate for other amendments.
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I suppose this is progress, but we need to remain steadfast and make sure our legislators hear our voice. I stand with The Hoosier Property Tax Reform Alliance in demanding immediate and lasting change in Indiana’s property tax system.
ReplyDeleteI. I believe the state of Indiana needs meaningful reform to our property tax system.
II. I believe we need equitable, county-level assessments by trained, highly qualified property assessors.
III. I believe homeowners’ should have a reasonable expectation of their property tax bill and the assessment should be capped at 1% (one percent) of the property’s true value.
IV. I believe I have the right to hold my local government accountable for their spending.
V. I believe government should be transparent and taxpayers have a right be informed and have input into how their taxes are spent.
www.hoosierpropertytaxreform.com