"As the La Porte County auditor, I have always tried to put the interest of the citizens first. I knew when I ran for this office that the county had serious tax problems. I have been working, along with the treasurer, assessor and the DLGF (Department of Local Government Finance) to get La Porte County back on track. This has not been an easy job, with everyone’s help, we are close to an end. I am not saying that we won’t have bumps in the road ahead, but we are moving forward.
Our previous assessor, Carol McDaniel, chose the Nexus Group to perform assessments. The Nexus Group had been approved by the list generated by the DLGF. After complaints from angry citizens, trustee-assessors, realtors, appraisers and county officials concerning property values being wrong, the DLGF commissioner, Cheryl Musgrave, ordered La Porte County to do a full reassessment. We had no choice but to comply with the DLGF’s order.
If any other of the 91 counties would have been given this order, they would be as far behind as we are. I don’t believe the DLGF realized how damaging this order was.
Once we fell behind, there wasn’t any urgency for the state to get to our work; we were told it was more important to focus on the other counties so they could stay current. People do not know all the problems the current officeholders have faced.
At the insistence of our previous assessor, Carol McDaniel, the Nexus Group continued assessing our properties and we continued to decline into the depths that we now reside. The state and the DLGF need to accept part of the responsibility for our predicament because Nexus was on the state’s approved list.
I did not take office until January 2009. Right about this time, there were three lawsuits filed that stopped the whole process from moving forward. The judge felt that these lawsuits had merit and recognized that the government agencies and the assessing company had made numerous mistakes.
Former Mayor Chroback and Rep. Scott Pelath met with DLGF officials several times asking for assistance, to no avail. When Republican Mayor Milo took office, Rep. Tom Dermody sponsored a bill down state within two months to end La Porte County’s tax problems. If we are going to place blame, then I say let’s share the blame among all the players, not just a select few.
Since I have been in office, there has not been a day that this problem hasn’t taken center stage in one form or another. Our new assessor, Mike Shultz’s office staff, is working with our new assessing firm Tyler Technologies to perform work that is no longer being questioned.
Tyler Technologies hired La Porte County residents to do “boots to the ground” assessing, going door to door, and visually assessing property. The office holders and staff have not been idly sitting around. We have been doing our daily work plus getting two tax bills out per year, which is quite an accomplishment. It is not for the lack of trying that we are behind."
http://heraldargus.com/articles/2012/04/18/news/opinion/local_guest_editorials/doc4f8cd8454542c709066144.txt
