From the LaPorte Herald-Angus:
A new law aiming to speedup the property tax reconciliation process in La Porte County is already seeing some results in the county, county commissioner Ken Layton said.
The law, an amendment to Senate Enrolled Act (SEA) 19, came into effect last week when it was signed by Gov. Mitch Daniels.
Developed by Rep. Tom Dermody, R-La Porte, the law is designed to encourage county officials to fix the property tax issue in a timely manner or face penalties.
Dermody said the county won’t have to pay a penalty back to local units if property tax bills are sent out by Jan. 15, 2013.
“I feel good for the taxpayer of La Porte County and the local units of government,” Dermody said in a phone interview. “Hopefully this will be another incentive to get caught up and for businesses coming to La Porte to have accurate tax info. People want us creating jobs.”
If the deadline isn’t met, SEA 19 will require the county to pay $1 million to local units of government that took out loans for late and uncollected property taxes. If the bills are still not sent out by Feb. 28, the county will have to pay $4 million over a period of four years.
Layton said he is supportive of the bill, although he doesn’t agree with all its provisions.
“It has started things moving in the courthouse in an attempt to comply with the law that I haven’t seen in years,” he said. “I’m not in favor of the penalty phase. It’s asking the county to come up with a million dollars that I don’t know quite frankly how it’s going to come up with. We haven’t got any tax statements either.”
He said county commissioners (along with the county auditor, treasurer and assessor) met twice already with representatives from the state auditor’s office, the department of local government finance, the state board of accounts, the settlement deputy for the state of Indiana and the vendor of the county’s computer tax program.
A timeline to complete the process before the Jan. 13 deadline was developed as a result of the meeting.
Layton said he doesn’t expect the county to pay any of the penalties.
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The new law will also give the county council authority to allow taxpayers six months or more to send in their payments or set up a payment plan. Additionally, the county will be prohibited from placing a property on tax sale for at least one year after the payment deadline.
According to a press release from Dermody, the council will have the option of granting a tax credit of up to 2 percent of delayed property taxes if the taxes are paid within 30 days. To make payments easier, the county treasurer will be required to accommodate individuals using a debit or credit card.
Another measure in the legislation allows the county commissioners to remove the treasurer, auditor and assessor from the property tax collection process and appoint a ‘special master’ to handle the duties. The commissioners will directly oversee the person responsible for property tax collection.
http://heraldargus.com/articles/2012/04/01/news/local/doc4f765a6b1f4bd059128132.txt
