From the LaPorte Herald-Angus:
“Until I’m panicking, don’t worry about it. We’ve got it under control.”
That’s what La Porte County Assessor Mike Schultz had to say about the current tax situation.
He spoke to commissioners and the public at the La Porte County Commissioners meeting Tuesday night to give an update on the county properties from the assessor’s point of view that mostly concerned appeals.
The deadline for appeals is Dec. 31 at 4 p.m. Taxpayers can hand-deliver, mail or email their appeal as long as there is some documentation that the appeal arrived before or on Dec. 31. According to Schultz, this is the first time they have sent out a Form 11 in many years. The Form 11 is the only document taxpayers may use to appeal their assessment and the taxpayer has 45 days to make an appeal after receiving the form.
In January, when taxpayers receive their next bills, they cannot appeal their assessment. The only exceptions include, as Schultz stated, “If we still have too many bathrooms, the basement is unfinished but if you are just appealing this strict value without any objective changes, you can’t appeal that.”
Schultz discussed the tax situation with other counties and stated that La Porte County is going through the same process other counties dealt with in 2006. He said eventually they had to put their cards out on the table and deal with the problem.
“And, as of today, on the county level, I think we have about 1,200 appeals,” Schultz said. “I’m told if we come in under 10 percent, which would be 6,800 appeals, then we are doing OK.”
He said some of the public and real estate experts may be confused because the assessing is based on a mass appraisal, which would most likely get 80 to 90 percent correct. Schultz explained if he had been given a day or two for each appraisal, which is the average amount of time spent to have an appraisal, he could have each parcel exactly where it needs to be in 68,000 days.
“But we don’t have that luxury,” Schultz said. “At times it gets stressful but we’re plugging along and I think we are making pretty good headway of getting this done.”
Schultz and his team of assessors have found some glitches. For example, a formula put in place to calculate the number of bathrooms in a parcel based on the number of square feet of the building. Each bathroom assessed to a value of $1,200 to $1,400 to the total assessment may seem like a lot, but, Schultz said, it would be about a $10 difference on your tax bill.
“That was just something because they couldn’t get into every home,” Schultz said. “They just plugged that formula in but those are easy corrections.”
As for when the next tax bills will be sent out, the county will meet the deadline and will not have to pay the $1 million fine. Schultz predicts the bill will be sent out on the first or second week of January. Taxpayers will have six months to pay the bill coming out next month.
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http://www.heraldargus.com/articles/2012/12/06/news/local/doc50c0baf94c7c6052347875.txt
