From the Evansville Courier & Press:
The county this month sent out notices to property owners who will pay higher taxes this year.
Twice per decade the county completes countywide reassessments on every property. That assessment determines the amount the owner will pay in bi-annual property taxes, May 10 and Nov. 12.
It’s an assessment year.
Only property owners whose assessed values have increased are sent notices. If you got one of those notices, you have until April 15 to appeal the county’s ruling. Property owners who did not receive a notice — which means their assessed values either remained the same or decreased — also can appeal the ruling once tax statements are sent in early April, Chief Deputy Assessor Cindy Vaught said. Tax statements are already posted online at www.vanderburghgov.org.
Overall, assessments across the county decreased this year, Vaught said — although certain neighborhoods did increase.
“Some neighborhoods increased more than others,” Vaught said. “If you’re on the south side in a dilapidated house, your assessed value probably went down. But if you’re in an area that is more in demand, you may have gone up.”
Because overall assessments decreased this year, property tax rates have all gone up, said County Auditor Joe Gries.
The state of Indiana sets the tax rate to meet local government budgets.
The county auditor’s office totals all the assessments, then subtracts all tax deductions and exemptions, said Vanderburgh County Auditor Joe Gries.
“We turn into the state the net assessed evaluation,” Gries said. “Once we give that to the state, and they have everybody’s budget information, the state actually creates those tax rates.”
However, property tax caps have cut into the budgets of each taxing unit, Gries said. Since the state of Indiana placed caps on property taxes in 2010 — capping residential property tax at one percent, agricultural property at two percent and commercial property at three percent — the various taxing units in Vanderburgh County lost $10.5 million in tax revenue in 2012, Gries said. The county anticipates it will lose $22.5 million in 2013.
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See the full article here:
http://www.courierpress.com/news/2013/mar/30/no-headline---property_assessments/
