From the Lafayette Journal and Courier:
The buzz over a proposed annexation of West Lafayette’s Huntington Farms and Wake Robin neighborhoods will likely generate questions and comments at a special city council meeting Monday night.
The council will discuss the three ordinances that, if approved in two readings before the end of the year, will double the size of West Lafayette.
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Tim Deno, the president of the Huntington Farms homeowners association, said he’s hearing a lot of his neighbors discuss annexation.
“The two things are: What impact it has on our property taxes, and the change it would have with trash pickup,” he said.
Michael R. Shaver, an annexation consultant with Wabash Scientific Inc., said the notable change in property taxes will be the addition of the West Lafayette rate.
“This doesn’t take away from the county,” West Lafayette City Attorney Eric Burns said. “The county continues to get theirs. It doesn’t take away from the township, except for the fire protection rate. It doesn’t take away from the schools.”
Being annexed, for example, does not mean that those living in the area will pay for West Lafayette schools. They’re in Tippecanoe County Schools district, and they’ll stay in that district.
Property taxes are based on the assessed value of a house. The city has a calculator on its website that figures the increase in a homeowner’s property taxes. It can be found at http://westlafayette.in.gov/category/subcategory.php?fCS=1-29
Some who attended Thursday’s meeting challenged the reliability of the calculator, but Burns said it has been checked by two certified public accountants.
Based on that calculator, Burns said, the owner of a home with an assessed value of $300,000 and a homestead exemption will notice a $341 a year increase in the property tax bill. Strangely, with the tax caps, a person whose home has a $400,000 assessed value will see a $279 a year increase in property taxes.
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See the full article here:
http://www.jconline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2013305160047
