NBC 2 began investigating complaints of political payback after this year's property assessments came out in January. The more we dig into the assessment process in Indiana, the more it seems like there are no requirements or accountability.
We went to Indianapolis to visit DLGF - the state agency responsible for overseeing property assessments. During our interview, a state official admitted there are no requirements or accountability for assessing.
Our investigation is eliciting calls for change as politicians demand answers and push for new laws, as you'll see in the video report.
...
We showed the questionable assessments to Terre Haute's Harrison Township Assessor Mick Love. He reviewed the numbers and gave us this written explanation:
Per your request I have reviewed the two properties in question.
Although the two houses are in two different neighborhoods, and miles apart, one house went down in value and one house went up.
House # 1 dropped in value $96,600.00. House #2 went up in value $ 21,400.00. I compared each house from 2011 and 2012 values and each house received approximately the same amount of adjustments.
House #1 received 28% adjustments and House #2 received 27% adjustments. House #1 is considerably of more value than of house #2. The only difference of the two houses is the land value going up considerably on house #2.
All of the changes in assessment are due to the new cost tables, new values, new location multiplier and new depreciation tables supplied by the state of Indiana.
After reviewing both properties they appear to be correct.
If you have any further questions please don't hesitate to contact me.
Sincerely,
Mick
...
More than two months after our interview, the governor's office sent us this email response after looking into the state agency that oversees property assessments in Indiana - DLGF:
"The Department of Local Government Finance has not received complaints about over-assessments in Vigo County. Further, DLGF's annual overview of the statistical analysis of market value assessments in Vigo County shows that the analysis falls within state standards."
"The Department of Local Government Finance has not received complaints about over-assessments in Vigo County. Further, DLGF's annual overview of the statistical analysis of market value assessments in Vigo County shows that the analysis falls within state standards."
...
