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Sunday, June 15, 2008

Ind. Gov't. - "Department of Local Government Finance at the center of property tax upheaval"

That is the headline to this long and fascinating opinion piece today in the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette, written by Karen Francisco. Just a sample:

One of the agency’s highest-profile missteps was on display last week, when the commissioner backed off on a proposed assessment rule change that local officials said would have shifted the property tax burden from businesses to homeowners. Earlier, in proposing the change and in determining there would be no financial impact, the agency had not relied on data, studies or analyses.

So assessing officials were in an uproar when Allen County Assessor Stacey O’Day produced data to the contrary: The DLGF proposal would decrease the county’s assessed valuation by $219 million.

Musgrave, commissioner since last July, told The Journal Gazette’s Niki Kelly that the change was “the right move, but this might not be the right time.”

Here is the Kelly story referenced, from June 8th, headed "Change in assessment abandoned."

Posted by Marcia Oddi on June 15, 2008 01:28 PM
Posted to Indiana Government