TAXES, BUDGET CUTS & LAKE COUNTY

The Legislative Services Agency projects that the 2009 Lake County Government General Fund must be 10.5 Million less than 2008. And since 1998 there has been an 83% increase in property taxes to defray the cost of county government. This went for increases in the number of employees, employee benefits, and inflation. Each month, after the budget, additional funding is requested.

In 2007 the Lake County Government Tax Levy Apportionment amounted to $127,685,000.

Here's a breakdown of where the money goes:

Administration-6.28% $ 8,020,000
State Regulated-6.06% $ 7,740,000
Parks-5.87% $ 7,500,000
Reassessment-Assessors-5.43% $ 6,930,000
Infrastructure-3.47% $ 4,425,000
Criminal Justice-72.89% $93,070,000

Almost 73% of the county's budget goes to the Criminal Justice Departments which include the Sheriff, Prosecutor, Clerk and Courts. Full-time employees in those departments have increased from 30.89% in 1970 to 67.97% in 2003; an increase of 100%. Since the Criminal Justice Departments make up over 70% of the county's budget, these departments can afford to make larger cuts in their budgets.

The county must make a 15% reduction in its general fund in 2009. It's no longer if the county wants to, it's they have to. Elected officials and department heads can no longer submit unrealistic budgets. They must make concrete cuts as well as provide a plan showing where these cost reductions are to be made. Christine Cid, President of the Lake County Council, has already said if elected officials and department heads do not make reductions in their budgets, the county council will do it for them.

The County Finance Committee is not advocating a LOIT (local option income tax). By achieving an overall 15% reduction in the county's general fund, the budget shortfall can be eliminated.

Members of the County Finance Committee are:
Larry Blanchard
Ted Bilski
Christine Cid
Roosevelt Allen
Peggy Holinga-Katona
John Petalas

Contact them and let them know you support fiscal responsibility on the county's part.

VOTE "YES" TO ELIMINATE TOWNSHIP ASSESSORS

Voters in 43 townships spread across 22 counties willdecide in a Nov. 4 referendum if they want to shift assessment duties from their township assessors to their respective county assessors.

The ballot question reads:

Should the assessing duties of the elected townshipassessor in the township be transferred to the county assessor?

MySmartgov.org says “yes,” and urges you to vote “yes”Nov. 4.

Until recently, property in Indiana was assessed by1,008 township assessors in 1,008 different ways. Some assessors’ work may have been impeccable, but the taxpayers in their townships still may have been paying more than their fair share of taxes because of the less competent job by an assessor down the road.

In fact, a 2005 study by the Indiana Fiscal Policy Institute found that 80 percent of the townships did not meet international standards for uniformity. The assessments were well outside the accepted error rate of plus or minus 15 percent – that is, international standards say it is acceptable for a $100,000 house to be assessed anywhere from $85,000 to $115,000.

The error rate in Indiana was 35 percent. In other words, houses that would sell for $100,000 were assessed for tax purposes anywhere from $65,000 to $135,000.

A more recent sampling compared two houses across the street from each other. House A sold in July 2006 for $101,000. House B sold four months later, in November 2006, for $99,900 -- $1,100 less. Yet 2006 taxes, payable in 2007, on House A were $1,467, while those on House B were $2,222 – 51 percent higher. Still another house in the same township sold for $102,000 in May 2006 and was taxed that year, payable in 2007, at $1,166 a year – a 91 percent discount compared to taxes on House B.

The institute’s study – like so many before –illuminated problems that leaders across Indiana have known for years existed. Their questions about the number of assessors – then called “listers” – almost as soon as the system was devised nearly 200 years ago. And there have been question and studies and reform efforts since then.

Still, not much changed.

In spring 2007, Gov. Mitch Daniels asked a group of leaders from across the state to study the issue. The Indiana Commission on Local Government Reform, led by former Gov. Joe Kernan and Chief Justice Randall Shepard of the Indiana Supreme Court, issued a report in December 2007 that advanced 27 specific recommendations for streamlining local government. One recommendation was to shift assessing duties from thetownships to the counties.

The 2008 General Assembly enacted several reforms recommended by the Kernan-Shepard Commission, as it came to be known. Among other things, lawmakers shifted assessing duties in 965 townships to their respective counties. That law went into effect July 1,2008.

But the legislature decided that voters in the largest townships – those with 15,000 or more parcels of property – should decide the issue for themselves in a referendum that would be held in concert with the Nov.4 election.

MySmartgov.org is organizing a grass-roots effort to persuade voters to vote “yes” on the township assessors’ ballot question. After Nov. 4, the organization will continue its drive to find individual Hoosiers and civic organizations who are interested in common-sense government and who will urge their legislators to enact the rest of the Kernan-Shepard recommendations.

Did You Know?

Property taxpayers in Allen, Vanderburgh, and Vigo counties filed more appeals to their assessments in 2007 than in 2003, after the first market value reassessment. Taxpayers filed 72% more. If the assessment quality is improving, why are there more and not fewer appeals?

THE TOWNSHIP ASSESSORS' REFERENDUM VOTE

Incumbent Assessor’s in St. John, North, Calumet, Ross, Hobart, and Center Townships will face the voters next Tuesday to confront their futures. Voters in these urban or semi urban townships of more than 15,000 parcels will decide whether the township assessor duties will continue to be to be performed by their respective elected township assessors, or will they revert to the county assessor as in 1008 other Indiana townships. This is truly the first step to the elimination of the antiquated township government system.

Affected incumbent assessors have begun their advertising spin, touting the unexcelled job they think they do for the taxpayers. Much of what is promoted is pure rhetoric; ignoring the facts that should be considered; and personalizing the choice to their townships. Many pray the public will be too ignorant to employ the facts. In general, this promotion of township assessors ignores the fact that this could be a one-time, forever decision; there is currently no provision to reconsider this issue in the future.

All Township assessors and their staffs are funded from the County budget, not a township’s. If they are grossly inefficient, they go to the county for a supplement. While a few rural county assessor’s have traditionally been very effective, their jobs are already gone. Some of their staff’s are assumed by the County Assessor to pick up his extra workload. This will also happen after the referendum for those townships voting against their township assessor.

Since all township assessor’s staffs are funded by the county it would seem appropriate that the decision will be county wide. The intelligent voters of St. John Township might choose to delete the very effective Hank Adams, while the less educated voters of Calumet Township might choose to retain Booker Blumenfeld, the least efficient assessor in Indiana. If this referendum were a county wide decision at least we would throw out the bad with the good.

Let’s review a few facts on township assessors:

Township # of staff
North 21
Calumet 32
St. John 16
Winfield 1 Full-time & 2 Part-time
Center 6

Winfield township (who now has no assessor) processed only 20 fewer assessment transactions than Calumet. Compare the staffing!

Center township now accounts for 18% (200M) of total Lake County Assessed value; St. John Township 40%. (this is an imperfect evaluation e.g.: Hammond’s assessed valuation went up 9% with one assessment {Horseshoe}).
Form 11’s are the “Annual adjustment of assessed evaluation”: they are the backbone of an assessor’s job. In 2006 the cost to prepare a form 11 in St. John Township was $6.80, while the cost in Calumet Township was $211.00.
Last year Republican Hank Adams (St. John Township) requested a supplement of $16,000 for additional postage for Form 11’s. Calumet Township requested $98,000 for overtime to do the same job. The County Council cut Hank’s request in half, while reducing Calumet Township’s by $10,000.

Each township assessor appoints a “Chief Deputy”, this is the unelected, certified, specialist who actually runs the assessor’s office. Ross township’s deputy makes half of what Calumet Township’s does.

If the aggregate reduction in assessor staff positions resulting from elimination of township assessors was a mere 25 positions the savings would be half a million dollars.

This decision is in your hands.