Comments on Advance Indiana™: Be Prepared: Marion County Property Tax Increases Worse Than Thought

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2008-01-16T20:56:00.000-05:00

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I don't feel badly about paying property taxes, I ...

2007-10-16T09:07:00.000-05:00

I don't feel badly about paying property taxes, I just want the assesors to do their jobs and not be lazy. I went down to the Franklin Township assesors office and had them explain the re-assesment to me. It just depends on which assesor you got for your neighborhood. All neighborhoods are assesed by the average home sales over a period of the last two years. Some neighborhoods are divided into 1 story under and over 1400 sq and then 2 story. My neighborhood is just divided into 1 and 2 story houses. My home is 1200 sq with a small yard setting between larger 1500 sq homes with fireplaces and out buildings and larger yards. SO my lazy assesor just lumped all the 1 story homes together and averaged the sales. That gives me grounds for an appeal but come on guys do your jobs

Thanks again Gary. It is time to demand audits of ...

2007-06-04T15:05:00.000-05:00

Thanks again Gary.

It is time to demand audits of government. If we are spending $10k to $14k per student, why aren't they getting the equivalent of a private school education for that money? That is more money than I paid to go to college.

With our county income tax likely doubling later this year too, the taxpayer is looking at a double whammy.

Local city government needs to undergo a complete audit too. Perhaps we could give merit increases to city councillors to get this done for the taxpayers. They could be paid a percentage based on tracking down where all the government waste is.

I'm sick of footing the bill for government incompetence.

P.s. It's hilarious how you have to audit Wilson.

What a novel idea. Elliminate the need for servic...

2007-06-03T20:21:00.000-05:00

What a novel idea. Elliminate the need for services in Indiana by forcing the residents to leave, thus decreasing the need for future tax dollars and returning the land to the now profitable business of corn production.

These discussions give far too little focus to sch...

2007-06-03T11:40:00.000-05:00

These discussions give far too little focus to school spending. People seem to realize that schools take up about half our property tax bills, and yet, the property tax complaints continue to focus on the Council, the library board and others who definitely deserve some blame, but less so than the schools.

Wake up people. IPS now spends over $14,000 per student per year. The townships are all over $10,000 per student per year. And all of them - every single one - is planning to spend more through additional bonding.

Meanwhile, nobody played a greater hand in derailing genuine property tax reform than the combined efforts of the ISTA teachers union and the various administrator groups/lobbyists who represent your local superintendents, principals and school board members.

Generally, government gives us what we deserve. And as long as we continue to ignore the real elephants in this room, then we will get more and more of the crap that we have been getting.

So get out those checkbooks, folks. Or maybe, just maybe, you ought to spend more time talking about schools.

I appealed last time and prevailed in a older nort...

2007-06-02T15:45:00.000-05:00

I appealed last time and prevailed in a older north side home. Brick, slate roof, etc. Got both the neighborhood factor and the quality factor reduced. Lots of errors in the Washington Township assessor records regarding homes in our neighborhood.

Who would have guessed Wilson could be both euphon...

2007-06-02T15:40:00.000-05:00

Who would have guessed Wilson could be both euphonious and alliterative in the same post.

Bravo.

2007-06-02T15:23:00.000-05:00

This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

Ignore Wilson.

2007-06-02T14:44:00.000-05:00

Ignore Wilson.

2007-06-02T13:59:00.000-05:00

This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

Well, your first problem was building new in Pike,...

2007-06-02T12:28:00.000-05:00

Well, your first problem was building new in Pike, but I digress...their school system is drunken sailors with tax dollars, and frankly, you haven't been getting your money's worth for about 25 years from that system. And no hope in sight.

It is not the legislature's job to assess property taxes, so it isn't their job to "relieve" us of the property tax budren.

It's their job to establish a stautory system for assessment of property taxes. They're frankly not bright enough to do much else, so I'd appreciate it if they'd quit medlding. It only masques the problem--big spending.

We need to direct the ire at the decision makers: school boards, city council, multiple autunomous local towns, stupid and duplitictous township government, library board,--who appropriate these taxes.

Assessors merely calculate and send those results to the treasurer, who applies the approved budgets to the assessment work.

Until we spend less, we'll have to raise more. Simple math.

It is somewhat complicated, given the legislature has been messing around the edges since Gov. Bowen's ridiculous 1973 tax package. That legislative slight-of-hand doubled the sales tax, and gave some of those proceeds back to local governments as "Property Tax Relief." It's a sugar teat which this gutless legislature hasn't had the courage to shake since.

I'm so sick of units of government dodging their responsiblities, and trying to fix problems that aren't theirs.

Over decades, it leads to chaos, which is what we have now. And, more often tha tnot, no lower taxes, and less govt. services.

We need the legal equivalent of an "all clear" from this situation:

Legislators: stop quick fixes which only encourage the habit.

Local units of government: Spend less. Eliminate township government. (Yeah, Wilson, it isn't much, but it's stupid and wasteful)

Citizens: Demand that every level of government do its job, and ONLY its job. Don't hold legislators accountable for property tax increases.

And I promise I won't hold legislators acocuntable for poor city streets.

Gotta run...I need to yell at my butcher for my clogged sink. Somehow I'm sure he's responsible.

I built a new house in Pike in 1999. After the fir...

2007-06-02T09:32:00.000-05:00

I built a new house in Pike in 1999. After the first assessment my taxes went up 200 per month. After my second assesment it went up another 200 per month. God knows how much it will go up again !