Porter County taxpayers who appealed their most recent assessments might get some or all of the relief they’re seeking when the county issues the next round of property tax bills for 2009.

But be forewarned: There’s a chance that some successful appeals won’t be reflected until tax bills are issued in 2010, due to the timing involved and the work that goes into preparing tax bills.

Monday was the deadline for property owners to appeal their most recent assessments. An estimated 1,200 appeals were filed, said Porter County Assessor John Scott.

Scott predicted that most of the appeals will be resolved quickly. But he also said it’s too early to know for sure how many of the new and, presumably, lowered values as a result of successful appeals will be reflected on the upcoming 2009 tax bills, saying that it’s “very possible” that some of the new values won’t show up until the 2010 tax bills.

The likelihood of that could be even greater if the appeal deadline is extended. An amendment proposed by Sen. Luke Kenley to H.B. 1471 would allow Porter County’s appeal deadline for the ‘07 assessments on the ‘08 tax bills to be extended to July 1.

Before the 2009 tax bills can be issued, the assessor’s office must “roll” all of the updated assessment data to the auditor’s office, which then has to apply the appropriate deductions before the net assessed values can be certified and the tax rates set.

Indiana Department of Local Government Finance Communication Specialist Amanda Stanley said there is no statutory deadline for appeals to be resolved, and that it’s up to county assessors and auditors to determine the cut off for the new values before the auditor certifies the net assessed value, which is a crucial number needed to set tax rates.

However, she also said that if a taxpayer wins an appeal after the tax bills are issued, the taxpayer can present the new assessment to the county auditor and treasurer, who in turn can issue a new tax bill reflecting the lower value.

Porter County officials have made it clear that, after two years of not issuing tax bills on time, they desperately want the process to get back on track. The 2008 bills were due on Monday of this week. County officials have recently installed a new tax software system to be used for the next round of tax bills, and the latest projection is that the ‘09 bills would go out sometime in mid to late summer.

But before the 2009 tax bill work can get underway in earnest, the county assessor’s office must submit a revised ratio study to the DLGF by June 1. That order was included in the DLGF’s recent review of Porter County’s assessment data, in which the state found omitted or under-assessed residential areas, particularly in the Shorewood Forest community west of Valparaiso.

Scott said he believes that new ratio study will be submitted sometime in mid-May. He went to the Shorewood Forest community on Tuesday, and he said agrees with the DLGF that errors were made in the original assessments. But he also said that these errors appear easy to correct.

If the DLGF finds that the new ratio study is in order, the county’s tax bill process would continue. But if the ratio study is not satisfactory, then the DLGF will re-do the trending, or the annual adjustments of property values. If the DLGF orders a new trending, the 2009 tax bills could be delayed further.

So at the same time that the assessor’s office works to submit a revised ratio study, it will also wade through the approximately 1,200 tax appeals.

Scott said two hearing officers will handle the appeals, one for residential properties and the other for commercial and industrial. The residential hearing officer will be someone from the assessor’s staff, while a contractor will be retained to handle the commercial parcels, he said.

Scott predicted that the hearing officers will likely resolve 80 percent of the appeals. The appeals were expected to get underway today.

The hearing officers’ determination will then be forwarded to the Porter County Tax Assessment Board of Appeals, which will also hear the appeals still under dispute. Appeals not resolved at that level can then be appealed to the state level.

Scott said it’s too early to predict how long it will take his office to get through all the appeals. On the one hand, he credited his “extremely talented” staff for being able to process the work efficiently. On the other hand, he noted that the PTABOA Board probably can handle only about six or seven appeals each day that it meets.

Stanley said new values determined by the appeals do not have to be reflected in the revised ratio study that’s due June 1, since that study uses a mass appraisal approach while the appeals reflect individual values. In other words, new values can appear in the next net assessed value figures certified by the auditor’s office, even if the appeals aren’t settled by the June 1 deadline.

As for the state’s order that his office resubmit the ratio study, Scott said he has no problems with the DLGF’s findings and generally found the state’s report satisfactory. Noting that the assessments in question were done before his county office assumed the duties of most township assessors, Scott said it was known that some areas, particularly in downtown Valparaiso, had been under-assessed. “We knew there would be a day of reckoning,” he said of the needed corrections.

Posted 4/16/2009