Legislative Update - March 17, 2008

Last week, the legislature passed House Enrolled Act 1001, a comprehensive property tax bill designed to provide relief to Hoosier property taxpayers. Included in that bill are drastic changes to Indiana’s assessment system, most notable of these being the transfer of assessing duties to county assessors.

Under the bill, in townships with less than 15,000 real property parcels, assessing duties will be transferred from township assessors and trustee-assessors to county assessors. In townships with 15,000 or more real property parcels, a referendum will be held this November to determine whether to transfer assessing duties in those townships to the county assessor.

It is unfortunate that the assessing issue was included in the same bill as the property tax relief provisions. The ITA feels that, had legislators been given the opportunity to vote only on the assessing issue, they would have voted for maintaining a resource for their constituents in their townships. We believe that we exhausted all avenues to defeat this part of the bill, but sadly, a deal was made during conference committee and many of our “friends” were forced to vote “yes” for the tax relief provided for in the same bill.

We are still reviewing the 650+ page bill to determine exactly how this transition is supposed to take place- this bill was largely agreed upon behind closed doors and was passed before the public had an opportunity to fully review it. In addition, we are also communicating with the Department of Local Government Finance to obtain answers on some of the finer details. In the meantime, here are some related provisions contained in the legislation:

- Township trustee-assessors will continue to perform their trustee duties. This bill only transfers the assessing duties to the county assessors.

- The transfer of assessing duties takes effect July 1st of this year.

- The bill requires township assessors and trustee-assessors to assist and coordinate with the county assessors in the transition. Township assessing officials must organize and transfer their records to the county assessors as directed by DLGF. The DLGF is required to determine a procedure and schedule for the transfer.

- Before July 1st, county assessors shall interview or give the opportunity to interview township assessors, trustee-assessors and their employees.

- After June 30, 2009, an employee of the county assessor who performs real property assessing duties must have attained the same level of certification as required of county assessors (County assessors running in an election after June 30, 2008 are required to have Level 2, and in elections after January 1, 2012 are required to have a Level 3).

- The county assessor is given the authority to establish satellite offices throughout the county.

Nothing is specifically mentioned in this bill regarding salaries. Because the county assessor will assume assessing duties as of July 1st but the township assessors and trustee-assessors will assist in that transfer beyond that date, it is likely that township officials will receive a reduced compensation from the county fiscal bodies until the transfer is complete, subject to the county fiscal body’s discretion. However, that may change after more direction is given by DLGF.

As more information comes to us, we will let you know. A more comprehensive report will be posted once we have a chance to digest the bill.