A Northwest Indiana legislature’s plan to save Hoosier property owners from the burden of successfully filing tax bills year after year becomes law after nearly derailed in a firestorm of controversy earlier this month.
The House Enrolled Act 1166, sponsored by Rep. Ed Soliday, R-Valparaiso, prevents a district auditor from immediately completing a property tax assessment that the owner successfully challenged in the district or state assessment board’s Board of Appeal in the previous tax year.
“It’s a simple calculation that tries to say that if you want a vocation system, it should mean something,” Soliday said.
The legislation only applies to residential or commercial properties with an estimated value of $ 3 million or less. A successfully contested valuation can also be revised if structural, zonal or usage changes are made to the property or the property is sold.
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Otherwise, with the exception of inflation adjustments, the calculated value must remain at the post-challenge amount, even if there are still many years left in the four-year revaluation cycle.
“So if there is one more year left in the normal assessment cycle, that’s all you get. If there is four years, you get four years, ”said Soliday.
The move was backed by the Indiana Farm Bureau and numerous taxpayers who Soliday said shared their stories of spending thousands of dollars to successfully challenge a property tax assessment only to see it hit the higher the next year , controversial amount bounces back.
State Senator Karen Tallian, D-Ogden Dunes, who works as an attorney when she is away from the statehouse, said her clients received such increases, sometimes just months after winning their valuation challenge.
“I made these appeals. That’s exactly what happened to my customers, so I’ll vote yes, ”Tallian told the Senate Committee on Thursday.
State Senator Rick Niemeyer, R-Lowell, also believes the move is a “good plan to protect taxpayers.”
“I don’t think much happens in this state. I think the reviewers are doing their job. But it happens, ”said Niemeyer.
Soliday told the House Ways and Means Committee about a person to whom it happened, who was later identified as Chuck Williams.
Soliday said a parking lot owned by real estate developer Valparaiso was consistently valued at $ 30,000 until the valuation rose to $ 110,000 in 2016, prompting Williams to appeal.
According to Soliday, Williams reached an agreement with the Porter County’s appraiser on a valuation of $ 50,000 prior to the completion of the appeal process – “however, a month later it was revalued to $ 111,000”.
“All we want is fairness and we want a system that delivers it,” said Soliday.
That prospect worsened considerably, however, when an Indianapolis media company published an article on April 5 stating that something more nefarious was going on as Williams is treasurer of the Indiana Republican Party and a major donor to organizations that support the GOP -Candidates support.
It was threateningly advised that this was not Indiana’s property tax appeals, but rather a “story of a Republican legislature promoting laws that would benefit a high-ranking Republican Party official” and “a story of how sausage was in Indiana Statehouse is manufactured “.
In fact, the state campaigns financial records show that Williams has only donated a total of $ 1,108.54 directly to Soliday’s campaign committee since 2010.
The outlet also accused Soliday of filing for a tax credit on two homes at the same time, despite records showing that the additional credit was due to a mistake in the Porter County’s auditing office and that Soliday later repaid the difference.
“I’m not going to cheat $ 9,000 as a public figure, my God,” said Soliday.
However, the news article appears to have had its intended effect as it led the Senate Tax and Tax Policy Committee to scrap Soliday’s proposal and instead only seek advice on property tax assessments so Hoosiers can know they are in the Department of Local Unfair appraisers can complain about public finances.
Soliday described the news article and its aftermath as “brutal”. He accused Porter County Republican assessor Jon Snyder of causing trouble.
CL Williams and Companies attorney Brian Burdick also opposed the news report that Williams was trying to get a tax break for himself.
“I thought it was wrongly characterized by people as an individual problem for someone who is my customer. But it’s a lot wider than that, ”said Burdick. “It’s a systemic problem. It is abusive to the taxpayer. “
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In the end, Soliday said the need to protect taxpayers from unjustified tax hikes led him to keep working to restore key provisions of his original legislation and he had finally reached the dwindling hours of the 2021 General Assembly.
The move was approved by the Republican-controlled House between 68 and 29 and Thursday between 38 and 11 in the Republican-controlled Senate, just before state lawmakers adjourned their annual session until the fall.
Republican Governor Eric Holcomb is expected to sign the plan by the end of the month.
It comes into force for the tax year beginning January 1, 2022.
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