Tuesday, May 11, 2010

“Property owners line up to pay tax bills: Spring bills were out in St. Joe County for the first time in several years.” plus 3 more

“Property owners line up to pay tax bills: Spring bills were out in St. Joe County for the first time in several years.” plus 3 more

Property owners line up to pay tax bills: Spring bills were out in St. Joe County for the first time in several years.

Posted: 11 May 2010 03:59 AM PDT

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Spring bills were out in St. Joe County for the first time in several years.

By ERIN BLASKO
Tribune Staff Writer

SOUTH BEND — Property owners lined up outside the treasurer's office Monday to pay the first installment of their property tax bills before the 4:30 p.m. deadline.

In a break from recent tradition, county officials managed this year to prepare and mail tax bills by mid-April, paving the way for on-time billing for the first time since 2002 and double billing for the first time since 2006.

"I do appreciate them (the county) getting the bills out in the spring," Gavin Taylor said as he stood in line behind about 25 other people. "That breaks it up for us as homeowners, rather than having to pay one lump sum in the fall."

Taylor, who lives in Mishawaka, also was pleased with the amount of his bill, which he said "stayed about the same" compared to last year.

Standing nearby, John Fonash held in his hands a number of bills. In addition to his home in Granger, Fonash said he owns five rental properties in South Bend.

"All of them either went down or stayed the same," he said of the amount owed on each property, "so I guess the whole reassessment worked out well for me."

Bob Woddick, meanwhile, described his bill, roughly $1,400 in total, as "ungodly high."

"I think it's very high," the South Bend man said as he waited in line. "It went up from the last time."

The reasons people gave for waiting until the last minute to pay their bills varied about as much as the bills themselves.

"Quite honestly, I forgot all about it," said Michael Russell, who lives in South Bend. "I heard about it on the radio and I said, 'Ah, I need to do this before I head to work today.'æ"

Clay Pyfer, of Osceola, blamed his father.

"Actually, the house is in my dad's name," Pyfer said, "and by the time the bill was mailed to him and he mailed it to me, I only had about three days, and I couldn't come in on Friday."

Despite the last-minute rush, Treasurer Sean Coleman reported no problems Monday with the payment process.

"Things have run smoothly today, and waits have not been too long," Coleman said.

The office accepted payments Monday at both the County-City Building in South Bend and the County-Services Building in Mishawaka.

Fall property tax payments are due Nov. 10.



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Council votes in favor of property tax settlement

Posted: 11 May 2010 07:26 AM PDT

LA PORTE — Although La Porte County Council members unanimously voted Monday to accept a settlement in two Indiana Tax Court lawsuits over the county's property tax mess, the rest of the parties have yet to follow suit. What that settlement entails won't be released until all parties agree.

A preliminary form of the agreement was provided confidentially to The News-Dispatch, saying the parties agreed to use corrected 2006 retrended assessed property values for the 2006-pay-07 tax year, subject to further corrections on 5,640 properties. These properties were identified by Crowe Horwath, an independent accounting firm that reviewed the retrended property values presented by Nexus Group.

But remarks at Monday's council meeting made it clear other parts of that agreement have been modified.

County Council attorney Don Baugher said the settlement was a "mutually satisfactory resolution" for all parties — except for Long Beach resident Bill Wendt, who was allowed to intervene in the case Michigan City Area Schools and the cities of Michigan City and Long Beach brought against Auditor Craig Hinchman and the Indiana Department of Government Finance.

"The La Porte County Council acknowledges that although there are parts of the mediated agreed order we find less than perfect, we realize that reaching a conclusion to this situation is in the best interest of the taxpayers," Baugher said. "We also fully realize that failure to resolve this issue now could result in litigation continuing for several more months, if not years, at a cost that would escalate exponentially."

Baugher would not elaborate on his statement about Wendt, but an e-mail from County Attorney Chris Willoughby to several county officials said Wendt could be removed from the document "if he decides once and for all that he cannot agree to the terms." Wendt was not available for comment Monday.

Councilman Scott Ford read a statement after the vote, saying he struggled with his decision to vote for the settlement.

"Our county attorneys and case law point us to the fact that we owe nothing to Mrs. McDaniel's attorneys," he said. "My strongest inclination is to reject this settlement. However, if we take a firm position against paying the attorney fees, this mediation, settlement and negotiations could collapse."

Ford's comment seemed to infer the county would pay for McDaniel's attorney fees as part of the settlement, but neither Ford nor any other official would confirm that. Mark GiaQuinta, McDaniel's attorney, said he also couldn't comment on whether McDaniel planned to approve the settlement.

"I don't think the council would go to the trouble of voting on something if we hadn't agreed to it," GiaQuinta said.

MCAS Interim Superintendent Carla Iacona, who came to the council meeting, said she was pleased with the vote, as it was the first step toward making sure the school district receives the full $8.2 million it could have lost if the 2005-pay-06 property values certified by Hinchman for the 2006-pay-07 tax year were used instead.

The mediator assigned to help reach a settlement said he is hopeful all parties will approve it.

"I have never seen a group of lawyers work harder to reach an agreement," said Senior Judge Bruce Embrey of Peru, Ind., who retired from Miami County Circuit Court in 2002. "When you get into something with this many parties involved, there are lots of opportunities for misunderstanding, lots of differences in opinion on how things should be worded."

A few of the other issues addressed in the preliminary agreement provided to The News-Dispatch were:

• The Auditor shall certify to the DLGF the net assessed values for 2006-pay-07 on a form which recognizes that the certification does not mean he is attesting to the accuracy of the values rolled to him, but instead indicates that he has received the gross assessed values, has performed the calculations for deductions, exemptions and abatements, and any other calculations required by statute, and has arrived at net assessed values.

• La Porte County shall prepare new bid specifications for the 2012 tax year reassessment. The successful bidder shall, in addition to the reassessment, be required to perform a review for the 2006-pay-07 tax year of those 5,640 properties identified in the Crowe Horwath reports in which grade, age, and/or condition had been changed. The Crowe Horwath reports included the following recommendation:

"We recommend that La Porte County require its consultant to fully document the reason that changes are made to parcel records and provide the County with copies of such documentation. Example (sic) of documentation that would be appropriate for a remodel would be a building permit or a photograph of the improved home."

• The parties to this Agreed Order acknowledge that their agreement does not represent, and shall not be construed to be, an admission by any party of wrongdoing or fault, nor does it represent an agreement as to the accuracy of the assessed values.


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Planet Election Guide: Property tax hike

Posted: 11 May 2010 07:03 AM PDT

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Fonda budget holds property-tax rate steady

Posted: 11 May 2010 07:54 AM PDT


Fonda budget holds property-tax rate steady

By AMANDA WHISTLE, The Leader-Herald

Fact Box

Water rates

Fonda's water rates for customers in the village have not increased since 1999. The rates vary according to consumption per six-month period, as follows:

Zero to 20,000 gallons: 91 cents per 1,000 gallons

20,001-45,000 gallons: 87 cents per 1,000

45,001-70,000 gallons: 83 cents per 1,000

70,001-95,000 gallons: 78 cents per 1,000

95,001-120,000 gallons: 74 cents per 1,000

120,001-145,000 gallons: 71 cents per 1,000

More than 145,000 gallons: 54 cents per 1,000

Water rates for customers outside the village are about twice as much, starting at $1.82 per 1,000 gallons in the lowest consumption category.

- Source: www.villageoffonda.org

FONDA -Village residents will see no increase in their property tax rate this year.

The rate will stay at $21 per $1,000 of assessed value after village trustees voted to adopt the 2010-11 budget last month.

The $862,274 plan amounts to about 3 percent less spending than the 2009-2010 plan, with the new fiscal year to begin June 1.

Estimated expenditures in the general fund are $432,311. That includes salaries that did not increase from last year, such as Mayor Kim Flander's $5,500 and the four trustees' $2,500 each.

The water fund is set at $241,916, and the sewer fund is set at $188,047.

Village Treasurer JoAnn Downing said this morning that one of the larger spending cuts came from the water budget's reduction from $305,235 for the 2009-10 budget.

"The water portion is greatly reduced because we had planned to do a major improvement to the water and sewer lines that didn't get done," Downing said.

She said the village took the project out of the budget because officials hope to turn that into a capital project and secure grants to renovate the infrastructure.

The village has not seen its cumulative water and sewer rates increase in the last 11 years, Downing said.

Use of the village's $128,362 fund balance also offset increases in tax, water and sewer rates.

"We do have a healthy fund balance because we've budgeted well over the years," Downing said.

The village appropriated $59,144 from the fund balance for the general fund - that's an increase from $18,439 this year.

Fund balance appropriated for the sewer fund decreased to $31,767 from this year's $33,236.

The village also moved $55,916 from the fund balance to the water budget. That's an increase from this year's $41,235.

A detailed line-by-line budget can be viewed on the village's website, www.villageoffonda.org.

In other business Monday, village officials discussed a request from Alpin Haus, which wants a contract to buy village water for filling swimming pools.

Officials said they have received other similar requests, and the idea is in preliminary stages. They are unsure what the terms of the contract would be.

Amanda Whistle can be reached at montco@leaderherald.com.

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