question about state taxes, etc - totally clueless here

[cycleberg]

Husband and I have wondered why taxes seem higher here in Indiana. (boonies, outside of Mooresville, IN specifically) We're from Houston originally, everything was high there in Harris county: sales tax, auto reg was NOT bad, property taxes were high, insurance (car, house ) was high...you name it and expected it.

Parents are living outside of Houston in the Woodlands (lucky them, tho they deserve it)- property taxes are comparative to OURS here!

Sis lives in NC in an area comparative to here in IN and her property taxes were a good chunk lower. She was astonished at how high our property taxes were.

Basically I am very surprised at the high taxes here and the high insurance rates (my record is clean, no accidents, and we live out in the boonies). I was expecting something alittle less than my Houston rates!

anyways, I'll quit whining, but we are very curious being new to this state.

[Indiana_Dem]

1. I'm sorry I can't answer your question....

I only know my property taxes are the highest in my town, I'm told because we live next to the schools and near all the local shopping areas. My town is around 20,000, I think. We pay $1500/yr. and we built the house in 1977 so it's not anything overtly fancy! My 2nd cousin told me my taxes were nothing because she lives in a Chicago suburb and pays $6000/yr. So I don't feel so bad. It still seems like too much to me though.

I'm not sure where Mooresville is. Is is around Indy? It might be because it's near Indy.

I remember when I lived in Los Angeles with my dad when I was 18, I was told we didn't have to pay local taxes or something because the oil wells provided enough revenue. I was also able to go to a junior college tuition-free because of that, I was told. Maybe Texas' oil helps keep taxes down there.

That's about all I can figure out. I really don't know.

[Sadie5]

2. Not sure why

but I live in the next county over(Hendricks), and after the state redid the way they access last year everyone is complaining.

[Indiana_Dem]

3. Yeah mine went up $300

Other people I know were happy because theirs went down!

[salin]

4. The property tax system was ruled unconstitutional in 1999

If I recall the two biggest problems were: 1) businesses and agricultural interests were deemed to be paying a bigger share than home owners - and it was deemed necessary to shift the property tax burden to a more "equitable" level; and 2) the system for assessing homes worked to disadvantage newer homes - not sure but I think that new homes were assessed at current sale value and older homes may have been assessed off of last sale price plus some increase value (lower rate) - and it was deemed to create a system of more equitable assessment.

The state had three years to revamp the system - but the republicans in the state house drug their feet... seeing any "fix" as equating to a tax increase (even though they were required by the courts to fix the problem)... and rather than taking a longer period of time to devise a new "more fair" system - nothing was done - until the last minute. Due to the rush for the last minute fix - assessors had to get up to speed quickly and there was chaos and lack of uniform training/understanding of the new system. Thus last year (first year of the new system) there were problems all over the state. Another rush to "fix" and provide relief was pushed - but resisted by the Governor who declared that it made more sense to work out the bugs and see really where the problem now lies and then fix it (in the upcoming session) - rather than to potentially fix the wrong things and not address the real problems resulting in another year (or two) of chaos and another required legislative fix in the following session(s).

The interesting thing is that among the republican politicos - the term used now is "Tax Shift"... something one never hears used to describe the national tax policies of the Bush admin - but if it continues to be used often enough - "Tax Shift" will be a sellable term in Indiana to be used against Bush (and by extension... "My Man Mitch.)

When folks complain about the changes in property taxes seldom mentioned is that it was done to take what was deemed an unfair burden on businesses, nor that the system was "fixed" under court order. Instead it has become a political football.

I do believe that I have read in numerous places that the Indiana property tax rate has historically been lower than neighboring states - it could be that with the "fixes" that this has changed.

[cycleberg]

5. this is verrrrrrry interesting

I wish I had better understanding of this stuff, I just have absolutely no background at all in it (artist type).

Salin or anyone- do you have any links for info on this? Not just articles but maybe IN websites?

thanks
!!!

[cycleberg]

6. mooresville -

is SW Indy about 15 miles. Our house is closer to 20 or so miles - out in the middle of cornfields and beanfields in a small subdivision.

I absolutely know others have MUCH more property tax than us, I shouldn't be complaining, tho, I'm still curious to where it does go. Husband mentioned that maybe some of the property tax subsidizes the farming industry here.

Also, I'm not sure how deep I really want to dig into this...just sooooomuch stuff to learn.

[salin]

7. Hopefully someone would know where to look for background

this hasn't been something I have followed overly closely... except for being a sponge for news. I had recently moved back to the state when the ruling from the state supreme court was delivered - and followed (mostly through the public radio news) the story as it evolved. WFIU in Indy gives pretty good coverage. There is a state business public radio show daily during the week that is broadcast on many public radio stations, and the Indy station has a weekly Indiana politics show on Fridays (maybe from 6 to 6:30?) But in terms of a place to find specific information about the history of the reassessment - beyond recollection of the news stories as they unfolded - I am probably not much help.

[indypaul]

8. Real Estate Taxes

Due to the court case mentioned before it was necessary to
switch the assessment system from a screwy system of replacement
value, etc. to an assessment based on market value. This has
been a good part of the confusion. Secondly, if you call your
County Auditor and ask for a breakdown of your rates you will
more than likely find a good part of the rate to be schools.
This has been a consequence of "white flight" from Marion County
the past 15-20 years and even more accelerated the past five
years. Many of the adjoining school systems are into large
building projects and expansion of their systems due to the
population switch. Granted, all of it may not be schools and
may be the necessity of an expansion of public safety services.
Such as in eastern Hendricks County and Southern Hamilton County.
Some, out of necessity, are creating or expanding existing
police departments and some switching from volunteer fire
departments to full-time paid departments. It's all part of
civilization folks and it ain't cheap but when last noticed it
is still the best on earth.