Although the property tax issue has not been consciously put aside for the year, neither have I been actively pursuing it. But it keeps popping up.
• A co-worker will share a story they came across or a comment they heard from a friend.
• My weekly email from tax foundation.org will trigger another thought.
• Readers have sent me their personal history either as a question or a “look at this.”
• A friend will send me an email with something they’d found and …
The plot thickens.
Whenever I use old adages or phrases, I often wonder where they come from. Turns out there’s a movie by that name, and the phrase apparently goes back 350 years, at least according to Wikipedia. Credit supposedly goes to poet George Villiers, the second Duke of Buckingham. While I digress, you’ve learned some useless information.
A few updates seem in order:
• According to an Associated Press story earlier this month, our local experiences in rising property taxes and “tax shifting” are not unique. “Some states try to curb property taxes,” the headline reads.
Specific issues with familiar themes are playing out in Colorado, Alabama, Wyoming, Georgia. Kansas and Vermont. It’s a safe bet there are others.
Most if not all are looking at possible solutions in limiting growth of assessed values and/or limiting school and fire protection debt, which seem to be the most common causes. While Indiana’s constitution specifies the adherence to market values for assessed values, that does not appear to be the case in other states which would allow them to have carve-outs for such groups as senior citizens. Whether that’s a good idea or not is an interesting discussion, as are the variety of methods and rules used in property taxes in the different states that I’ve come across the past couple years.
The lesson here: We’re not alone. If that helps any.
• While I have cited property tax statistics from The Tax Foundation on several occasions, their weekly emails are more often about other taxes and how the states compare. Not relevant but interesting.
This week’s was about beer taxes. Indiana taxes beer at 12 cents per gallon, which computes to less than a penny per 12-oz. can and ranks us 43rd highest (or 7th lowest). Our neighbors are all higher: Ohio, 18¢; Michigan, 20¢; Illinois 23¢. Wyoming is the lowest at only two pennies per gallon while Tennessee tops the list at $1.29, well more than a penny per serving.
The lesson here: Enjoying a cold brew on a summer day is relatively cheaper in Indiana. Prost.
• Alan Daugherty loves poking through old local newspapers. The Bluffton Chronicle, one of a number of News-Banner predecessors, is free online somewhere. He sent me a clipping recently from the April 8, 1886, edition which listed how personal property will be valued by the township assessors’ efforts that year.
There was a time when homeowners not only paid a real estate property tax but also a personal property tax on their possessions (also paid by renters, I believe). Each township had an assessor whose job it was to visit each household and farm for an annual assessment. Surely a social event everyone looked forward to.
The story reported the assessors’ countywide meeting, in the interest of consistency it appears, to determine assessed values for things such as farm machinery, pianos, watches, horses, wood (per cord), lumber, lard … The list, amazingly, goes on. And on.
The plot thickens in some details here. Bricks, for example, were valued at $3 per thousand, whether or not they were thrown at the assessor. Which surely happened from time to time. Stones were also taxed, measured by a “perch.” Google that one.
The lesson here: Property taxes could be worse. Or: Be careful when you wish for the “good old days.”
• One reader has kept records of his home’s property taxes dating back to 1998, when his annual total was $1,158. It reached $1,300 in 2002 but Indiana property tax reforms took that down to $335 in 2009 and did not exceed $700 again until 2020. Only this year did it finally surpass that 2002 total, despite a number of improvements he’s made through the years.
Not too long after the new assessments were posted a month or so ago, another reader suggested I check out the new assessments of apartment complexes. Just got around to that this past week.
One 32-unit complex on Bluffton’s north side went from an assessed value of $252,700 to $1,739,900 (589%). Another went from $639,500 to $3,438,000 (438%), but another from approximately $1.4 million to $1.65 million, just a 12.82% increase.
County assessor Laura Roberts can explain the reasons and the inconsistencies. No surprise, it’s complicated.
The lesson here is that the plot thickens. But not for the first time, methinks.
More importantly, what impact will this have on an already tight rental-housing market that, according to some at least, does not have enough “affordable” units as it is? Landlords will have to pass at least some of these increases on. But all that is complicated, too.
This deserves some more looking into although I sometimes wonder why I care. Maybe I just like thick plots.
miller@news-banner.com
