July 23, 2014 at 2:10 p.m.
Assessment, times two?
By By TRAVIS MINNEAR-
A decision on whether or not to reassess commercial and industrial properties in Jay County will come next week.
Despite urgings from elected officials and some members of the public, the Indiana Department of Local Government Finance said there wasn't enough evidence to explain why commercial and industrial properties had not had more changes in assessments.
Everyone from county council members, commissioners and the auditor to Assessor Anita Mills herself said they believe sound assessments were made and recalculating property values could be costly.
"The local taxpayer will have to pick it (the cost of reassessment) up, and I don't think that's quite fair," Commissioner Milo Miller Jr. said during a public hearing Friday morning in the Jay County Courthouse auditorium.
But in the end, the effort wasn't enough to fully convince DLGF officials. They said the percentage of unchanged values for commercial and industrial properties was too large to ignore and information needs further review.
DLGF Commissioner Cheryl Musgrave said 77.3 percent of commercial property values in Jay County were unchanged in the most recent reassessment, with 85 percent of industrial property values staying the same.
DLGF spokeswoman Mary Jane Michalak noted in a telephone interview on Friday afternoon there are several options for calculating values. Assessors can base values on sales comparisons, cost comparisons and income yield indicators, she said.
Stock and debt information can also be an option.
"They use different approaches based on what kind of property it is," Michalak said.
The company hired by the county to conduct assessments, Kokomo-based Ad Valorem Solutions, figured values based on sales comparisons, and the figures did not represent adequate changes in commercial and industrial property values, Musgrave said.
Musgrave added that alternative configuration methods could have been examined to deduce changes in values more efficiently.
Mills said her office sent out questionnaires by mail but received very little feedback.
"People don't like to share that information," she said.
Musgrave also charged that tables used to calculate values were not accurate at the time of assessment. She said the tables contained information from 1999, not updated versions with values from 2005.
A practice called trending went into effect this year, using newer data and formulas to gauge property value changes from 1999 to 2005.
Musgrave explained that resources were available to assure commercial and industrial values in Jay County reached the level desired by the state.
Also, she stressed that the hearing was not an attack on work done by Mills. She said she respects the quality of work done by Jay County's assessor.
"If I was allowed to hand out gold stars, I'd make sure she'd get one," Musgrave said.
"The subject on the table today is did the vendor do its job?"
The need for reassessment, the DLGF said, comes down to a lack of accuracy and equity in assessments. Accuracy refers to how close assessed values are to market values at the time. Equity is defined by "how uniform assessments are within a class of property or geographic area."
Mills defended her work and that of Ad Valorem. She said assessing is can be difficult and is not "an exact science" that derives the same values every time for every property.
Gail MacIntyre, of Ad Valorem, said the company did the "very best we could for your county."
If a reassessment is ordered, Jay County will be allowed to select a vendor of its choice to do recalculations. According to the DLGF, a reassessment is expected to be complete by Dec. 31, with assessed values sent to the county auditor by Feb. 15.
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Despite urgings from elected officials and some members of the public, the Indiana Department of Local Government Finance said there wasn't enough evidence to explain why commercial and industrial properties had not had more changes in assessments.
Everyone from county council members, commissioners and the auditor to Assessor Anita Mills herself said they believe sound assessments were made and recalculating property values could be costly.
"The local taxpayer will have to pick it (the cost of reassessment) up, and I don't think that's quite fair," Commissioner Milo Miller Jr. said during a public hearing Friday morning in the Jay County Courthouse auditorium.
But in the end, the effort wasn't enough to fully convince DLGF officials. They said the percentage of unchanged values for commercial and industrial properties was too large to ignore and information needs further review.
DLGF Commissioner Cheryl Musgrave said 77.3 percent of commercial property values in Jay County were unchanged in the most recent reassessment, with 85 percent of industrial property values staying the same.
DLGF spokeswoman Mary Jane Michalak noted in a telephone interview on Friday afternoon there are several options for calculating values. Assessors can base values on sales comparisons, cost comparisons and income yield indicators, she said.
Stock and debt information can also be an option.
"They use different approaches based on what kind of property it is," Michalak said.
The company hired by the county to conduct assessments, Kokomo-based Ad Valorem Solutions, figured values based on sales comparisons, and the figures did not represent adequate changes in commercial and industrial property values, Musgrave said.
Musgrave added that alternative configuration methods could have been examined to deduce changes in values more efficiently.
Mills said her office sent out questionnaires by mail but received very little feedback.
"People don't like to share that information," she said.
Musgrave also charged that tables used to calculate values were not accurate at the time of assessment. She said the tables contained information from 1999, not updated versions with values from 2005.
A practice called trending went into effect this year, using newer data and formulas to gauge property value changes from 1999 to 2005.
Musgrave explained that resources were available to assure commercial and industrial values in Jay County reached the level desired by the state.
Also, she stressed that the hearing was not an attack on work done by Mills. She said she respects the quality of work done by Jay County's assessor.
"If I was allowed to hand out gold stars, I'd make sure she'd get one," Musgrave said.
"The subject on the table today is did the vendor do its job?"
The need for reassessment, the DLGF said, comes down to a lack of accuracy and equity in assessments. Accuracy refers to how close assessed values are to market values at the time. Equity is defined by "how uniform assessments are within a class of property or geographic area."
Mills defended her work and that of Ad Valorem. She said assessing is can be difficult and is not "an exact science" that derives the same values every time for every property.
Gail MacIntyre, of Ad Valorem, said the company did the "very best we could for your county."
If a reassessment is ordered, Jay County will be allowed to select a vendor of its choice to do recalculations. According to the DLGF, a reassessment is expected to be complete by Dec. 31, with assessed values sent to the county auditor by Feb. 15.
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