Property taxes are one key issue

To the editor:

As I campaign in the large territory of State House District 33, I talk to a lot of people. 

One thing that seems to be very common is that there are a lot of people upset about their property taxes going up over the past few years, but nobody seems to understand why. After some in-depth research through many sources, I have finally learned enough of the basics to explain what happened to our property taxes, what has been proposed to fix the problem and what has been done.

The first thing to take note of is that the Indiana Constitution caps property tax at 1% for homesteads, 2% for other residential and farmland and 3% for other property.

Properties are given a thorough reassessment every four years and rise incrementally in the other three years by the rate of inflation. This is done by the county assessor per the guidebook set by the legislature.

In 2013, there was a court case from Lake County which was decided by the Indiana Supreme Court which required the Indiana legislature to assess property values based on “market value.” Around 2016, the legislature passed the difficult calculus formulas to determine market value. The legislature was 70-30 Republican in the House and 41-9 Republican in the Senate.

In 2020, interest rates dropped to keep the economy moving during COVID. This allowed people to pay more for a house at the same payment, so market value increased greatly. This is the cause for the assessment values going up. The four-year “true-up” of assessments for all properties has now happened.

The great increase in the amount of tax owed for their properties has caused quite a pinch on people’s pocketbooks. What has been done to help property owners from the skyrocketing payments?

The Republican supermajority in the legislature claims to be doing everything they can to keep property taxes low. They passed legislation which gives seniors a break (if they don’t receive other breaks). They passed legislation raising the cap on assessment value for disabled veterans (even though this did not expand the number of veterans benefitting from the new cap). They gave a break for gazebos and swimming pools. In other words, very few people have been given property tax relief.

The Democrats in the legislature offered legislation in 2023 to revise the complicated calculus for calculating market value so that we don’t underfund our local governments and schools. In the meantime, they wanted to give every homestead a $56,000 homestead exemption (meaning up to $560 off your property tax bill if you are taxed up to the 1% cap rate). The Republican supermajority tabled these proposals in committee and never gave them a hearing. 

We need to hold our legislators accountable to the people. With the supermajority the Republicans have held in the Indiana legislature for the past decade, they have no incentive to provide relief to their struggling citizens. They know that many people will just vote for them by voting for one party and not considering that there are other candidates who want to help their situation. Property taxes are just one issue you should be considering when you vote this November.

John Bartlett

Hartford City

(Editor’s note: Bartlett is a candidate for state representative in District 33.)