Northwest Indiana Discussion

Is it true our new taxes will 2% of the assessed value of your home?

Does this include the politicians as well?

Or will they be exempt as usual?

they will be capped at 2%. i have long said that that means they will eventually all be 2% but that shouldnt happen yet. at least until the cap on industry kicks in in 3 years or so.

I still think the reassessment of industry and commercial apartment buildings, particularly those in the 4 to 19 unit category, needs to be looked at if a flat 2% rate is going to be fair to all taxpayers. After all, wasn't the reassessment suppose to be a fair market value for all and even the playing field?

I have been told that part of the formula for apartment buildings is the income potential for the property? Does anyone know if this is true? If we go to a flat tax for all properties, should there be any kind of break in determining assesed values? Maybe if assessed values were accurate for both residential properties and commercial properties, we could cap taxes at 1.5%.

After all, wasn't the reassessment suppose to be a fair market value for all and even the playing field?

And you believed the politicians?

I think in other parts of the state it might have done just that. But when the rural local government requires less money per home than major cities you might need a microscope to see that correction down on the farm.

Keeping in mind that the tax formula contains the assessed value and a rate to achieve a certain level of spending to pay for and that much of the state is farm land which mostly is deemed of less value than city lots the numbers seem skewed against city dwellers, where you might think it should actually cost less per property to service due to volume.

Maybe I'm mistaken in my assumptions here, I admit that. But I still believe that the reason our taxes are high is because of fraud, waste, and incompetence in the taxing districts. Even if you truly feel some districts are doing the best they can there's plenty of others that we all can agree are not so thrifty.

I doubt it will change until taxpayers start challenging each & every taxing unit. Plain & simple. We will continue to be told this amount is what you must pay and this is what will happen for you to pay your share of the cost of government, meaning all the new taxes discussed already even before the laws allowing them have been passed.

But as we see from elections around here most people are either quite happy receiving their share of the public dole or else are too busy trying to earn a living to care about getting involved in spending relief.

Never said I believed the politicians, Mirage, but am merely pointing out that the reassessment did not achieve it's goal. And now on top of the inequeties in reassessed values (still), we are going to a flat tax system for all properties? So, even capped at 2%, residential property owners will be shouldering more than the fair share of the tax bills if commercial properties such as BP, the mills, and commercial apartments buildings are not being assessed fairly.

Can someone explain where my money is going? What do we receive in return for my money?

Net tax breakdown

County2 $ 392.24
Cty-SrWelf $ 314.72
State $ 1.50
Twp-No $ 46.94
Corp-HA $ 1356.50
Sch-Ha $ 1218.56
Lib – HA $ 139.42
SPE-HA 134.48

county. 75% or so goes to the costs of running the courts, jail, and sherrifs dept. county also maintains property ownership records and is responsible for making sure you pay your property taxes so all taxing bodies can benefit from your money.

cty srfwelf is the cost of paying people not to work. its the fed welfare program but much of the costs of it is paid with local tax dollars. and this is where it comes from.

state. basically thats the same cost for everyone no matter what the total tax is. i dont know exactly what its for...i think its more or less the fee they take for doling out the tax money to various bodies.

twp. your in north township. much of this goes for poor relief (seperate from welfare) one time checks for folks down on their luck. but also wicker park needs to have its grass cut and splash pad fixed.

corp. thats your city govt (this case hammond) police, and fire, streets, city court, parks, trash pickup, parade administration, code enforcement, etc...

lib. the hammond library system. last check 4 branches all with internet access.

spe thats me! (im on the hammond sanitary district board) we make sure your sewage gets treated and the rain water goes where its suppossed too. (ok blame me for the flood a few months back) but overall im very proud of our guys. youll hear more about this in the media soon...but would you belive we actually have an engine that runs on poop? its true ive seen it myself. going to save us (which means you the tax payer) thousands a month in energy costs too.

but would you belive we actually have an engine that runs on poop?

Oh crap! And all this time I've been paying someone to dump my loads of "fuel?"

Well one nice thing about the 2% cap for some people is it makes it easier for people with 2nd homes to decide where to take their homestead exemption. Apparently there's no advantage to an Indiana homestead and little advantage to residency status so I can just buy a nice home in Florida and stop paying state/ future county income tax entirely!!

You know I had a discussion with Raingiver years ago about how you used to be able to vote in local only races just by owning property in a county. Maybe they'll need to bring that back for folks like me!

i forgot to mention the schools.

they take up about 35% of the property tax. and use it to spend money on everything from suv's for the superintendant to wide screen tvs in the cafeterias. and oh yeah if theres anything left over they teach the kids too.

oh yeah if theres anything left over they teach the kids too.
Ok, I'm gonna need some proof on this!

hey test scores are improving...were now the fifth worst school system (by test scores)...last year we were second worse.

Don't forget! We lost River Park there!!

Maybe nothing else changed?

And don't forget we always have Mirage, expert in all, master of NOTHING!