Pike Co. Ordered to Reassess

The property tax battle between Indiana's Department of Local Government Finance and county assessors grew a bit larger Thursday as five more Hoosier counties were told to reassess property values. In Southwest Indiana, Pike is the the only new addition to the list, joining the likes of Gibson and Posey Counties. The announcement from Cheryl Musgrave and the Department of Local Government Finance came early this afternoon. In a teleconference with reporters, Musgrave said Pike and the other four counties need to reassess their commercial and industrial property tax because their latest numbers on property value show little or no change compared to years past. Pike County assessor Jody Hoover echoed the sentiment of assessors in other rural counties that have been ordered to reassess. She says just 14 commercial properties have been sold in the last four years, and that development there is nonexistent. Property values have held steady or decreased, and Hoover says that means assessed value can not go up. Is it the state, then, or the counties, that are causing the problems here? When the state decided in 2002 to adopt a market adjusted, cost based assessment method, the system of trending was born. You may have heard the word before, and in it's simplest terms, it's a method of assessing a property's value as it changes from year to year based on other, similar properties near by. There is nothing to trend in Pike County, says Hoover. Still, the state feels like Pike and others may be shortchanging the DLGF. Jody Hoover, and several other county leaders in several counties feel like the orders to reassess are actually a hunt for revenue that state needs, but no longer has access to. This is the first year Indiana counties will not collect revenue from inventory tax. That tax was eliminated to create a more friendly business climate in the state. It used to allow counties to add up a companies inventory once a year. For Pike County this year, it would have meant about $800,000 in revenue this year. No more inventory tax means the state is scrambling to find new ways to recoup the funds, according to Hoover and others. Musgrave has downplayed the influence of the abolished inventory tax. Still, the state is being very meticulous in it's review of counties and their tax assessments, according to Musgrave, to be "more fair." Several counties, including Knox, Orange and Warrick were informed today that they will not be reassessed. More information about the reassessments across the state will be posted by noon Friday on the Department of Local Government Finance web site .