Daniels Rips Some Marion County Assessors

INDIANAPOLIS -- Gov. Mitch Daniels said on Tuesday that he plans to decide whether to order a reassessment of property values in Marion County -- a move that could lower homeowners' property tax bills -- by the end of this week.

Daniels decried what he called an abdication of duty by township assessors, saying it appeared some commercial properties were not reassessed, causing homeowners' property taxes to rise too high and business owners' not high enough.

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Capitol WatchBlog: Daniels Says Assessors Abdicated Duties

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"It appears clear that in many, not all, of the townships, there seems to have been an abdication of duty, in which an extraordinary number of commercial properties were not reassessed," Daniels said. "We want to look a little harder before coming to that conclusion. Then the question is, what's the right step, the right action to correct it?"

Some homeowners in Marion County saw staggering increases in their property tax bills when they arrived in July, in part because home values soared during recent assessment, 6News' Norman Cox reported.

Meanwhile, values of many business properties appeared to increase little, if it all, apparently leaving homeowners with an unfair share of the tax burden, Daniels said.

Daniels has asked the Department of Local Government Finance to determine whether high property tax bills in some counties, including Marion County, were due in part to unfair assessments and whether those assessments need to be redone.

Daniels said he hasn't decided whether the reassessments, if they are done, would be only for business properties or for all properties.

Lawrence Township Assessor Jeff Hill, who wasn't in office when the most recent assessment was done, said his predecessor did assess commercial properties but used construction-cost tables that were six years out of date.

"If the construction cost numbers would have been updated, I think that ... the assessed value of every commercial property in Marion County would have increased somewhat, because construction costs have increased from 1999 to 2005," Hill said. "And here, we have a lot of commercial properties that their assessed values are still based on 1999 costs."

Governor Takes Dig At Lawmaker For Surplus Suggestion

Also Tuesday, Daniels took a dig at House Speaker Pat Bauer for suggesting this week that using part of the state's budget surplus for property tax relief might not be a bad idea.

Daniels didn't rule out the idea completely, but he cautioned residents about how hard it was in recent years to erase the state's budget deficit.

"Those who spent the state into bankruptcy were the first to step forward and say, 'Let's start spending again,'" Daniels said.

In the past, comments like that often froze relations between Daniels, a Republican, and Bauer, a Democrat, for weeks. Bauer appeared to respond mildly on Tuesday.

"You notice I'm not attacking anybody, including him. I'm here to solve problems," Bauer said.