LAPORTE — The fight over property taxes heated up again Thursday night, as state officials listened to hours of debate over a controversial plan to reassess homes across LaPorte County.

Some say the reassessment is long overdue, because thousands of homes weren't valued correctly last year.

The proposal surfaced after Michigan Township taxpayer Bill Wendt hired a firm to research LaPorte County assessments last year. He claims homes across the county were both over-assessed and under-assessed, so he filed a petition asking the Indiana Department of Local Government Finance to investigate and perform a reassessment.

DLGF Communications Director Mary Jane Michalak says it's the first time the agency has received such a request from a taxpayer following the state's implementation of a new assessment system. The "trending" system is based on fair market values for homes, adjusting assessments based on the sales prices of similar homes over the previous two years.

Under the new system, the assessed value of a home is supposed to fall within 10 percent above or below the price a home would sell for on the open market, and because of that, Michalak says many homes saw big jumps in assessed value, because they'd been undervalued under the previous system.

It's the main reason the DLGF ordered some counties to take another look late last year.

"Over the summer we held 21 public hearings in 21 different counties," she said. "Twenty counties were ordered to ‘re-trend.’ In re-trending we review different properties and go back and re-adjust the prices. In reassessment, the county or the state would go out and actually view the property, measure the land, and do a full blown account of what the property is valued at."

After those hearings, LaPorte County was not chosen for reassessment.

But Wendt's study suggests the new values aren't correct either in some cases, so he asked the state to take another look.

Thursday night, he brought that request directly to the DLGF, and there were plenty of taxpayers and county leaders waiting to give their input too.

Michael Conner was one of them. The sign he carried said it all.

"Reassess this mess," it read.

And for a clear reason, he said. He says property tax bills on homes in his lake front Michigan City neighborhood went way up last year.

"Tax bills there that we've seen can exceed $50,000, $70,000, or even $100,000 for a single family home."

He wants something done to fix it.

"We could take a look at that, and we might see some correction," he said.

But others say reassessment is a waste of time, because most of the numbers wouldn't change.

"It's a complete waste of money," said Union Township taxpayer Chuck Morris. "[Wendt] is stirring up a bucket of worms that won't serve anyone's purpose but his."

And some LaPorte County leaders agree, because the DLGF already approved last year's assessments, not once, but twice.

"Those assessments are as valid today as they were a year ago," said statistician Dr. Frank Kelly, President of Nexus Group, a consulting firm hired by the county to help with assessment information.

He cites figures from 2004-2005 LaPorte County home sales, used to generate new “trending” numbers, that he says shows accurate assessments for homes valued between $35,000 and $650,000. A small handful of discrepancies might exist in homes valued under $35,000, where Dr. Kelly estimates homes were over-valued by an average of 13 percent. The same discrepancies exist in homes valued over $650,000. Dr. Kelly estimates they were under-valued by 14 percent.

Remarks like that brought spirited rebuttals and counter-rebuttals from a crowd so large, it spilled out into the hallway of the LaPorte County building. More than 50 of them signed up to speak their minds on the proposed reassessment, including county leaders.

"If we have one taxpayer that's paying too much because of a flawed ratio study, then let's fix it," said LaPorte County Commissioner Mike Bohacek. "And if that means a general reassessment, than that's fine."

"That may be warranted if the study shows there were pockets that were incorrect," said Center Township Assessor Michael Schultz. "But in 21 townships? I think it'd be a waste of taxpayers' money to go into every township and redo them."

Some even argue that the move would cost taxpayers money in the long run, because some local taxing bodies like schools might be forced to take out interest bearing loans, if tax payments are delayed.

"Any ordered reassessment sets back the setting of tax rates. It would set back the approval of budgets. It delays tax bills, and then potentially requires governmental entities to seek tax anticipation warrants," said LaPorte County Attorney Shaw Friedman.

That's why Friedman and others pushing for another option: an extended window for individual taxpayers to appeal their assessments.

"That's the remedy,” said Friedman. “It is not to try to throw out every assessment of this county. It's time to put an end to this. This has gone on for a long time, and the county’s taxpayers are being held hostage. It’s time this agency end this, move on, and bring this to closure."

But exactly when that might happen is still unclear. The DLGF will take time to digest the information from the public hearing before issuing their decision on the reassessment petition.