County Officials Continue Work Toward Property Tax Relief; Other Counties Take Notice

by Ed Ernstes (ernstes@wsbt.com)

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County Officials Continue Work Toward Property Tax Relief; Other Counties Take Notice

By Beth Boehne

Story Created: Aug 17, 2007 at 3:17 PM EST

Story Updated: Aug 21, 2007 at 6:34 AM EST

(WSBT) County officials from northern Indiana signed off on ideas to overhaul the state's property tax structure Friday.

Other Indiana counties have taken notice of their efforts.

Officials from a number of area counties met to finalize efforts to find ways to property tax relief for homeowners in Indiana.

At a meeting last week, they came up with a number of ideas. Friday they fine-tuned those, before sending them down state.

“I think this group here is the start of something special and I hope we can keep this communication going between the counties,” said Marshall County Commissioner Kevin Overmyer during the meeting. “Because I think there’s a lot of varied opinion but I think we all have the same goals.”

Some ideas were adjusted and compressed.

One had to do with an agreeing to allow lawmakers to increase the state income tax while dropping certain levies from the property tax.

“It could be done such that they understand that if we’re gonna support an income tax increase that we absolutely have to have a corresponding levy decrease,” explained St. Joseph County Commissioner Mark Dobson at the meeting.

The work by the group, looking into property tax issues, caught the attention of a number of counties around the state.

“I received a call from seven other counties around the state, including as far south as Jefferson County, interested in this document, and talking about doing the same thing in their areas — getting together with some other area counties,” said Elkhart County Commissioner Mike Yoder.

Property owners in the area are interested in seeing where this could lead.

“Absolutely I would,” Stacey Carter, of Elkhart, told WSBT News. “My taxes went up 40 percent, I don’t know why and anything that could be done about it to help would be greatly appreciated.”

They hope to have the final draft ready next week. The counties would then pass it on to lawmakers.

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