Reassessment underway for Putnam County

Wednesday, April 29, 2009

The Putnam County Assessor's office has announced the start of its reassessment process. They will be visiting all properties in Putnam County to verify information is accurate.

Data collecting personnel will be working in all the townships in the county.

"These people do work full time for the Putnam County Assessor's office," said County Assessor Wanda O'Neal.

"We will be knocking on doors to let you know that we are in your area. If you are not home, we will leave an information sheet to be filled out and returned to the Assessor's office," she added.

In the past, reassessments took place every 10 years. In 2002, reassessment changed from "true tax value" to market-based assessment and uses the term "trending."

The idea behind "trending" is to adjust the assessed value of property annually depending on the sale prices of similar properties within the same area, making assessments more accurate and more evenly, distributing the property tax burden to all taxpayers.

Under this system, the assessed value should reflect the amount a willing buyer would pay for the property at the time of assessment.

According to the IDLGF, "Property taxes represent a property owner's portion of the local government's budgeted spending for the previous year. Increases or decreases depend upon a local government's fiscal management, the assessed valuation of a property and/or local tax rates, which are based on the budget proposals submitted by local government taxing entities that provide services to each community."

To calculate an individual's property tax bill, the county official takes the tax rate multiplied by the assessed value after all deductions are subtracted and after all state credits (homestead and property tax replacement credits) are applied.

Tax rates are determined by dividing the estimated amount of funds to be raised by the local unit of government by the net assessed value of all property in a county, minus the applicable deductions.

Annual adjustments are calculated by comparing the prior year assessment with current sales data from a neighborhood. The difference, positive or negative, will be used to create a factor that assessing officials will apply to the property's assessed value to bring it to current market value.

"As assessor, my goal is to make this reassessment as accurate and efficient as possible. Thank you for your cooperation," added O'Neal.

The DLGF's Web site (www.in.gov/dlgf) offers a variety of resources to educate and inform taxpayers. The site also features search tools to provide taxpayers with sales disclosure and assessment information on properties statewide.

Information about the reassessment for Putnam County is available from the assessor's office by calling 653-4312.

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  • Here goes the property tax bills UP AGAIN.

    -- Posted by Old Man on Wed, Apr 29, 2009, at 1:50 AM
  • didn't they just do this a few years ago????

    -- Posted by senior'08 on Wed, Apr 29, 2009, at 1:52 PM
  • Reassessment. In who's favor? With the falling prices of real estate, this reassessment should reflect bad news for the county, and better news for the taxpayer.

    -- Posted by Xgamer on Wed, Apr 29, 2009, at 6:16 PM
  • They keep messing with the taxes and you never see anything done in the county to make it better. Every road in the county has so many holes that you can't avoid hitting them and messing your car up. I can't remember the last time this county has put any money into fixing the roads. The once paved roads are so old they are turning into gravel roads because they are breaking apart. Don't you wonder where all these tax dollars are going?

    -- Posted by magoo55 on Wed, Apr 29, 2009, at 7:26 PM
  • Looks like independent assessors will get some business again. Last time they were 55K too high on our house and it took an independent assessment to get it where it should be.

    -- Posted by whatsup on Wed, Apr 29, 2009, at 8:52 PM
  • Yet a few years ago they spent (of county money) over $100K in surveys and plans to take a bridge out that does not need it. They also went outside of the 106 process in doing this...meaning they tried to go outside the set codes so that their buddies could get the business it would have provided. A few landowners found out in time and it did not happen but that is part of why Putnam county roads are such a joke.

    -- Posted by ladyinthewoods on Tue, May 5, 2009, at 7:16 AM
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