Published: April 30, 2008 05:02 pm            

Committee re-examines assessed value of homes

The Zionsville Tax Relief Action Committee proposed an idea at its Thursday, April 17, meeting that could help to balance the town’s budget without cutting any services: an accurate assessment.

The committee is tasked with finding operational efficiencies and budget cuts for the town. That task became even more important after the state passed property tax reform that the legislative services agency estimated would cost the town $800,000 in revenue in 2010.

Many homes in the area are assessed below market value, committee member Scott Wagner said. He’s in the process of finding a new home in Zionsville, and found one with a sale price four times its assessed value and another with a price twice its assessment.

By bringing all homes up to the proper assessment, Zionsville’s total assessed value would increase, which would decrease Zionsville’s property tax rate because the tax rate is just total property taxes divided by total assessment, committee member Randy Kaltenmark said. If the tax rate decreases, the property tax rate caps would have less of an effect on Zionsville.

At a previous Z-TRAC meeting, Zionsville Town Council President Matt Price said the assessments are done by the county, and there is not much the town can do to change them, except urge the county do a better job or highlight the problem from a bully pulpit.

Wagner suggested a more pro-active approach, proposing the town pay a private contractor to do a new town assessment and provide the new information to the assessor.

Boone County Assessor Lisa Garoffolo said the town couldn’t afford to do that, and the county is already paying a contractor to do the assessment in Zionsville. The county pays GUTS, a private contractor, about $19,000 a month to do the assessment for the whole county, including Zionsville, she said.

“It seems to me like it would be money wasted,” she said.

Redoing the assessment is taking longer than she would want, but it will take about three to four years to cover the whole county, she said.

Other ideas

• Committee member Neil Clements suggested reviewing the town’s equipment replacement policies to see if any savings could be found. He wants a list of all the scheduled capital purchases for the next five to eight years to see if any of them can be delayed.

• Kaltenmark suggested researching the feasibility of consolidating the Zionsville town court with other Boone County town courts to save on expenses. The town court handles traffic and ordinance violations.

• Committee member Jill Gustafson suggested the town conduct an annual review of its health insurance policies to make sure it has the most cost-effective plan.

• Committee member Rich Mefford suggested that the town ask the department heads to cut their budgets by a certain percentage. He said the department heads will know best where they can make the cuts that will least impact their priorities and performance.

        

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