Published: October 03, 2008 12:29 pm         

Council OKs tax installment plan

Lebanon — Some Boone County landowners may pay property taxes on an installment plan.

The Boone County Council voted 4-3 to allow landowners to spread payments over four dates — if state officials approve the proposal — at a special meeting Monday night, Sept. 29. Several Zionsville commercial property owners and officials said a spike in their taxes could cause tenants to bolt if there isn’t relief. While installments won’t lower the tax bill, it will give building owners time to make the payments while other efforts are made to alleviate the tax burden. (See related story on this page.)

Persons whose property taxes increased 75 percent or more are eligible to apply for installment payment schedules, the council decided.

Council members Jeff Heck, Kerry Kries and Marcia Wilhoite voted against the proposal. Bill Soards, Debbie Shubert, and Butch Smith voted yes, leaving council president Steve Jacob to break the tie.

After a sigh, he voted yes.

There are four exceptions: Persons who have an escrow mortgage; persons who have paid the first installment of their property taxes; anyone who is delinquent in payment, and anyone who put a new building on what had been vacant land this year.

Property taxes are usually collected in just two installments — spring in May and fall in November.

The spring tax bills were delayed this year because of conflicting interpretations of House Bill 1001, the property tax relief bill passed in March by the Indiana General Assembly and a new way of figuring the additional homestead credit.

Tax bills also increased because the state mandated the use of market value, rather than estimated value, in determining how much a property is worth.

Retail building owners in Zionsville saw shocking increases in their tax bills this year, in part because property values had been artificially low. Most of downtown Zionsville was excluded in a 2002 reassessment.

“They had been under-assessed for a number of years,” Jacob said. “Then they got whacked.”

Owners of commercial, industrial and agricultural property were the hardest-hit this year, and downtown Zionsville commercial building owners saw their property taxes increase an average of 166 percent, said Michael Shafer, CFO of Zionsville Community Schools.

Others saw higher, almost paralyzing, increases in tax bills.

“We could see Main Street ... shutting down if these tax bills were due,”

     

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