Lake COunty (IN) may sue to lift property tax freeze

[jedi]

Lake County may sue to lift property tax freeze

Summary: Lake County is the only county in IN with no local county tax. Now that the state has frozen the lake county property tax rate on the county since 2007 and the gravy train is no longer rolling looks like our political leaders are looking for a way to get the gravy train rolling again.

Guess they have NOT learned their lesson. The state froze the gravy train so that Lake County could get it's house in order, remove the corruption and "bogus jobs", consolidate services, etc... but nope Lake County continues not to listen.

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[ATOMonkey]

What are they going to bring suite against? The consitution?

 

[jedi]

From my understanding yes to a certain degree. They are suing saying that Indiana passed a special law that freezed the property tax rate to 2007 levels for LAKE COUNTY only and it would unfreeze them in LAKE COUNTY passed a local county tax. So the agrument is that Indy passed a special one of a kind law against a single county and thus in essence are discriminating against 1 county vs the rest.

I dont' know the full details but something along that line. The interesteing part is that should LAKE COUNTY win using that argument the they just screwed themselevs with the RDA. Cause PORTER COUNTY is trying to get out of the RDA (they pay more than LAKE does and most of the $$ goes to LAKE) and PORTER was agruing that Indy passed a specila law that affected only the 4 counties in NWI that required them to keep the RDA intact. So PORTER could then use the "win" from LAKE against them and say 'discrimination" and get out of the RDA which in trun would cost LAKE even more money (ie. less money coming in).

 

[Phil502]

Didn't Lake make a huge property tax increase around 2003?
Is there a Porter County Tax?

 

[rambone]

What are the actual property tax rates? I actually was under the impression Lake County had the highest property tax in the whole state.

 

[jedi]

Didn't Lake make a huge property tax increase around 2003?

I think so (was not in the area @ that time or owned a house) but I do recall that the STATE forced the county to give homeowners some type of rebate/credit later I think 2005/6 timeframe due to doing that increase in 2003.

Is there a Porter County Tax?

Every county in INDIANA EXCEPT Lake County has a "county income tax".

 

[jedi]

What are the actual property tax rates? I actually was under the impression Lake County had the highest property tax in the whole state.

It does/did in 2007 when the state froze the property tax to the 2007 level. I think even with the tax frozen at that level LAKE still has the HIGHEST in the state.

 

[rambone]

Oh so you were saying that Lake County is the ONLY county in the state without a local INCOME tax? I would not have guessed that.

 

[jedi]

Oh so you were saying that Lake County is the ONLY county in the state without a local INCOME tax? I would not have guessed that.

Y?

I'm not sure if you are serious or joking? The way it was explained to me when I was a little lad was as such. Lake county does not need a 'local county income tax' becuase they get enough money from the property tax from all the big steel mills. Besides there is no way the county board could introduce a 'local county income tax' without the voters kicking all the board out of office. It would be political suicide. So instead the county will continue to raise the property tax rate, mainly on commerical properties.

From my understanding on the issues the following then occurred.

This worked well, very well for many, many years until some guy from Southern Lake County (lowell I think) may a court case about the issue of the raising of the property taxes on residential homes. Southern Lake county was paying MORE than Northern Lake County since Northern Lake County had the offset of the stell mills. The Indiana Supreme Court ruled in favor of the soutern lake county guy, the state (indy) got wind of the issues, passed a freeze in lake couty to force them to pass a local county tax and well we are now where we are at.


So since the only peson I know who is in southern lake county is melensdad. I balme him for all of this!

 

[rambone]

I only thought as much becuase everyone I know that lives in Lake County gripes about their high taxes (Now I realize they are only talking about property taxes). I didn't expect them to be the only county without income taxes.

 

[jedi]

I only thought as much becuase everyone I know that lives in Lake County gripes about their high taxes (Now I realize they are only talking about property taxes). I didn't expect them to be the only county without income taxes.

They grip about high taxes becuase up until mid-2005 residents were NOT paying a lot in property taxes (ie. residents in northern lake county). The commerical sector (steel mills) were footing that bill along with the new sub-divisions with their 500+ thousand dollar homes in SOUTHERN lake county. When the courts got involved it all went crazy and everyone got re-assesed real high since the commericals could not be hit so hard anymore.

For example a house in East Chicago typically pad less then $800 in taxes a year and after the court case the rate jumped to $3K! The people were outraged since for $3K they demanded better services (EC high school has been on academic probation by the state for 5+ years now and I think will take over the shcool system next year). What hurt northen lake county was the fact that it was a 2 punch hit. Cap the commerical property tax rate and re-look at the rate of the residents in the ENTIRE county.

Now in terms of why the rest of the state has it but not lake county. Hum.. suspect that it being a D stronghold may have something to do with it. They have found "other creative ways" to milk the system and not tax the people. The state finally clamped down and things are getting tough for the D strong hold.


I strong think that had "good" old mayor patrisk still was in office you would not see a lot of these issues come to light. Yes he was corrupt (do doubt) but he ran the city, county and had influence in Indy that ensured eveyrthing "stayed in line" up here. Once he was finally taken down what was left was/is left is a power struggle by the little fish for control of the region. Too bad they did not see that the bigger fish (Indy state) was going to eat them alive. Pastrick I believe kept that big fish out of the regional bowl for a long time.

 

[melensdad]

Didn't Lake make a huge property tax increase around 2003?

Actually that is a "YES" and "NO" sort of thing.

If you owned a newer home then you got a MASSIVE DECREASE in your property taxes but if you owned an older home then you got an INCREASE in your property taxes.

The taxes were theoretically stabilized on REAL ESTATE VALUE under the new/current system. Under the old system new homes were penalized while old homes were subsidized.

HYPOTHETICAL EXAMPLE:

Under the old system a 40 year old home worth $150,000 might pay $750 in property taxes but right next door a 3 year old home worth the exact same $150,000 might pay $4500 in property taxes. In theory, under the new system, both homes now pay the same in property taxes and might be in the $2000 range.

The actual rate will vary from township to township, so a $150,000 home in "township A" may pay $2000 in taxes, while a $150,000 home in "township B" may pay $1650 in taxes and a $150,000 home in "township C" may pay $2900 in taxes . . . all of which is based on schools, local services, etc.​

The people you hear about complaining about 100% tax increases are generally the people from the older communities like Hammond, Whiting and Gary or who have lived in the same house since the 1960's. The people who built/purchased homes in the 1990's and newer were tired of paying hugely inflated taxes on homes of the SAME VALUE to subsidize the "deadbeats" who were not paying their "fair share" of taxes and were getting off cheap simply because the formula used by the state was unjust and gave tax breaks to older homes.

 

[csnoski]

Cap is Killing Them

Haven't seen anyone mention the fact that a Lake County resident gets a $300 TAX CREDIT on their IN 1041, when the rest of the state's homeowners get to deduct their property tax when computing their taxable income. This $300 credit is equivalent to having paid over $8800 in prop taxes! Always wondered how those Chicago-ish pols had pulled that off! If Lake County has (had) the highest prop tax rates in the state that explains it! They keep the prop tax locally and the rest of us are funding them via the state income tax return. Now, with the cap, the county loses and the residents score bigger than the rest of the state.