By VICKI URBANIK

Only two townships in Porter County -- Portage and Center -- would get to retain their elected township assessor, while all other township assessor posts would be eliminated, under an amended bill pending in the Indiana Legislature.

The Indiana Senate on Monday made significant changes to S.B. 16, which originally proposed eliminating all 1,008 elected township assessors in the state and transferring their duties to the county assessors. The amendment that passed Monday, proposed by Sen. Connie Lawson, R-Danville, would eliminate only those township assessors in townships with less than 15,000 parcels of real property.

The changes would leave 44 township assessors in Indiana, in addition to the 92 county assessors.

In Porter County, only Portage and Center townships have more than 15,000 parcels of real property. Westchester Township has the third highest number of parcels, at approximately 11,500, according to Westchester Township Assessor Candy Crone.

The amended bill retains the original language that would allow all township assessors to remain in office through the end of their terms in 2010, but only to assist their county assessors in the transition.

However, the amended bill includes a new provision to allow townships to elect assessors if their real property parcel count reaches the 15,000 threshold.

It would take a number of property “splits” for Westchester Township to gain another 3,500 parcels. For example, two large subdivisions now proposed in Westchester Township are the Sand Creek Farms in Chesterton, with 362 residential lots, and The Trails of Porter, with 190 lots. So, it would take the equivalent of roughly five more developments the size of Sand Creek Farms and six more developments the size of Trails of Porter for Westchester Township to reach the 15,000 mark.

The proposal to eliminate township assessors has been around for years -- dating back even to the 1999 statewide report known as the C.O.M.P.E.T.E. report. More recently, the idea of abolishing township assessors has appeared in the tax reform plans of Gov. Mitch Daniels and in the report of the Indiana Commission on Local Government Reform.

Crone said Porter County’s township assessors are unlike many others in Indiana, since they all have the highest level of certification required of assessors.

She also said the move to eliminate township assessors won’t save the government money, as some proponents claim.

Indeed, the amended bill would allow county assessors to establish satellite assessing offices.

The pending proposals to do away with township assessors have definitely hurt morale among the assessors and their staff, Crone said. “I think everyone is waiting to see what will happen,” she said.

According to a fiscal impact statement on the amended S.B. 16 prepared by the Indiana Legislative Services Agency, Lake County has six townships with more than 15,000 real property parcels while LaPorte County has one.

Other counties that would get to keep at least one township assessor due to the high number of parcels are Marion County, with eight townships affected; Hamilton County, three; Allen, Johnson, and St. Joseph, each with two; and Bartholomew, Clark, Delaware, Elkhart, Floyd, Hendricks, Howard, Madison, Monroe, Tippecanoe, Vigo, Warrick, and Wayne, each with one.

Posted 1/29/2008