Chesterton Tribune

 

 

State estimates that tax caps will take bigger bite in 2017

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By JEFF SCHULTZ

On Tuesday, the Porter County Council held its review of the levy limits and circuit breaker caps for each taxing unit in the county, making the recommendation that local taxing units not exceed their maximum tax collections.

In recent years the Council has had to review the complete budgets of the taxing units in the county and give a non-binding recommendation, but state lawmakers passed a new law that gives counties the ability to make recommendations on the estimated maximum tax levies and also the tax cap impacts, said County Auditor Vicki Urbanik.

Before the new law, a public hearing by the Council was held for all the taxing unit budgets, typically right before the Council started its first and second readings of the proposed Porter County budget for the following year. This year the public hearing will only be for the 2017 budgets for county government.

“There was a lot of confusion by what a non-binding review meant. It didn’t seem to have a whole lot of relevance,” Urbanik said as to why legislators decided to change the law.

Additionally, the Department of Local Government Finance is to provide each unit with its estimated maximum levy and an estimate of the amount that the budget will be reduced by tax caps.

The taxing units can then attend the Council’s review of the levies and tax cap amounts to address any matters. None came before the Council on Tuesday.

Council President Dan Whitten, D-at large, said his recommendation would be what it has been before, that the units don’t budget over their levies. “My recommendation is don’t increase the property taxes,” Whitten said. “I would like for them to follow our example.”

For Porter County Government, the maximum levy estimate for 2017 is $40,591,222. Urbanik said the state’s assessed value growth quotient will be 3.8 percent.

The tax cap impact estimate is a $3.6 million reduction for County Government’s 2017 budget. Urbanik believes that number is a not a conservative estimate. The estimate for 2016 was $1.9 million.

The levy is used to calculate tax rates. The levy is divided by a unit’s total net assessed value to determine the tax rate. Because assessments are up in Porter County, Urbanik says she thinks the rates will be lower for the fourth consecutive year.

Urbanik provided the Chesterton Tribune with the rest of the DLGF’s estimates for all taxing units. Below are those pertaining to Duneland.

Maximum Levy estimates

The maximum levy is what each unit is allowed to collect in property taxes for the year.

Chesterton: $5,596,265

Beverly Shores: $479,034

Burns Harbor: $1,968,723

Dune Acres: $358,798

Porter: $2,450,043

Pines: $115,190

Jackson Twp.: $110,623

Liberty Twp.: $354,191

Pine Twp.: $114,168

Westchester Twp.: $123,526

Duneland School Corporation (for bus replacement and transportation budgets only: $4,868,246

Westchester Public Library: $2,953,070

Tax cap reduction estimates

The 2017 estimates are given along with the 2016 in parentheses for comparison.

Chesterton: -$1,174,397 (-$482,251)

Beverly Shores: -$173,900 (-$16,658)

Burns Harbor: -$3,104 (-$26)

Dune Acres: -$22,960 (-$1,657)

Porter: -$449,910 (-$255,237)

Pines: -$5,330 (-$122)

Jackson Twp.: -$609 (-$375)

Liberty Twp.: -$5,922 (-$2,428)

Pine Twp.: -$6,510 (-$690)

Westchester Twp.: -$6,961 (-$3,112)

Duneland School Corporation (for all school funds) -$1,774,154 (-$536,419)

Westchester Public Library: -$240,996 (-$109,675)

 

 

Posted 8/25/2016

 
 
 
 

 

 

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