By VICKI URBANIK

Porter County homeowners will soon receive rebate checks to offset their 2007 property tax bills reflecting savings that range from 6 percent to nearly 13 percent.

The Indiana Department of Local Government Finance announced Thursday it has certified the distribution of $300 million of rebate checks statewide, with the funding to come from license fees on horse race tracks in the state. The rebates were part of a bill that passed this year’s Indiana General Assembly.

In Porter County, the rebate checks range from a low of 6 percent in Boone Township to 12.83 percent in the town of Pines. In Duneland, the rebates are all in the 9 to 11 percent range.

What this means in actual dollars depends on the individual homeowners’ tax numbers.

A Chesterton homeowner with a house assessed at $171,000 will get a rebate totaling just under $260. A Porter homeowner with a home valued at $279,000 will get a rebate of $589.

The total amount of rebates to be distributed in Porter County is $3.9 million. Lake County will get $40.7 million, while LaPorte County will get $6.5 million.

The rebates will be issued to homeowners who filed for the homestead deduction as well as for homestead mobile homes. The rebates do not apply to other types of property.

Homeowners who pay their taxes via an escrow account will not get the checks directly, but the money will be sent to their mortgage company, according to the DLGF.

Interestingly, the rebate rates are actually higher than the state’s regular homestead credit this year.

For example, when tax bills go out around Thanksgiving, a Chesterton homeowner’s tax bill will reflect a state homestead credit of 9.7 percent, slightly lower than the 10.58 percent rebate.

Porter’s homestead credit will be shown on the tax bills as 11 percent, but the rebate for Porter homeowners is just shy of 12 percent.

Prompted by horror stories of skyrocketing tax bills elsewhere in the state, Indiana lawmakers this year approved the rebate plan as part of a two-year property tax relief measure, with $300 million set aside to offset property taxes this year and $250 million next year.

It’s unclear what will happen in 2009, when funding for this additional tax relief runs out.

A major reason many homeowners statewide are facing higher taxes is due to a reassessment measure known as trending, which adjusts property value based on actual sales.

In Porter County, the impact of trending varies. Homes in upscale communities like Sand Creek Country Club and Dunes Acres had steep increases in assessments this year, which will result in higher property taxes. But the assessments for many other, more modest homes didn’t go up as much, and many homeowners will actually end up with lower tax bills.

In nine of Porter County’s 29 taxing districts, tax rates have increased, with the biggest increase by far in Portage, followed by Valparaiso and unincorporated Portage Township.

Homeowners in those communities who got hit hard by trending will get a double whammy due to the higher tax rates.

Another factor contributing to the higher tax bills deals with the state’s own homestead credit. Last year, Indiana lawmakers agreed to boost this credit for 2006, with the understanding that it would reduce this year to its previous level while the separate homestead deduction increased.

But this year, Indiana lawmakers, responding to projections of much higher tax bills, adjusted that decision by approving the additional funding for homestead credits, which will be issued as rebate checks this year and which next year will appear as a higher homestead credit rate.

Under the law that passed, counties must include the following language in their rebate mailing: “A portion of your local property taxes due in 2007 are being refunded due to tax relief provided by the Indiana General Assembly. Your refund is in the amount of (auditors are to insert the amount). If you did not receive a check because you pay your property taxes through an escrow account along with your mortgage, your lender will receive the refund and should adjust your payments accordingly.”

By law, that required language is to appear in 12-point type.

The rebates have been criticized by some local officials, who say counties will have to incur mailing expenses that they wouldn’t have had if the state had just combined the higher credit in with the regular tax bills. But lawmakers decided against this, on the grounds that some counties had already had their budget orders approved by the time the law passed.

The DLGF noted that counties can collect interest on the rebate funds from the time they get the funds to the time they issue checks, and that the interest earned will help defray the costs of postage.

Real Rebates

Here is a sampling of what the rebates will total for some Porter County homeowners, using real 2007 tax bill data for actual homeowners (numbers are rounded).

A Chesterton home assessed at $246,500 will get a rebate of $419.

A Porter home assessed at $137,000 will be get a rebate of $224.

A Burns Harbor home assessed at $181,000 will get a rebate of $210.

A Dune Acres home assessed at $683,000 will get a rebate of $1,170.

A Westchester Township home assessed at $136,300 will get a rebate of $127.

A Jackson Township home assessed at $440,000 will get a rebate of $544

A Liberty Township home assessed at $148,000 will get a rebate of $142.

A Pine Township home assessed at $175,000 will get a rebate of $182.

Rates

Here are the rebate rates for some Porter County taxing districts. All are shown in percentages.

Chesterton, Westchester Twp.: 10.58

Chesterton, Liberty Twp.: 10.415

Chesterton, Jackson Twp.: 10.4619

Porter: 11.9870

Burns Harbor: 9.3047

Dune Acres: 10.9005

Westchester Twp.: 9.5802

Jackson Twp.: 9.5205

Liberty Twp.: 9.5080

Pine Twp. (Duneland Schools): 9.6110

Valparaiso: 10.573

Portage: 11.2185

Kouts: 9.5955

Hebron: 7.4460

Ogden Dunes: 10.4711

Posted 11/2/2007