By VICKI URBANIK

Two more consultants have been brought on board to help Porter County government resolve the setbacks in preparing this year’s property taxes.

At a very brief special meeting Thursday, the Porter County Council unanimously accepted the recommendation of consultant Beth Henkel by agreeing to hire consultants to assist the county auditor’s office and the county and township assessors. The total cost is expected to be up to $72,000.

Specifically, the Crowe Chizek firm will be retained for up to $37,000 to help the auditor’s office in several tasks, including getting the tax abstract completed and final settlement of the 2007 property taxes. Because the abstract and settlement have not yet been done, the county has been unable to issue $9.3 million worth of state-ordered rebate checks to homeowners.

The second consultant, assessor-appraiser Lorraine Harmon, will be brought on for up to $35,000 to help the assessors complete the work known as trending for commercial and industrial properties. That work is needed in order to complete the property tax billing for taxes payable this year.

A number of township assessors and county officials were in attendance for the council’s special meeting Thursday, and no one voiced concerns with the plan to hire the consultants.

The county still intends to issue provisional bills in May, a move that will allow local government units to receive some tax revenues without having to borrow to the extent they did last year. Those provisional bills will be based on the 2007 bills, with the actual tax amounts to be reconciled for the November payment.

Much of the work that the council authorized on Thursday involves completing the tax work needed to issue the rebates, as well as preparing for the second and reconciling November tax payment.

Henkel, an Indianapolis-based attorney and the former DLGF Commissioner who was retained by the council in January, submitted a detailed report that focuses largely on issues related to updating and coordinating computer software programs and tax data.

She dubbed the goal for Porter County as its “Back on Track Goal,” which refers to the goal of resolving the delays and errors in property tax bills that have occured for several years, stemming in part from the state’s change in reassessment methods. Last year’s bills weren’t sent out until December, and officials said months ago that this year’s bills would be late again.

When asked why additional consultants are needed, Henkel attributed the tax problems in Porter County to a two-fold “continuity problem.” She cited issues with the transition from the previous county auditor to current auditor James Kopp, as well as changing rules at the state level.

On that latter issue, Henkel said the state auditor has not yet approved Porter County’s tax abstract because of an inability to calculate the increment assessed value for the county’s Tax Increment Finance areas. She said the state apparently imposed new procedures “without notice to the county.”

Henkel said the work that will be done now will save the county in the long run. “We’re trying to save time and money,” she said.

Much of Henkel’s report focused on the new software selected for the auditor, treasurer and assessor offices. The selection of the Hamer software prompted much debate last year, due to disagreements among office holders over which vendor should be selected. Henkel, too, raised concerns about the software in her report, but concluded that she needs more information, along with the expertise of Crowe Chizek, before making a definitive recommendation on how to implement a new software system, while using the current system, to ensure that the property tax bill work is fully back on track for 2009.

The consultant who will work with the assessors, Harmon, is a former assistant director of the assessment division at the DLGF. Henkel reported that the township assessors are nearly done with all of the residential trending needed for the 2008 bills, but that this data cannot be submitted to the state until the trending for commercial and industrial properties is completed.

Porter County Council Council President Robert Poparard, D-1st, noted that the county typically contracts out for the commercial and industrial assessing work, and that Harmon’s contract is in keeping with that practice.

Henkel said it is not yet determined when the 2007 tax abstract and settlement will be done, so it’s impossible to know at this point when the county will issue the homeowner rebate checks. Countywide, the rebate checks will total $9.3 million and will be issued to each owner of a homestead.

Posted 3/7/2008