Public officials all over Indiana seem totally baffled as to why they cannot get property tax bills out in a timely manner. I hear a lot of excuses (actually all I hear are excuses) about why tax bills are so late, but one point consistently seems to be raised: the computation of "trending" in determining fair market value is causing a lot of problems and delays with the tax bills.
So:
Is Trending Best?
If so, why is it best?
Are there other ways to fix fair market value?
Can the legislature come up with something that is simpler, reasonably fair and will get tax bills out on time?
Frankly, I don't care anymore who is to blame. Let's get the problem of tax bills solved. If trending is one of the impediments then lets find a better way. We are are running the risk of becoming a "failed state" like California and it is about time we set our own house in order.
I would fix the value at time time of sale and then do periodic reassessments, say every 5 years. Can that be so hard? It seems to me the paperwork for that is no harder than when we used "replacement value" for property taxes and for decades we got the bills out on time.
I would like to hear what you think.
