Fort Wayne News

INDIANAPOLIS – State officials are considering a subtle change to Indiana’s assessment rules that could have a large effect on properties in mixed-use areas.

Assessors annually use sales data of like properties in an area to adjust the assessed value of a property, a process called trending.

But the Department of Local Government Finance – which oversees the assessment system – is drafting a new assessing manual that could change the process. It wouldn’t be applied until taxes payable in 2012.

In the proposed manual, the Department of Local Government Finance wants to move from a “market value in use” system to just “market value” – a change that sounds small but has some county and township assessing officials worried.

E-mails are floating around saying that the change in rules would shift the burden of property taxes from commercial and industrial property to residential.

[...]

Department of Local Government Finance spokeswoman Mary Jane Michalak said Indiana’s current market value in use system reflects the way property is being used now.

But most other states use market value, which is what properties of a similar nature are going for on the open market regardless of their current use.

Under the proposal, in areas having mixed usage of commercial, industrial and residential properties, homes would no longer be compared with only similar residential properties. Instead nearby properties in other categories – such as commercial or industrial – may also be included in the sales data used to determine the assessed value on that home.

How does a property valued at say $1.5 million that is occupied by a retailer have a anything thing to do with the value of a home? When a realtor tries to come up with the value of your home for listing, they use the tried and true method called “comparables”. From Wiki:

Comparables (or comps) is a real estate appraisal term referring to properties with characteristics that are similar to a subject property whose value is being sought.

How does commercial and industrial property have anything to do with residential property values? It doesn’t.

Maybe the Department of Local Government Finance is feeling the heat from cities and towns for their losses in property tax revenues. This appears to be nothing more than a way to sidestep the recent property tax decreases.

AWB

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Have fun! - AWB

Popularity: 3% [?]

Every time this dumbass from NIPSCO checks my meter, he backs onto the grass. There’s now a permanent bare spot from him spinning his tires.

NIPSCO - Inconsiderate

from Dan Turkette on Vimeo.

I’m going to have a couple of these strategically placed in the yard next month.

AWB

Popularity: 2% [?]

From the News Sentinel:

“They may hate guns, but they have no problem blasting holes in the Constitution,” Colbert said of the campaign, the lobbying arm of the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence, founded by James and Sarah Brady. James Brady was press secretary to President Reagan when he was shot in the head and partially paralyzed in the 1981 assassination attempt on Reagan.

“How long is he going to hold that up as, like, I know more about being shot than you do?” a vexed Colbert asked Helmke about Brady. “Wouldn’t it take more courage to be shot and go, ‘No, I’m not going to infringe on other people’s rights just because something bad happened to me’? That would be bold.”

AWB

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From the News Sentinel

Mayor: Contract decision ‘bittersweet’ 

Although he remains optimistic it will improve government performance, Mayor Tom Henry on Wednesday called his predecessor’s 11th-hour decision to award a three-year, $285,000 contract to a nonprofit corporation the former mayor helped create “bittersweet.”

Before taking office Jan. 1, Henry said Graham Richard sent him the proposed contract with the High Performance Government Network, which promotes management techniques Richard said saved the city $30 million. “I said I’d consider it,” Henry said. But City Controller Pat Roller signed the contract less than a week before Richard left office, obligating Henry’s administration to pay $95,000 this year and again in 2009. Despite signing the contract the last week of the year, the city also paid $95,000 in 2007, even though it received no services in return.

$30 million my ass. Prove it.

“That was the ‘bitter’ part. That doesn’t sit well with me,” Henry said.

The organization is located in the Public Safety Academy, where it pays rent of nearly $615 each month.

How much room is that I wonder?

AWB

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Guest post by Scott Fluhr of Hoosier Pundit

I have not blogged about the AG race lately, as there isn’t a whole lot to say.

Mitch has long-since thrown his backing behind Jon Costas, the man that he hand-picked to be a candidate in the first place. That’s about as surprising as the director for some movie saying that the movie’s lead actor deserves an Academy Award; it’s about as ringing an endorsement as a candidate being endorsed by their own mother.

Now, however, Hoosierpundit sources in Marion County have an interesting tidbit from the rumor mill about the looming GOP convention floor fight for attorney general.

Carl Brizzi, the Republican prosecutor in Marion County, endorsed Greg Zoeller, whose unwillingness to yield to Mitch Daniels’ grand design threatens to torpedo the Governor’s pick for attorney general in a potentially embarrassing convention floor fight.

Brizzi’s endorsement has put Marion County’s hundreds of convention delegates in play, and there are almost a hundred open convention delegate slots from Indy.

Perhaps fearing weakness by Costas (large areas of the state have lined up in favor of Zoeller), the Governor and his allies have gone into overdrive to push a turnout of pro-Costas delegates from Indianapolis.

Because the GOP state convention is a one-day affair, on a weekday, in Indianapolis, getting delegates to the convention from the rest of the state will be difficult (traditionally, just getting a quorum at the convention has proven difficult at times in the past).

But getting big delegate turnout from Indy will be easy.

The Marion County GOP is now mandating that appointed convention delegates sign a loyalty oath, a signed affidavit, pledging to vote for Jon Costas for attorney general. The pressure upon these would-be delegates is significant, and the desire to ram through the Costas nomination high.

One can’t also help but wonder if certain Ron Paul supporters, who have already made trouble in GOP state conventions in states such as Nevada, might well be willing to make such loyalty oaths to gain convention delegate appointments and cause endless trouble in other areas.

And that is only the beginning of the unintended consequences of strong-arming delegates with such tactics, and thus effectively limiting the pool of willing and eager convention attendees.

The efforts in Marion County raise serious questions about the Costas candidacy.

If Costas’ victory must be obtained by the Governor ramming it down the throat of the convention–a gathering of a party base that is already fractious and frequently none-to-happy with the Governor for reasons best discussed elsewhere–then what sort of victory is it?

If Costas cannot win a convention floor fight without being railroaded through by Mitch Daniels, then that does not speak well for his appeal as a candidate in November.

This post is also available at Hoosierpundit.

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Tracy “Waldo” Warner missed his column yesterday, with no explanation on the Journal Gazette web site.

The last column was May 6th. Where are ya Tracy?

AWB

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Earlier this week, 911 dispatch received a call where the complainant that their neighbor was letting freon out of an air conditioner and it was going to kill the ozone. Sheesh.

I looked at Indiana Code, this was all I could find:

IC 35-46-6-2
Inhaling toxic vapors
     Sec. 2. A person who, with intent to cause a condition of intoxication, euphoria, excitement, exhilaration, stupefaction, or dulling of the senses, ingests or inhales the fumes of:
        (1) model glue; or
        (2) a substance that contains:
            (A) toluene;
            (B) acetone;
            (C) benzene;
            (D) N-butyl nitrite;
            (E) any aliphatic nitrite, unless prescribed by a physician;
            (F) butane;
            (G) amyl butrate;
            (H) isobutyl nitrate;
            (I) freon;

I could not find anything else. I did find this, by Greg Perry.

Keep cool!  –  AWB

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The wall built to protect the Wildwood Park neighborhood has fallen once again. It was repaired this past March after a slew of winter accidents knocked down portions of the wall. Photos taken by the News Sentinel in January show pieces of the wall falling inward, or away from Jefferson Boulevard and into the backyards of Wildwood Park residents.

Today several sections of the wall are missing, but oddly, the walls appear to have collapsed towards Jefferson, as if pushed from the backyards.

Satellite view after repairs.

AWB

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