SOUTH BEND — St. Joseph County Assessor Mike Castellon has issued a written statement explaining to property owners why they recently saw yet another spike in their property assessments — even if they’d just won an appeal.
He read the statement — with plans to post it at the Engage portal of the assessor’s website — at a press conference Wednesday, May 7, that streamed live on the county’s Facebook page.
St. Joseph County apparently isn’t alone in the assessment spikes that have spurred so many questions. Concord Township Assessor Chris Dickinson said residents there in Elkhart County are also seeing the increases — and, he said, counties all across Indiana are seeing the same effect.
Dickinson was in the audience with a few other township assessors and county staff. He affirmed a statement that Castellon had just made — that Indiana’s Department of Local Government Finance recently raised cost tables that reflect four years of inflationary values.
That is one of the key factors driving changes in property assessments, Castellon said.
Castellon also said that the COVID-19 pandemic drove up prices in the housing market to “unrealistic values” and stalled economic development.
Inflation and rising construction costs have increased the value of properties, he said.
And Castellon said that data had been inaccurately collected for decades, saying that it didn’t reflect “true market value.” He insisted that his office has been working to correct that to ensure that assessments “reflect today’s actual market conditions.”
In answering reporters’ questions, he acknowledged that the appeal process has taken a while — given that the appeals had once amassed to almost 25,000 in his 2.5 years in office — because his staff aims to communicate with taxpayers to ensure their information is correct. They may call or visit to ensure, for example, that a home has a finished basement or attic.
Next year, he said, he plans to work on delineating neighborhood lines that haven’t been updated since 1995. That, he said, could help to more accurately reflect market values.
Town halls to answer taxpayer questions
The county is inviting taxpayers to a series of four town halls this year that, Castellon said, will go in depth to answer their questions about property taxes, appeals, assessments and deductions. He said his staff will have computers on hand so they can pull up a taxpayer’s property tax card and look more closely.
Along with Castellon, the speakers will include his chief deputy, Alta Neri, along with county Auditor John Murphy and his chief deputy, Abby Doyle.
The town halls will be:
∎ 10 a.m. to noon May 17 in the Howard Park Event Center, 219 S. St. Louis Blvd., South Bend.
∎ 2 to 4 p.m. June 14 in the New Carlisle Public Library, 408 S. Bray St., New Carlisle.
∎ 10 a.m. to noon Sept. 20 in the Walkerton Public Library, 406 Adams St., Walkerton.
∎ 10 a.m. to noon Dec. 13 at Palmer Funeral Home community complex, 601 N. Michigan St., Lakeville.
South Bend Tribune reporter Joseph Dits can be reached at 574-235-6158 or jdits@gannett.com.
This article originally appeared on South Bend Tribune: County assessor issues public letter to taxpayers about property assessment spikes
Reporting by Joseph Dits, South Bend Tribune / South Bend Tribune
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