INDIANAPOLIS | More than 100 elected township assessors facing pink slips this summer are entitled to paychecks through year's end, and they also could hit taxpayers for $1,000 bonuses.
Indiana Attorney General Steve Carter delivered that news Friday afternoon in a legal opinion interpreting details of a consolidation effort the General Assembly set in motion two months ago.
Lawmakers decided to hand counties the assessment duties of 829 township trustee assessors, who will remain in office to oversee fire protection, poor relief and other programs. Another 136 elected township assessors face the ax.
But legislators guarded against a lawsuit by waiting until 2011 -- when current four-year terms expire -- to eliminate the office of township assessor. State law prohibits pay cuts for elected officials, Carter explained, so the 136 downsized assessors are entitled to no-work paychecks until current township budgets expire at year's end.
"Anytime you make a transition like this, the financial benefits are going to be in the long run, and in the short run ... there may be some additional costs involved," Carter said when asked how he thought taxpayers would take the news. "Over the long term, I think the Legislature was trying to bring about a more efficient system, and that should be realized."
Carter also interpreted state law to say that ousted township assessors who find county assessment jobs are allowed to draw both township and county paychecks until 2009. The state is expected to zero out township assessor budgets next year.
Unless they land a county job, the elected townships assessors will be assessor in name only until their terms end in January 2011. But, Carter added, legislators must change state law next year if they want to stop out-of-work assessors from cashing in on a $1,000 bonus available to those who pass four-day state certification courses that end with open-book exams.
Spurred by Gov. Mitch Daniels, legislators decided to shift the duties of most of Indiana's 1,008 elected township assessors to the 92 counties, a move designed to boost accountability and consistency for taxpayers. The consolidation measure lawmakers approved in March spared local assessors in the state's 43 largest townships.
A ballot question in November will allow voters do decide whether to eliminate the remaining 43 local assessors. The vote will seal the fate of assessors in Center, Calumet, Hobart, North, Ross and St. John townships in Lake County and Center and Portage townships in Porter County.
