If Gov. Mitch Daniels' goal was to eliminate politics from the assessor's job and save money, eliminating elected assessors is not the way to do it, Porter County assessors said.

Local school officials also have reservations about the governor's plan.

As part of Daniels' property tax reform proposal announced Tuesday, all the elected township and county assessors' jobs would be replaced by one person in each county who would be appointed by the county councils. That appointed assessor would have to meet the training standards of the state to be appointed.

The plan also includes a 1-cent sales tax increase to fund property tax relief and a circuit breaker that would limit the property taxes for owner-occupied homes to 1 percent of the home's assessed value.

"Apparently he's not informed," Pleasant Township Trustee-Assessor Jean Oehlman said. "We already are certified (to state standards). What does he mean? Professional appraisers? Whenever you mention the word appointed, I hear payback. We're only doing what the (Department of Local Government Finance) and the state tells us to do. We try to implement what they tell us, and we're being taken out."

All said they are operating their offices with the same budget they had in 1999, so they didn't see how Daniels' plan would save money. Boone Township Assessor Delphine Eck said, with one appointed assessor, most of the work will have to be hired out, which will be costly, and the local touch will be lost.

Center Township Susan Larson said, "The governor's plan is for the rich. The more a house is worth, the more they will save on property taxes. The middle class will suffer with the sales tax. I think it hurts the poor as well. If people do the math, it's not the people who need it that benefit."

Valparaiso Community Schools Superintendent Michael Benway said he understands popular concern with property taxes and would endorse fairer formulas for taxation.

But linking education funding partially or wholly to a sales tax was a concern, Benway said. Sales taxes are unstable revenue sources because they are dependent on the health of the economy, he said. Property taxes, by contrast, are stable year to year.

Union Township School Corp. Superintendent John Hunter said the governor's proposals leave a lot of unanswered questions. Hunter also took exception with the governor, saying he did not feel that schools have spent excessively.

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