CROWN POINT | Lake County officials said they are preparing to act now to head off a repeat of the assessment crisis in Gary that could delay all property tax bills across the county in 2011.
Lake County Assessor Paul Karras is reviewing the options available if he must take over the annual evaluation property assessment fairness -- known as a ratio study -- in and around Gary and Griffith if Calumet Township Assessor Booker Blumenberg's office fails to produce a ratio study that complies with state standards.
Sherry Stone-Lucas, second deputy of the county assessor's office, said Friday, "It is the county assessor's duty to submit the ratio study. We haven't made a decision about what to do because we are still reviewing data Calumet Township submitted.
"We are trying to take the bull by the horns and stay ahead of it so that what happened last year doesn't happen again," Stone-Lucas said.
"They've bungled it again," said one official who asked to remain anonymous.
Blumenberg defended his staff's performance and blames Frank Kelly, president of the Nexus Group, with smearing his office with the hope of talking county officials into giving Kelly the business of correcting Calumet Township's alleged faults.
Nexus Group is an Indianapolis-based tax consultant that has won millions of dollars in contracts doing assessment work elsewhere in the county.
Blumenberg said of county officials, "They rely too much on Frank Kelly, who is trying to take advantage. If he wants to try and drum up business for himself, then I understand what this is about," Blumenberg said Friday.
Kelly said Friday, "Booker thought last year the flaws in his assessment was somehow our doing, and his theory didn't hold water."
The Indiana Department of Local Government Finance declared Blumenberg's previous ratio study, late last year, to be flawed and well past the deadline needed to return Lake County to on-time property tax billing, something county property owners haven't enjoyed in seven years.
The state took over the job of ratio study adjustment and imposed an across-the-board 2 percent decrease in Gary and Griffith residential property values. Thousands of appeals from angry property owners who claim their land and homes were over assessed have followed in the wake of the dispute between Blumenberg and the state. County officials have been hard-pressed to resolve the appeals.
Lake County Attorney John Dull said Friday if Blumenberg's office cannot comply with state guidelines, then county Assessor Paul Karras must gear up his own plan.
Dull recently wrote Karras, "You have to do something now." Dull suggested the county could hire Nexus to compute the annual adjustment of Calumet Township's real estate market trends, which are used to base tax assessments.
Dull warned that if the state has to take over Calumet Township's ratio study next year, tax bills in 2011 could be delayed by as much as six months.
Mary Jane Michalak, director of communications for the Indiana Department of Local Government Finance, which oversees local assessments, said Friday, "There is a potential that the delay in the receipt of the ratio study could prevent bills from being issued on time. However, last year, 85 counties achieved on-time billing, and many of those counties submitted ratio studies well after (their deadline)."
