INDIANAPOLIS | After delaying the current payment deadline to aid businesses bitten by big property tax spikes, Porter County officials are considering another option for future tax bills.
State Rep. Ed Soliday, R-Valaparaiso, said he met last weekend with Porter County Council members to discuss implementing a monthly payment option legislators created last year.
"We're just looking at everything," Soliday said Tuesday before heading to a meeting with officials from the Indiana Department of Local Government Finance.
The state agency is reviewing whether a reassessment is warranted in Porter County after some businesses there were hit with uncommonly high tax property tax hikes. For instance, a tech firm that bought a dome near Ind. 2 and Ind. 49 for $1 million in July got hit a $140,000 bill based on a tax assessment that valued the property at $7 million.
A 2008 law authored by state Sen. Karen Tallian, D-Ogden Dunes, allows counties to offer taxpayers the opportunity to make monthly installment payments via electronic bank deduction.
"I think the (county) council is going to take a look at that," Porter County Commissioner Bob Harper said Tuesday.
The monthly payment system, which becomes available to counties in July, would allow property owners to make estimated payments until their tax bill is calculated. The monthly deduction would be adjusted after the true bill amount is known.
Plagued by software problems and data mix-ups with the state, Porter was among the last of the 92 counties to issue 2008 tax bills. Final payment is due Friday after the state granted a two-week extension amid a rash of complaints.
