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Early Monday morning, Kosciusko County Auditor Sue Ann Mitchell was informed by the Indiana Department of Local Government Finance that the county council needed to approve a resolution quickly.
An emergency county council meeting was held Monday night, allowing the council to approve a resolution for provisional tax bills to be sent out to property owners. The council approved the resolution, which needed immediate attention, because of time required for the Department of Local Government Finance to approve the provisional tax bills.
According to the resolution, the county auditor has been unable to certify assessed values by March 16 - as required by Indiana Code - to the county treasurer because of delays in the reassessment process. House Bill 1219 allows for a provisional tax bill to be mailed with a due date after June 15. Mitchell said the county hopes to have the provisional tax bills mailed out by June 13, giving property owners until June 30 to pay the bills. Failure to pay by that deadline would result in a 10 percent penalty.
The estimated cost for the printing of the tax bill forms, envelopes and postage for the approximate 54,000 tax bills to be sent out will be about $30,000. The money will come from the reassessment fund.
Kosciusko County does not expect to mail tax bills based on the new reassessment before the middle of August, with Sept. 30 as the earliest expected distribution date.
The county, according to the resolution, believes making distribution earlier will result in saving tax dollars due to money saved on interest, and the treasurer already has received approval from the State Board of Accounts for the content of the forms for tax bills.
The resolution states that the provisional tax bills should be issued by the county treasurer at a rate of 50 percent of the tax obligation for 2001 payable 2002 on real property only. Mobile homes and personal property will not be billed on the provisional bill but will be billed in fall 2003 based on new tax rates.
New construction that would first receive a bill for 2003 will not be billed until fall 2003.
The county treasurer and auditor will request a due date for the tax bills of June 30 from the Department of Local Government Finance, with a distribution date for those funds collected no later than July 30. The county will send a second reconciling bill when the final tax rate based on the reassessment is received from the Department of Local Government Finance. The due date for the fall 2003 bill will be Nov. 10, with distribution by Dec. 31.
The county commissioners were informed of the matter at their Tuesday meeting.
Members of the county council are Harold Jones, Tom Anglin, Maurice Beer, John Kinsey, Charlene Knispel, Brad Tandy and Larry Teghtmeyer. County commissioners are Brad Jackson, Ron Truex and Avis Gunter.
