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The 2001 property tax bill - due in May and November - will not reflect reassessment values.
A reassessment is under way by township auditors and will not show up on tax bills until the 2002 bill payable in 2003.
The April mailings will show properties at triple their usual amount while tax levies have been reduced by one-third.
It's all part of the "smoke and mirrors" to prepare taxpayers for reassessment, according to Kosciusko County Auditor Sue Ann Mitchell.
In 1998, the Indiana Supreme Court issued a decision explaining the constitutional requirements for property assessment. The court ruled Indiana need not adopt a strict market valuation system, but the constitution requires "each taxpayer's property wealth bear its proportion of the overall tax burden."
The court also said the resulting valuation system must be based on objectively verifiable data to enable a review of the assessment system to ensure uniformity and equality.
The state rewrote its assessment rules to satisfy this standard.
In 1999, the Tax Court ordered the state to set new assessment rules to be effective no later than July 1, 2001, and ordered the reassessment to be completed by March 1, 2002.
The state finished its rules in May 2001, and local assessors are now trying to complete the reassessment by the Tax Court's deadline - March 1.
It all started in Lake County when a group of residents filed a 1993 lawsuit against the state regarding their property tax assessments.
They thought the state's assessment system treated different kinds of property unequally and didn't use a "market" valuation.
The new rules don't give the state, county or city any more money because that amount is capped.
What reassessment does is redistribute property tax liability, and residential and agricultural property owners are expected to see the increases.
Overall, the average residential taxpayer is predicted to see a 13.1 percent increase and agricultural property owners are expected to pay 1.5 percent more. Reductions are predicted for businesses (8.3 percent less) and utilities (13 percent less).
In Kosciusko County, however, according to an Indiana Association of Cities and Towns county-by-county chart, residential property owners will see a 23.3 percent increase and agricultural property taxes will be reduced by 7.4 percent, business by 16.9 percent and utilities by 13.4 percent.
Neither Mitchell nor county assessor Laurie Renier will swear by any projected figures.
"There's no one that knows for sure," Mitchell said.
"We just don't know what the impact will be," Renier said.
They do know the process is coming along fairly well.
The auditor's office issues 70,000 tax bills each year: 20,000 for personal property and 50,000 for real property.
Township assessors assess properties each year. Increases on tax bills are indicated by building permit applications indicating additions to the property: decks, auxiliary buildings, family rooms, etc.
Annual assessments are the product of office paperwork. If a permit was issued, this is indicated in the property's files.
Reassessment is a property-by-property visual inspection and the assessor measures both the property and all the buildings.
Usually reassessment is an 18-month process. This year, because no one at the state level could decide on which manual to use until three months ago, assessors have had half the time to complete this enormous task.
This year real estate sales disclosures will be used to determine a median price for the property, Renier said.
By all accounts, owners of older homes will be especially hard hit by reassessment because depreciation values will be removed.
Township assessors have measured all buildings so far and have begun work on measuring every land parcel.
While Tippecanoe, Turkey, Wayne and Plain townships maintain their own records, the other 14 townships' data has to be recorded in the assessor's office.
"The assessor has a huge responsibility," Mitchell said. "On the tax train I'm on the tail end, Laurie is in the middle.
"If I don't get the tax bills out in time, taxing entities don't get their money on time and have to bond or borrow to continue business."
