Lake County property tax reassessment. "Court hears tax bill case" from the Munster Times:
The Miller Citizen Corp.'s lawyer said the 2001 law authorizing the hiring of an outside company rather than elected assessors was unconstitutional because it singled out Lake County. The attorney general's office said the outcome -- and supersized tax bills in Miller and North Township -- wouldn't have changed regardless of who did the assessment.From the Gary Post Tribune:"It changes the who but not the how," said Joby Jerrells, a deputy attorney general. "Because it does not change the methodology, it's not unconstitutional special legislation."
Much of the argument focused on whether the assessment outcome would have been different without the special legislation cutting local assessors out of the picture. This point is crucial, because a recent ruling on special legislation found another law unconstitutional because the Legislature gave no reason why the special treatment was necessary.
Jerrells argued the special law was necessary because Lake County assessors had a long history of unfair underassessment of certain property.
The outcome argument hinged on the Miller group's belief that assessing the county's Big Four industries separately from all other property led to a shift in the tax burden to homeowners from industry. Kenneth Reed, lead attorney for the Miller citizens, said local township assessors would have kept the dual groups in proportion to their worth rather than allow a significant shift that devalues homes with high tax burdens.
The justices are caught between two of their own decisions — their 1998 ruling in the St. John case that declared the old assessment system unconstitutional and the South Bend Kimsey case prohibiting special legislation.Zoning Issue.The Gary Post Tribune coverage has this headline "St. John zoning change in court." Some quotes:Their 1998 ruling eventually led Tax Court Judge Thomas Fisher to set a statewide deadline to have a new assessment system in place for taxes due in 2003.
Hoping to stay out of Tax Court and delay future bills with the new assessment figures, the Miller Citizens Corp. argued the 2002 law that allowed the independent reassessment of Lake County was special legislation, which was deemed illegal by the high court in the 2003 Kimsey decision.
“It sounds like the statute does contradict Kimsey, but the legislature didn’t know it at the time,” said Justice Frank Sullivan, speaking to Toby Jerrells, the deputy attorney general arguing the case for the government.
Though Lake County was the only county in the state required by lawmakers to have an independent reassessment, the attorney general has argued it wasn’t illegal special legislation because the same assessment rules — use of market values to determine taxing values — applied to everyone around the state.
The Indiana Supreme Court heard arguments Wednesday over whether St. John can stop the rezoning of a busy intersection, even if the rezoning is in line with the town’s master plan.Posted by Marcia Oddi at June 24, 2004 10:05 AMChester Borsuk owns a lot a short block west of the U.S. 41/U.S. 231 intersection, facing Ontario Street. Half of the less-than-an-acre parcel is zoned commercial and the other half has a house on it and is zoned residential.
The town denied Borsuk’s request in 2000 to rezone the residential half to commercial, despite a 1990 town master plan that said the area should become commercial.
“They are the ones who said it should become commercial. They are the ones who have to make a compelling argument why it should not be,” said Michael Muenich, Borsuk’s attorney.
Zoning disputes typically don’t land in the Supreme Court, but the lot is in a busy intersection in St. John, and it would be valuable if it were available for business development. Most of the property in the area already has been rezoned commercial.