Bill 15-13 Voicing concerns over the assessments of land and seeking amicable solutions

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RESOLUTION NO. SaUqA q(4(( - A RESOLUTION OF THE COMMON COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF SOUTH BEND, INDIANA, VOICING CONCERNS OVER MANY OF THE ASSESSMENTS OF LAND IN THE CITY AND SEEKING AMICABLE SOLUTIONS OF THESE CONCERNS WHICH ARE IN THE BEST INTERESTS OF THE TAXPAYERS 60f^ , on October 1, 2014 the" St. Joseph County Assessor's Office mailed out Form 11- Notice of Assessment of Land and Structures for the 2014 pay 2015 Assessment Year for property owners whose values have changed... "; and CACmmd, even though the St. Joseph County Assessor's Office sent out a News Release on October 2, 2014 notifying the public of this reassessment, many questions have been raised about what many have called "lopsided" relationship between the assessed value, new assessed value and market rate of an increasing number of the properties; and 60AC,md, currently taxpayers may appeal no later than May 10th or 45 days after the date of the tax bill, whichever is later; and GACma, the Common Council recognizes that the County Assessor serves as the Secretary to the Property Tax Assessment Board of Appeals which reviews property tax assessments and reviews all tax assessment appeals; and NC,=, the Common Council further recognizes that the City of South Bend has a website dedicated to "Property Taxes" at ww_w.ci.south- bend.in.us which provides links to the St. Joseph County Treasurer's Office so that assessments, exemptions and payments may be viewed; as well as links to the Department of Local Government Finance, St. Joseph County Assessor, St. Joseph County Auditor; and 6A ; the Department of Local Government Finance (DLGF) has an oversight role in the property assessment process after the Assessor has placed values on properties in the county; and G,wd, DLGF reviews "an assessment to sales ratio study" which is "basically a comparison between sales and assessed values in the county to ensure that market values are being used to determine assessed values" in order to measure "the accuracy and equity of assessments" as further addressed on the DLGF website available at www.in.gov ; and 6A64 attached to this Resolution are the most recent documents listed on the DLGF's website for St. Joseph County which include the July 9, 2014 DLGF approval letter, the June 23, 2014 letter from the St. Joseph County Auditor, and a 1 -page summary page from the 92 -page 2014 Ratio Study; and 6N;w4 the "statewide cyclical reassessment began on July 1, 2014 for the 2015- pay -2016 property taxes, and the next four years [whereby] during the statewide reassessments, county and township assessors physically inspect each property to ensure that records are correct "; and Q%Cmz, during the statewide cyclical reassessment process, assessing officials are to re- assess "approximately 25% of the parcels in their jurisdiction each year over a four year timeframe" with the DLGF website further stating that "it is expected [that] the data collection will be more accurate and the cost spread out.