Property taxes are a perennial thorn in the side of Indiana lawmakers. The state doesn’t receive any of the revenue, but legislators write the rules that infuriate citizens.

Many residents agree on one thing: the assessment system for properties needs to be revamped. Hoosiers deserve some stability in these values that play dramatically into their tax bills.

It came up numerous times at a Tuesday night property tax event — in public comments and when I spoke privately with residents. And yet there was no discussion about how to deal with it.

For some, nothing but a complete elimination of property taxes will ever be enough. I am not talking to those people. You simply can’t eliminate $10.6 billion in taxes without replacing it. And replacing the revenue — or even most of it, for those who believe local governments are spending too much — would have disastrous impacts on local services and debt.

That’s because property taxes are stable compared to income and sales taxes. The latter taxes drop when the economy does. During a recession, the police still have to be paid. Schools still have to be open.

Lawmakers to study property tax assessments ahead of 2027 session

But people upset with the mechanics of property taxes and looking for improvements deserve fair consideration. And that’s what brings me to assessed value.

My own home saw its assessed value grow by double-digit percentages year after year. Then in 2022, a fourth such increase caused us to appeal. We had coincidentally performed a private appraisal a few months before for a home equity line of credit. The difference between the county assessment and the appraisal was about $95,000.

So, we appealed and won. But not everyone can afford to pay for an independent appraisal to do that.

In the 2026 legislative session, only three bills involving assessment of property were filed and none of them received a hearing.

House Bill 1238, authored by Rep. Ryan Dvorak, D-South Bend, was the most on point. It would have limited assessed value changes for owner-occupied homesteads to only when a property is sold. The cost of the proposal was huge, though. It would have reduced gross assessed values statewide by $34 billion, causing tax rates to increase and shifting taxes from homesteads to other properties such as rentals, farmers and businesses.

Another bill would have created a special property assessment task force. Instead, legislative leaders simply assigned the general topic to the Interim Study Committee on Fiscal Policy.

An Oct. 14 hearing is set to consider alternatives to the annual adjustment or trending process and the use of cost tables in property assessment. I hope lawmakers consider some smaller changes that would limit the annual growth of assessed value so that the system is more stable, rather than roller coaster swings up and down.

The only reason I can theorize why legislators haven’t tackled the assessed value issue is they don’t want history to repeat itself.

In 1997, the Indiana Tax Court case ruled Indiana’s “true tax value” assessment system unconstitutional. That system relied on subjective cost schedules and formulas that did not measure actual fair market value or property wealth equitably — resulting in unfair assessments across the board that treated taxpayers differently.

As a result, Indiana was forced to adopt a market value system using verifiable data. What this means in practice is using the value of similar properties that have sold to set your assessed value even if you have no intention of selling.

Talk about a rock and a hard place.

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