Lake County Land Order Decision published, is not changed

An Indiana Ministry of Foreign Affairs has published its decision on Land Command 2023 and claims that the arrangement has been properly created and should not be changed.

On August 1, 2023, one of Gary's largest landowners, Andy Young, submitted a petition with 171 signatures and applied for a review of Lake County's state order.

Young was not available on Tuesday to immediately make a comment on the decision.

“The department states that taxpayers have not proven evidence in order to support one of their claims that the department should reject or change the state command 2023,” says the decision, which was signed by the Ministry of Finance of the Indiana CFO Jason Cockerill. “The department notes that all aspects of land rules 2023 correspond to the legal requirements and valuation standards both in the Indiana code and in the Indiana Administrative Code. The department does not have a change in Lake County 2023. “

The DLGF also received relationship studies for each community Lake County and found that all data contained “in accordance with standard ratings and evaluation standards”.

The department examined the real estate of both in Calumet Township and Miller Beach and found that both districts met the relationship study parameters for throughput, the distribution coefficients and the price in connection with the price.

In Calumet Township, the order recorded significantly higher land values ​​and, according to archives, suspected higher property taxes in the region after the tribune.

Real estate taxes finance state services that are provided by counties, municipalities, municipalities, school districts and other local government agencies, and are based on the market value of a real estate defined by a examiner. Indiana real estate is evaluated every four years, with 25% of the real estate of a district being assessed every year.

Latonya Spearman Lake County On June 21, 2023, the property of the property arrangement on the Lake County real estate tax. The jump of real estate values ​​was due to updated evaluation methods that, according to post-tribune archives, have resolved a long-term problem with the undervaluation of Calumet Township real estate.

Since a petition submitted and followed by precise criteria, the Ministry of Finance had to check the land values ​​of the local government of Indiana and make a decision after a public hearing.

The Ministry of Finance of the Local Administration carried out a public hearing on October 10, 2023 and checked the land regulations and analyzed the information submitted by taxpayers, especially from the areas of Gary and Miller Strand, according to the department's decision.

According to archives according to the tribune, the taxpayers from Lake County described the evaluated commands exorbitantly and exaggerated, with some of them identified as residents of Miller who live on modest or fixed income. They were frustrated to pay larger property taxes while state services are unreliable. Some speakers said that the data was displaced in order to lead to land order that reflects the unfairly inflated property values.

More than 200 taxpayers wrote to DLGF with concerns about the land regulations. Most were residents of Miller Beach, and the decision of the department said that some older ages, defined income and difficult circumstances quoted that would make the payment of higher tax invoices impossible.

The taxpayers also said that local services were missing and that short -term investors are promoting real estate values.

“Many residents stated that they had lived there for decades and were forced to sell with increased real estate values ​​that could lead to higher property taxes,” the decision said. “Some residents of Miller Beach commented on the fact that there are no shops or cafes that help shoulder tax burden and that homeowners in the living owner were wearing the weight of the property taxes.”

The Lake County Assessor has submitted “thousands of individual data points” to support the property values, which included the land rules of 2023 Lake County, the neighborhood counts, the sales 2021-22 according to the neighborhood and the land regulations of Calumet Township. The assessor also provided a list of plots that belonged to Young and Gary James Nowacki on January 1, 2023, and a list of the plots sold by both sold.

Young owned 1,464 packages in 2023, and DLGF found that the real estate sold by Young had an estimated value of $ 283,200 and a total sales price of more than 4.6 million dollars.

mwilkins@chicagotribune.com