Friday, July 30, 2010

Get Your Waders On - Marion County Tax Cap Credits for 2010

The tax caps are now fully in effect for property taxes in Indiana. Homestead property is capped at 1%, farms and rental property caps come in at 2%, and commercial real estate is capped at 3% of the GROSS Assessed Value.

Tax cap credits were applied to all properties whose tax bill was going to be greater than the percentage allowed by the tax cap for that type of property. If your bill was going to be $1251, and the tax caps only allowed a maximum of $1000, then your 'tax cap credit' is $251. Tax cap credits are called 'circuit breaker credits' as well.

Well, we now have the total amount of circuit breaker credits issued in Marion County for 2010. Thanks to Mike Rodman, Marion County Treasurer, and Cindy Land, Administrative Deputy, for providing me with the information.

I did a little crunching of the numbers to bring them to the level of the circuit breaker credit applied by Township. Below I also list the property tax 'levy', which is what the bills would have totaled without the tax caps. The '%' column shows the circuit breaker credit as a percentage of the 'levy'.


LEVYCircuit Breaker
Credit
%
Center$136,294,039$13,320,4769.8%
Decatur35,771,5654,381,03812.2%
Franklin65,315,78916,053,29924.6%
Lawrence115,826,5386,933,1606.0%
Perry82,864,4644,029,4044.9%
Pike106,431,4382,352,8522.2%
Warren86,482,6783,896,9724.5%
Washington158,059,28910,323,9666.5%
Wayne122,517,57814,005,27311.4%
Marion County
Total
909,563,37875,296,4398.3%


Obviously, Franklin Township stands out with a quarter of all property taxes given a tax cap credit. Even looking at it as a total dollar amount, Franklin Township scored the highest with over $16 million in credits, besting far more developed Townships.

Overall, property taxpayers saved an aggregate of $75 million in 2010 on property taxes due to the new property tax caps.

8 comments:

Gary R. Welsh said...

We always need to remind people that everyone is paying a 1 percentage point higher sales tax in consideration for the tax cap, a fact conveniently forgotten by the local taxing districts. Also, the state picked up a half billion dollars in public pension liabilities for the City of Indianapolis, as well as a welfare levey.

Had Enough Indy? said...

You're absolutely right, and thanks for bringing that up. The State anticipated getting far more revenue from the increased sales tax than they put out in those 'picked up' expenses. So, overall, we are paying more.

Anonymous said...

Many people also saw the market value of their homes significantly decrease and many other homes have gone into foreclosure.

Anonymous said...

Don't understand???

They are hiring 2 athletic supervisors at the high school but they don't have enough money for elementary pe, music, and art.

?????? A dollar is a dollar.

Anonymous said...

HEI:

Do you have a list of all employees who are charged $1 for their health insurance - superintendent's secretary, coaches, administrators, etc.????

Had Enough Indy? said...

anon 6:12 -- I only have the contracts for central office administrators, who certainly fit that bill... so to speak.

I assumed Principals got the same deal, but you are adding COACHES to the list???? I would have thought they were covered entirely by the Teachers Contract, which covers 86% of the costs.

Do you have firm information, or are you expressing a point of curiousity?

Anonymous said...

In several other districts in central Indiana, the health insurance benefits were examined as part of their fiscal restructuring and it was revealed that there were several coaches who were getting $1 insurance. Those districts did not give the superintendent's secretary the $1 insurance. There has been "talk" that Ms. Brodhacker is not the only central office non-administrator getting the $1 insurance. It may be worth asking for a list of who receives $1 insurance. Mooresville does not give the superintendent or anybody $1 insurance.

Had Enough Indy? said...

thanks anon 7:50 -- let me think how I can approach the open records request you suggest. It sounds interesting and worthwhile; as it would serve to illuminate what is or isn't happening.