Sunday, October 05, 2008

WHY YOU SHOULD VOTE "NO" NOVEMBER 4...

The state wide referendum will read:

Should the assessing duties of the elected township assessor in the township be transferred to the county assessor?

Yes__ or No__

Why you should Vote NO:

On-time property tax billing is a culmination of a year's worth of work of locally elected officials. The process can be separated into two stages:

Assessment-to-Budget and Budget-to-Tax billing.

"Because these two stages are closely tied, delays in any these steps in these two stages can have an affect on the timing of property tax bills. "

The first step in on-time billing is timely completion of the assessment process, also known as trending, a function of the office of the county assessor.

Once the county assessor has completed trending, a report called a "ratio study" is submitted to the state for review and approval.

Once the ratio study is approved, the assessor submits the gross assessed values to the county auditor, who then applies deductions and exemptions to determine the final net assessed values of properties.

The following five reports contain information which was provided to Freedom Of Speech under the Freedom Of Information Act through the Department of Local Government Finance.

To show their progress in completing the 2007-pay-2008 assessment process and why you should "Vote NO" November 4, 2008:

ABSTRACT REPORT:

* Date Data Due: 3/15 of the Pay year
* Number of days late: 48 days

BUDGET ORDER:

* Date Data Due : 2/15 of the Pay Year
* Number of Days Late: 77 days

PARCEL:

* Date Data Due: 10/1 of the Assessment Year
* Number of Days Late: 214 days

PERSPROP:

* Date Data Due: 10/0 of the Assessment Year
* Number of Days Late: 80 days

RATIO STUDY:

* Date Data Due: 6/1 of the Assessment Year
* Number of Days late: 244 days

Source: Department of Local Government Finance

This is an injustice to us as taxpayers!

Voting NO insures your STATE CERTIFIED Assessor can continue to:

* Maintain over 20,000 residential, industrial & commercial properties
* Hear appeals

* Maintain Homestead Exemptions

* Mobile Home Assessments

* Handling all transfers of deeds & sales disclosures

KEEP YOUR TOWNSHIP
ASSESSOR WORKING
FOR YOU...

"VOTE NO"

Source: The Evening News & The Tribune 9/28/08

Freedom Of Speech is asking you our readers to "VOTE NO" based on the FACTS we EXPOSED on the New Albany Township Referendum in the November 4th Election.

Is this why we have NOT received our Property Tax Bills for 2007?