To the Editor:
I found the April 20 political letter from forerm State Rep. Woody Burton supporting Joe Hubbard for Greenwood mayor to be disturbing and disappointing. He utilized his name recognition and influence to make claims that are misleading. I am going to focus on the one claim that impacts many property owners.
With the timing of the release of the property tax bills, Burton chose to blame Mayor Mark Myers for the higher bills. He inferred that the higher property tax bills are a direct result of Myers’ failed leadership. I hope that property owners really look at their property tax bills — particularly the State Form 53569 that accompanied the bill. This form identified the assessed value of the property last year and the changed value for this year. The bottom of the form shows the distribution amounts for the various services the property taxes support. The tax rates varied very little from the prior year. The actual tax rate (found on line 3a) showed what the tax rate was last year and this year — in many cases, the total increase was only about 0.0277 points from last year.
Most property owners saw significant increases in the assessed values of their property. This is what accounts for the majority of the higher tax bills. If the assessed value of a house at $179,000 remained the same, the tax would have increased by $32. That is the actual increased tax attributed to the city. The increased assessed values of the homes are the real reason the property taxes were much higher than last year. The city of Greenwood and the mayor have little impact on the increased assessed values of the properties. Those decisions are made by the Johnson County assessor’s office.
The entire state of Indiana saw material changes in the property tax assessments, with most of them going up. This is not something unique to Greenwood. The housing market elevated the selling prices of existing properties and the increased costs of construction materials impacted prices for new houses. Those things are not in the control of the city or any city — definitely not the mayor. To support one candidate over another is Burton’s choice, but to mislead people who look to him for the truth is simply wrong.
John Peters
Greenwood
