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The Indiana Tax Court has affirmed the Indiana Department of Local Government Finance’s determination that the Lake County Assessor correctly developed the county’s land order in 2022.
Petitioner Andy Young brought the case against the department in January 2023, challenging the department’s decision on three points: 1) the timing of the determination of land values, 2) how the land values were determined and 3) the accuracy of the base rates in the land values determination.
Young also argued the department did not offer proper notice for the public hearing about a petition for review.
In August 2022, the department conducted a virtual public hearing to discuss the petition for review of the Lake County land values determination. Young and another taxpayer spoke against the department approving the land values determination.
That November, the department issued a final determination approving the county’s land value determination with no changes.
Young argued that the determination of land values under consideration, the 2018 determination for what he claimed was the 2018-2021 quadrennial cycle, should’ve been submitted no later than July 2017 so it could’ve been in place at the beginning of the cycle in January 2018.
Adoption of the determination in early 2022 meant the land base rates were applied retroactively to the years in the cycle.
But the tax court ruled that Young interpreted the reassessment cycle incorrectly.
The court stated the four-year cycle is not the time during which a determination of land values applies but rather a “period during which at least one land values determination must be adopted,” said Special Judge Margret Robb, citing Indiana Code 6-1.1-4-4.2.
The base rates in the 2018 land values determination were applied to taxes in 2019, 2020, 2021 and 2022. The Lake County Assessor submitted a new determination in 2022, in the last year of the next four-year cycle.
Young’s second basis for argument, that the determination of the land values was against the law because the Lake County Assessor should have provided base rates instead of the Calumet Township Assessor, was disproved by the tax court using Indiana Code 36-6-5-1(d) (2022). The code empowers the Calumet Township Assessor to perform base rates assessment duty.
Young’s also claimed the land base rates in Lake County are not accurate, and that the department failed to properly review the land values determination.
The tax court refuted his claims, stating the department did extensive review of the determination and ultimately, the legislature does not have specific language on how the department should conduct reviews of the determinations.
“…the Court has neither the authority under the statute nor the technical knowledge of the assessment review process to impose on the DLGF a requirement for an even more thorough review,” Robb said.
Finally, the tax court argued against Young’s claim that the department didn’t give proper notice of the petition hearing. The department reportedly mailed notices to those who signed the petition to review the determination and posted information about the hearing on its website.
The department also claimed it is not statutorily required to provide notice and mail notices to every taxpayer in Lake County.
During oral argument, Young could not provide statutory language that specifically requires notice be made for a petition hearing.
“Regardless of the merits or demerits of Mr. Young’s public hearing notice suggestions, the DLGF has made reasonable efforts to provide public notice despite the legislature providing no notice requirement, and the Court will not create its own specific notice requirement. That is a matter for the legislature,” Robb said.
The case is Andy Young v. Department of Local Government Finance.
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