Commercial property tax appeals are taking a toll on the county's tax revenues.
And Shelby County is not alone.
On Monday, the Shelby County Commissioners approved a tax refund of $295,000 to CVS following the company's appeal to the state over its property assessment.
County Auditor Amy Glackman said after the meeting that similar property tax appeals cost the county almost $337,000 in 2018.
So far this year, Glackman said appeals have cost the county almost twice as much, nearly $580,000. Large refunds, like the one to CVS, will be repaid over 5 years as reductions in the businesses' future property tax bills, she said.
Commissioner Chris Ross (R-North District) said the refunds stem from a court case; Commissioner Kevin Nigh (R-Center District) said the state legislature is considering changes in the law.
“Go back to the legislation right after the state did their tax reassessment thing; you guys wrote stories on it, the box stores, of how they are assessed,” Ross said.
“And they're working on, at the Statehouse, on something on that situation again this year,” said Nigh.
“Yeah, go back, and that's what I was asking Amy when she brought it up. I remember all the articles. But that has to do with that box store assessment,” said Ross.
The case the commissioners were referring was decided in 2014. That's when the Indiana Board of Tax Review ruled that a Meijer store on 96th Street in Indianapolis should have been assessed at $30 per square foot as opposed to $83 a square foot.
Meijer and other so-called “big box” stores have argued that, under the state's new assessment rules, their active stores should be assessed at the same rate as their vacant stores.
The stores say that business traffic at an active store should not be a factor. Numerous counties have been impacted by the tax appeals.
In February, lawmakers in the Indiana State Senate approved Senate Bill 623 so retailers could no longer use vacant stores as a comparison to appeal the property tax bills of their active stores.
SB 623 passed the Senate by a wide margin, 42 to 7. The bill is now before the Indiana House Ways and Means Committee. But even if approved, the legislation will not affect property tax appeals already decided.
In other matters, the commissioners voted to install a stop sign at the intersection of County Roads 400 West and 775 South near the Tanglewood subdivision.
Reconvened as the Shelby County Drainage Board, the commissioners voted to allow Amy Mullen to connect her property at 7073 E. U.S. 52 to the Alexander tile legal drain.
And the commissioners will have County Surveyor Taylor Sumerford look into concerns that installation of the Ranger Power solar farm will interfere with work planned for the Carmony tile.
