Assessor: Statehouse ‘fix’ sets up ‘chaotic time,’ big cuts for apartment owners

After sounding an alarm about a 2023 law’s potential $700M impact to local assessments, assessor says a new bill awaiting governor’s OK doesn’t fix the problem. Senator: 'Step in the right direction.'

Editor’s note: An initial version of this story misstated Sen. Spencer Deery’s comments in a drophead at the top of the edition. This version has been corrected.

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A little more than a month after the Tippecanoe County assessor sounded an alarm that a new state law was setting up a potential $700 million drop in assessments on the recent surge of high-rises and other large apartment complexes near Purdue’s campus and in downtown Lafayette, a fix in how rental properties may be valued for tax purposes made it into an Indiana House bill Thursday and is waiting for the governor’s signature.

The instant review of the move from the Statehouse: “The Tippecanoe County assessor isn’t going to be 100% happy, but we needed to find something that worked for the whole state,” state Rep. Sharon Negele, an Attica Republican whose district includes large chunks of Tippecanoe County, said.

The review from the Tippecanoe County Office Building, where Assessor Eric Grossman got word Thursday about language inserted into the 67 pages of local government finance tweaks in House Bill 1328:

“If the notion was that my happiness was tied to the ability to assess apartments at their fair market value, it’s hard to understand why my happiness percentage would by any positive percent above zero,” Grossman said. “‘Not 100%’ kind of implies that there should be some compromise or percentage to be happy about.”

Grossman said the wording of the fix in House Bill 1328 seemed to lock in the problems he raised and could still have owners of properties with five or more units lining up 40% to 60% drops in their assessments, compared to what market values would bring.

The Hub and Rise apartment complexes are among those built in a surge of development near Purdue in the past decade. (Photo: Dave Bangert)