New Property Tax Legislation Passed in the Last Legislative Session

Comments by: Karl Berron, CEO of Indiana Association of REALTORS®.

As most of you know, the Indiana Legislature passed a bill to help mitigate the impact of higher property taxes through out the state.  I am unable to put the actual bill in the newsletter because it is very lengthy and difficult to understand.  However, I am posting the comments sent to the Board by Karl Berron, IAR CEO and including a link to a letter that was sent to all the newspapers through out Indiana.  We are waiting for the state to give us an overview of what can be done by the local Boards and members to help the local governments decide how to optimize the bills benefits.  We will keep you posted.

Click here to view the Property Tax Reform Letter sent to local Newspapers from the State Association.

I have posted comments sent to the Board from the State Association discussing the Property Tax legislation recently passed.

Dear Local Boards:

As you probably know, the basic plan calls for a rebate check to be mailed to each homestead in the state to offset potential increases in their property tax bills.  The rebates will be one time, and will be funded by license fees from allowing slot machines at the state's two horse tracks.  The rebate checks will be relatively small individually, but will amount to roughly $550 million statewide.  For a home assessed at $150,000, assuming the average statewide tax rate, the check would amount to about $250.  Some in the media and elsewhere have criticized the rebate mechanism as being unwieldy (me included), but the reality is that other approaches at delivering one time relief such as a credit on fall property tax bills, would also create uncertainty for real estate closings.

Since the legislative session ended, IAR has been in discussions with various parties in the Administration, legislative staff, and the Association of Indiana Counties (AIC).  IAR plans to advise Boards immediately when decisions have been made on the mechanics of how the rebate will be handled.  The county auditors and treasurers were in town for meetings last week (they have the major responsibility locally for dealing with this).  Based on those discussions, the AIC will soon circulate a proposal through the appropriate state agencies for comment, with the hope of publicly announcing their plans in the next two weeks. We will be privy to that process.  While not all questions will be answered, we expect that many of the issues that are unknown currently (timing of rebates, who receives the check, etc) will become clearer through this process.Once IAR has that information, IAR will provide information to Boards and members on how to pro-rate or otherwise deal with this in a transaction.  Richelle Cohen Mossler, IAR Director of Legal Affairs, will be providing that information. IAR understand the uncertainty that exists at the moment is frustrating, so IAR will get information out as soon as we can.

Thanks much, let me know if you have any questions. 

Karl Berron, CEO
Indiana Association of REALTORS®

REALTORS® from across Indiana joined the Indiana Association of REALTORS® staff for the April TriAnnuals at the French Lick Springs Resort and Casino from April 3^rd to April 5^th.  During the time in French Lick, REALTORS® were able to attend various committee meetings and events, allowing them to network with REALTORS® from across the state.  Under the guidance of new CEO Karl Berron, the TriAnnuals are beginning to change.  From minor changes of eliminating some committee meetings and combining some meetings to the addition of general session featured speaker, it is plain to see that the face of our TriAnnual meetings are changing.

Top 10 Trends Impacting the Future of Real Estate:

April TriAnnuals marked the debut of the general session open to IAR members attending TriAnnuals.  The featured speaker, Stefan Swanepoel, spoke to a capacity crowd about real estate trends and the future of the real estate industry.  No one researches more about change and trends impacting the residential real estate industry than Stefan Swanepoel.  He always provides a balanced and objective evaluation of the market, highlighting the key players and facts of tomorrow.  For more information on him, please go to www.swanepoel.com.

Technology:

Jeff Donovan held a question answer forum regarding ZipForms.  Questions that were not answered during the forum will be researched and answers will be provided through e-mail, the IAR website and Indiana REALTOR® magazine in the future.

A brief synopsis of all meetings can be found at www.indianarealtors.com. 

Photos of our time in French Lick can be found at: http://iarfrenchlick.shutterfly.com/action

RPAC OLYMPICS: PASSING THE RPAC TORCH

Pass the torch at the REALTOR Olympics!

Please check here for fund raising totals as of March 31, 2007.

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