Marion County taxpayers feeling sticker shock over property tax bills

INDIANAPOLIS — Property tax bills are arriving in mailboxes, and many taxpayers are feeling sticker shock.

From 2017 to 2021, Marion County has seen a 35% increase of assessed value in Marion County for residential real estate.

WRTV Investigates spoke with Marion County Assessor Joseph O’Connor.

“It’s really the rising price of real estate cost, which we really started to see back in 2018,” O’Connor said. “Every year we look at the sales that occur. We’re not projecting, we’re not predicting, we’re not making up values. Our values are determined on an annual basis through our trending process by using actual sales from sales disclosures that come through the office. We analyze those sales.”

O’Connor emphasized the assessments used to create your property tax bills are generated from public records.

“If anyone has a question or thinks it's too high, absolutely give our office a call,” O’Connor said. “If you think a property is too high, absolutely file an appeal. When I took office in 2011, we had a backlog of 30,000 appeals so now we are up to date. If there's a problem, we want to know about it and fix it as quick we can. "

You should look up your property record card to make sure what is listed is what is actually on your property, such as a garage or chimney.

The majority of your property tax bill goes to fund local government such as police, fire and the health department.

The assessor's office processes property assessment appeals in the order they are received. To appeal a property assessment online, use one of the following services:

• Objective Appeal Form: File an objective appeal if your assessment includes statistical or processing errors.
• Subjective Appeal Form: File a subjective appeal for opinion-based errors. Examples include the property condition, market adjustments or trending factors.

How to protect yourself from tax trouble:

• Call the county treasurer and make sure your current address is on file
• Pay your property tax bill when you get it
• Check with your mortgage company to make sure they took care of it
• Pay online or in person and keep your receipt
• Many counties offer flex pay, auto pay, and payment plans