Summer 2004
For the Record
Every Action Has an Equal and Opposite Reaction?
In 1998, the Supreme Court of Indiana declared Indiana’s real property
(land and buildings) tax assessment rules to be unconstitutional. New rules
went into effect with the 2003 assessment of property. Once taxing districts
determined their levies and set their tax rates, property tax bills were sent
out to homeowners in most counties. But Newton’s third law of motion
may also hold true with tax laws, as there have been some opposite reactions
to the change in the assessment practices (perhaps most notably in Lake County).
Professor Dagney Faulk has researched and eloquently documented three decades
of Indiana property tax law changes to help us put this issue into a historical
context, which this editor hopes will be read far and wide and also fi nd
its way into important historical archives. Other articles in this issue provide
our readers with insights on the pros and cons of our personal income gains
and losses and a brief look at current demographic and housing data from a
new federal survey initiative called the American Community Survey. —COR