The Great Kokomo Property Tax Debate : Increase, Decrease...or ...

There seems to be lingering doubt surrounding the official State of Indiana numbers concerning budgets and property taxes, especially in light of Kokomo Greg Goodnight's continued insistence on stating he has not raised taxes during his tenure as Mayor.

Well, we were curious about real-world examples, so we researched what might be assumed a 'typical' group of Kokomo homeowner records.

Our sample data set, encompassing the years 2009-2011, include the following parties: Scott Kern (Mayoral Candidate), Greg Goodnight (Mayor), Mike Wyant (City Council), Ralph Baer (City Council), Kevin Summers (City Council), Mike Kennedy (City Council), Bob Cameron (City Council), Tom Miklik (City Council), Robert Baker (Chief of Police), Pat O'Neil (Chief of Fire) and James Brannon (City Controller).

Three Council Members were omitted from the study due to either being renters or having unusual deductions during the sample period. Greg Goodnight also had an unusual deduction in 2009, so our tax percentages omit his numbers as well.

Our summary pretty much tells the story: In this data sample, the average dollar increase in property taxes from 2009-2011 (Goodnight omitted) was $286.86, while the (dollar) percent was a surprising 34.13% (Goodnight omitted).

One might think was due to increasing property values, but that's not the case. In this sample, property values decreased an average of $12,645... or 8.48 percent.

We conclude that any claim of not raising taxes on Kokomo's Homeowners (as evidenced by this widely varied dataset)... is simply not truthful.

Here's a few graphics of our data:

We can make our spreadsheet available for those with an interest.

NIK

Source: http://www.notinkokomo.com/cms/f99/great-kokomo-property-tax-debate-increase-decrease-what-76052/

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