The first of two Board of Review meetings was held Monday morning and a handful of Indian Creek Township residents had their say. Nathan Coston, Kerry Sutton, Jeff Neal, and Joe Lane on behalf of himself and Matt Vollman all presented their cases over the span of a little over 2 hours. At least three of those individuals were accompanied via phone by their attorney, Mr. Daniel Hamilton of Brown, Hay, & Stephens. They were heard by the three member board of review made up of Ron Wooten, Jim Taylor, and Michael Brown. Supervisor of Assessments Gary Baxley and Township Assessor Amy Edwards were also in attendance.
The Indian Creek Township residents say they feel targeted by Baxley. It all started when Brad Lee bought a property in the area. His neighbors say he overpaid and now Baxley is using that as a means to raise their taxes. Coston said his property has been under the microscope given it’s been reassessed four times over the last decade and after the most recent, he’s looking at a 32.3% increase. A few also took issue with how Baxley is going about the job including not giving them notice he was coming to reassess and not having Edwards on site as well.
On March 21st, Mr. Baxley showed up at my house at 6pm. No phone call. No Mrs. Edwards; I just happened to be going out the driveway headed to restore an outage at the time. I stopped; said Mr. Baxley you didn’t call. He said ‘no I didn’t. I’ll just have to come back another time. Give me your phone number.’ I’ve already given him my phone number multiple times, but I gave it to him again. He left. On April 4th, as I’m pulling into my drive after coming home from work, he pulls up right behind my truck. I said Mr. Baxley you didn’t call. He said no. I said is Mrs. Edwards on her way to meet with us? He said no he didn’t need her to be present. I said well the tax code said that she should be. He told me that she had not turned in her books so he didn’t have to have her there. So I found out after he left they haven’t used books in White County since 2012. I refused to let him on the property. I sent him another email and informed him without an appointment and an accompanying visit with Mrs. Edwards, no entry would be allowed.
Sutton echoed those concerns.
When I got home, I saw that he’d been to my house. I started looking at the cameras and saw that he’d walked all over my property. Walked down to the side; didn’t just go to the front door. Later I found a business card that he’d found apparently in my door. I don’t know for sure, I found it out in my yard. It said please call me; didn’t give me a phone number or anything, just a business card so it was the office number. I couldn’t call. When I got home from work it was after hours. The next day, before I ever had a chance to call him, he’s back on my property again. I see him on my cameras. All over my property; on my back porch. I have no shades, I live in the middle of nowhere, so no curtains, a clear view into my house. He’s on my back porch I have video of that. He leaves and about 15 minutes later, my 14 year old daughter gets home from school and this is exactly what I was trying to avoid. I feel like if he’d just called and made an appointment. It just seemed the whole thing, like he didn’t want me there; didn’t want Amy there. It just felt wrong. Fast forward a few months ago and I get an assessment where he’s raised me 26%.
Jeff Neal is set to see a 56% increase or 73% with the anticipated equalizer if the Board of Review doesn’t make a change. Lane will see a 54% (72.4% with anticipated equalizer) increase if the Board of Review doesn’t make an adjustment.
Most folks seem to recognize and are even willing to say the entire county needs to be reassessed. In fact, 2023 was a quadrennial year, during which every property in the county (other than farmland) is supposed to be viewed, inspected, and revalued. However, White County doesn’t have the personnel to make that happen with only a Supervisor of Assessments and one Assessor for the entire county. The Indian Creek residents are taking umbrage saying they feel they’re being pointed at while maintaining they have no problem with paying their fair and equitable share. Area counties have done a complete reassessment including Crawford and Hamilton in recent years. The cost, in Crawford County, was around a million dollars according to one member of the Board of Review.
Additionally, the county has done an inadequate job in keeping index/property records over the years. Edwards says with every assessment she does now, a property record card is filed. Furthermore, she now has access to the DevNet software which she says will make the job easier than it has been.
Attorney Matthew McArthy, another Indian Creek resident, is on the docket for Thursday morning.
