Residents appealing their property taxes can do so with the St. Joseph County Tax Board of Appeals. A state appeal can also be filed by June 16th. (WSBT Photo)
Residents of New Carlisle voiced their frustrations today to St. Joseph County officials over raised property taxes.
Questioning why they are seeing a significant increase.
Jim Taylor is one of many New Carlisle homeowners voicing frustrations over property taxes rising over the last year.
Taylor says his property taxes increased almost 13 hundred dollars.
"But you don't need to tax the resident. I'm pretty sure Amazon has a few extra pennies in their pockets, or GM. They can afford to pay a little bit. They don't need 10 - 20 year tax abatements or whatever they are going to be offered by the council or whoever" says Taylor".
Mike Skaggs, Stone Oaks Estates President says his property taxes went from 38-hundred dollars to 71-hundred dollars.
"It's already happened in the past. It literally, people who are on fixed income in our neighborhood, you know, retired folks who own their homes. It literally prices them out of their homes and they had to move" says Skaggs.
Many residents also voiced frustration to a slow appeal process.
Michael Castellon, St. Joseph County Assessor says numerous property taxes appeals have been filed by residents.
Castellon acknowledging an increase in property taxes.
"There was a substantial increase, part that because the demand out here in New Carlisle currently has economic developments, so you may see some heightened values. And then the cost tables that were set forth by state raised values as well" says Castellon.
Castellon says some the property data collected had a few incorrect assessments.
"I think we went through, we corrected the data, we received some questions, we're incorrect. For those individuals who have incorrect data, we will make that right. We'll correct them for the past three years. They should see a refund for the ones that have the data incorrect" says Castellon.
Castellon says residents with incorrect data will see adjustments next year.
Residents appealing their property taxes can do so with the St. Joseph County assessor's office.
Appeals must be filed by June 16th.
If taxpayers don't agree with the appeal, they can file with the County Tax Board of Appeals.
Castellon says he wants to work with New Carlisle residents on these issues.
"As their elected official, I'm standing here with them going through their issues. I'm not afraid to talk to them. And if we have more elected officials doing that, we might get their fix a lot more problems" says Castellon.
Castellon is asking New Carlisle residents to be patient and allow St. Joseph County to work through this issue.