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Property tax expert predicts higher-than-usual bills for homeowners, farmers next year

Larry DeBoer is a White man with dark hair. He is wearing glasses and a gray blazer over a green shirt. Neva Butkus is a White woman with blonde hair. She is wearing glasses and a cream sweater over a white top.
Brandon Smith
/
IPB News
Purdue Professor Emeritus Larry DeBoer, left, discusses property tax issues at a panel hosted by the Indiana Fiscal Policy Institute and Prosperity Indiana. At right is Institute for Taxation and Economic policy analyst Neva Butkus.

One of Indiana’s leading experts on property taxes says he expects spikes in property tax bills won’t slow down soon.

A panel of tax experts hosted by the Indiana Fiscal Policy Institute and Prosperity Indiana recently spoke to community organizations, lobbyists and lawmakers.

Indiana homestead property tax bills jumped 17 percent statewide in 2023, and another nearly 7 percent this year. Longtime Indiana property tax researcher and Purdue University Professor Emeritus Larry DeBoer said he sees that trend continuing next year.

“I’m expecting larger than usual increases in homestead and especially farmland property tax bills,” DeBoer said.

Indiana Association of Realtors Vice President Chris Watts disagreed. He said he thinks the sharp spikes of the last few years reached their peak this year and will settle back down to normal increases next year.

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Lawmakers are exploring potential property tax changes.

Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy analyst Neva Butkus said legislators should look at policies in more than two dozen other states that provide tax credits or rebates if their property tax bills significantly increase.

“A really effective way at ensuring that property taxes aren’t, again, eating up an unsustainable amount of a family’s household budget,” Butkus said.

Butkus said those policies can also be targeted at families that need the most support.

Brandon is our Statehouse bureau chief. Contact him at bsmith@ipbs.org or follow him on Twitter at @brandonjsmith5.

Brandon Smith has covered the Statehouse for Indiana Public Broadcasting for more than a decade, spanning three governors and a dozen legislative sessions. He's also the host of Indiana Week in Review, a weekly political and policy discussion program seen and heard across the state. He previously worked at KBIA in Columbia, Missouri and WSPY in Plano, Illinois. His first job in radio was in another state capitol - Jefferson City, Missouri - as a reporter for three stations around the Show-Me State.