Effects of Property Tax Caps & the Homestead Deduction
Beginning in 2009, state mandated property tax caps were implemented locally to provide tax relief to property owners in Vanderburgh County and the City of Evansville. These caps were set at 1%, 2%, and 3% of the gross assessed value, with the type of property dictating which cap each property receives. In 2012, the total reduction to property tax bills equaled nearly $10.5 million. In 2013, the number climbed to an estimated $22.5 million. This increase indicates that many more taxpayers are receiving either an increase to their tax cap credit or they are receiving a first-time credit on their bill. These credits are calculated after the tax rates have been certified by the state and given to the county auditor’s office, and represent revenue that cannot be collected and distributed to the taxing units which includes Vanderburgh County, the City of Evansville, the EVSC, the Levee Authority, Library, Airport Authority, Town of Darmstadt and township trustees.
Tax cap credits increased primarily due to an increase in tax rates throughout the city and county. For the first time since the caps have been in place, tax rates for residents within the city limits are over 3%. In the past, non-residential or commercial/industrial property within the city did not receive a tax cap credit because these properties were part of the 3% category, and the actual tax rate had been below 3%. For 2013, the tax rate within the city limits climbed above 3%, and resulted in credits in this category going from zero to over $5.3 million. The increased tax rates also affected those properties that received a homestead deduction within the city limits. Homes with an approximate assessed value above $100,000 received a cap credit on their bill. Last year, the assessed value threshold to receive a cap credit was $119,000. The increase within the city for the 1% tax cap category is $1.9 million for 2013. These two categories equal 60% of the overall increase to tax caps for 2013.
House Enrolled Act 1344-2009 also affected the tax caps. This law requires all Indiana homeowners who receive the homestead standard deduction to submit verification of their eligibility. Taxpayers with a homestead deduction on file in the auditor’s office received a Homestead Verification form, also known as the “Pink Formâ€, the last three years with their tax bill. This form required the taxpayer to provide certain information, sign off that they are the owner of record, and reside in their home as their principal place of residence. If this form was not received in the Auditor’s office by December 31, 2012, the homestead deduction was removed per statute, and the taxes due in 2013 reflected an increase accordingly. There are nearly 2,800 homestead deductions that were removed for 2013, which put them in the 2% tax cap category where they may have received additional tax cap credit. However, removing the homestead deductions increased the net assessed value for these properties, which could increase the tax base within the city and county, and help lower future tax rates.
The impact of tax caps beyond this year is difficult to predict without having total assessed values throughout the city and county and future budgets from each taxing unit. However, if property values increase and additional assessed value through the construction of residential, commercial and industrial property is created, coupled with reduced tax levies, overall losses due to tax caps could be reduced over time.
Evans School†Events
Second graders in Tracie Stafford’s class at Evans to learn about firefighting and ride on a fire truck; have cookout with Leadership Evansville
Tuesday, May 21, fire truck rides begin at 10 a.m.
Evans School
2727 N. Evans Ave.
This event is planned following ongoing leadership opportunities throughout the school year through Leadership Evansville and its servant leaders.
Wednesday, May 22
Evans 6th graders leave for Disney
6 p.m., Wednesday May 22
From Evans School Parking Lot
2727 N. Evans Ave.
Sixth graders at Evans school will leave Wednesday for a fun and educational opportunity at Walt Disney World.
Interviews available with Brynn Kardash, principal.
Visit by State Superintendent to Cedar Hall, Culver
Glenda Ritz, superintendent of public instruction, will be visiting two Evansville Vanderburgh School Corporation Schools Wednesday morning to learn more about the EVSC’s Early Childhood Education Program.
9:30 a.m. Cedar Hall; 10:45 Culver Family Learning Center
Background:
9:30 a.m.: In the EVSC, she will first go to Cedar Hall Community School. B-roll and photo opportunities will begin around 9:45 a.m.
10:45 a.m.: She will also travel to Culver Family Learning Center where several different types of Early Childhood Programs exist, including special education and inclusion classrooms, and the Mind in the Making classroom.
The EVSC began offering PreK classes in 2010 for Title 1 qualifying families. Classes have grown throughout the corporation and the EVSC is beginning to see the results of the early learning taking place in preparing students to be ready for the educational opportunities in kindergarten. The EVSC funds Early Childhood through a variety of mechanisms, grant programs and other partnerships. The State of Indiana is one of just a handful of states that does not fund early childhood programs, and Supt. Ritz has indicated she wants to learn more about the importance of the early classes for children.
Recently, the EVSC has undertaken training with Mind in the Making. Mind in the Making is a new approach to how children learn, and is a way that teachers, parents, and others in a child’s life can help reinforce. The classroom at Culver is based from suggestions by Mind in the Making, and the book of the same name by Ellen Galinsky. Collaborating with top researchers in the science of childhood brain development for the past decade, she identifies seven life skills that help children reach their full potential and unleash their passion to learn. http://mindinthemaking.org/article/high_quality_preschool_for_all_what_its_so_important/
VANDERBURGH COUNTY FELONY CHARGES
Below is a list of felony cases that were filed by the Vanderburgh County Prosecutor’s Office on Monday, May 20, 2013.
Lisa Douglas Dealing in a Schedule III Controlled Substance-Class B Felony
Dennis Grimm Jr Forgery-Class C Felonies (Two Counts)
Fraud-Class D Felonies (Two Counts)
Receiving Stolen Property-Class D Felony
Jackie Myers Possession of a Schedule III Controlled Substance-Class D Felony
Michael Phelps Operating a Vehicle While Intoxicated Endangering a Person with a Passenger less than 18 Years of Age-Class D Felony
Richard Smith Attempted Battery by Means of a Deadly Weapon-Class C Felonies (Two Counts)
Criminal Recklessness-Class D Felonies (Three Counts)
Railroad Mischief-Class D Felony
Criminal Mischief-Class A Misdemeanors (Two Counts)
James Windham Theft-Class D Felonies (Two Counts)
Ryan Zehner Possession of Paraphernalia-Class A Misdemeanor
(Enhanced to D Felony Due to Prior Convictions)
Possession of Marijuana-Class A Misdemeanor
(Enhanced to D Felony Due to Prior Convictions)
Stacy Mayes Attempted Battery by Means of a Deadly Weapon-
Class C Felonies (Two Counts)
Criminal Recklessness-Class D Felonies (Three Counts)
Railroad Mischief-Class D Felony
Criminal Mischief-Class A Misdemeanors (Two Counts
Jesseka Steverson Theft-Class D Felony
For further information on the cases listed above, or any pending case, please contact Kyle Phernetton at 812.435.5688 or via e-mail at KPhernetton@vanderburghgov.org
Under Indiana law, all criminal defendants are considered to be innocent until proven guilty by a court of law.
Elephant in the Room? The Problem of Prescription Drug Abuse By Roy M. Arnold, MD
Elephant in the Room? The Problem of Prescription Drug Abuse
By Roy M. Arnold, MD
A growing problem in the US, prescription painkillers accounted for 16,650 deaths in 2010, the most recent complete year for which statistics are available. Drug abuse overtook traffic accidents as a cause of death in 2009. Overdose deaths are only the tip of the iceberg. For every overdose death, there were 733 non-medical users of prescription painkillers, 108 persons with abuse or dependence, 26 Emergency Department visits for abuse or misuse and 10 hospitalizations for abuse or misuse of painkillers.
The most common types of prescription drugs abused are opioid painkillers like hydrocodone, found in Vicodin® or oxycodone found in Oxycontin®. Chronic opioid users account for $72.5 Billion in healthcare costs annually or 8.7 times the cost of non-users.
The United States accounts of 4.6% of the world’s population but consumes 80% of the world production of oxycodone and 99% of the world’s hydrocodone.
The most disturbing aspect of this situation is that many of the people who become addicted to prescription painkillers were initially prescribed these medications for legitimate medical conditions such as injuries or after surgery. Gradually, with frequent use, the opioid medications can cause tolerance, requiring ever increasing doses to achieve the same amount of pain control. Opioids can cause physical dependence with continuous use, often in fairly short periods of time. At this point, patients may experience very unpleasant withdrawal symptoms unless they continue taking the painkillers, even though the medical condition for which the drug was originally prescribed may have improved.
Frequently, persons who are addicted to painkillers may engage in drug-seeking behavior by visiting multiple physicians, or pharmacies, or by obtaining their drugs from non-medical sources. Anti-social behaviors such as theft or assault are not uncommon among persons with addictions. It is important to point out that the anti-social behavior is frequently a result of, not necessarily a cause of the disease of addiction. Most medical experts believe addiction is truly a disease caused by disordered neural pathways in the brain, not a weakness of character or poor willpower. One of the basic tenets of 12-Step recovery programs such as Narcotics Anonymous is the admission of powerless over the addiction.
Having realized out the magnitude of the problem, regulatory agencies and medical organizations are searching for solutions to the problem. Many state governments have established Prescription Drug Monitoring Programs requiring mandatory reporting by pharmacies of all controlled substances prescriptions to a central database. Such programs are currently active in 42 states including Indiana, Kentucky, Illinois, Ohio and Michigan. These programs may be accessed by pharmacies or prescribers for the purpose of patient care, or by law enforcement conducting an investigation. These reporting systems are useful in identifying persons who use multiple prescribers, multiple pharmacies and in monitoring dosage and frequency of narcotic use.
Approximately 10 years ago, the US Food and Drug Administration approved a drug known as buprenorphine for the treatment of opioid addiction. This drug is a partial opioid agonist, meaning it has weak opioid properties. It does produce some of the effects of opioids like euphoria and respiratory depression. Taken in low doses, it can often enable opioid addicts to discontinue the use of other opioids without experiencing withdrawal. It is often combined with a narcotic antagonist to prevent its abuse by injection or inhalation. Prescription of this medication is limited to certain physicians and must be considered substitution therapy for opioid abuse not a “cure.†It simply replaces one opioid with another, much the same way methadone can be substituted for heroin. The use of buprenorphine alone without other treatment and social support systems like 12-Step programs does not address the underlying disease of addiction.
Most recently, professional organizations like Physicians for Responsible Opioid Prescribing (www.supportprop.org) have published white papers urging prescribers to limit opioid prescriptions to no more than 90 days for non-cancer pain. The organization has also petitioned the FDA to change the labeling on oxycodone and hydrocodone to be used only for severe pain and only for 90 days. This petition which is still under consideration by the FDA has been endorsed by the Drug Enforcement Administration and advocacy groups like Public Citizen. (www.citizen.org)
The overall purpose of this article is to point out the magnitude of the problem of prescription drug abuse and explore alternatives to ongoing use or abuse. It also discussed some of the recent regulatory actions. Persons who believe they have a problem with prescription painkillers are encouraged to discuss the issue with their primary healthcare provider and to take advantage of the many treatment and recovery options which are available locally.
1 Prescription Drug Abuse and Overdose: Public Health Perspective (PDF) CDC’s Primary Care and Public Health Initiative, October 24, 2012
2 Ibid.
3 Avila, Jim and Murray, Michael. ABC News (online) April 20, 2011.
White House Chief of Staff invokes “birtherism” in response to scandal questions
Carney invokes birtherism in response to scandal questions
By Rachel Weiner, Published: May 21, 2013 at 2:46
Struggling with a reporter about which Republican concerns are and are not legitimate, White House spokesman Jay Carney said that if reporters are going to ask about every issue, they should include President Obama’s birth certificate.
Carney was defending senior White House adviser Dan Pfeiffer, who on Sunday described the scandals Obama is dealing with as “partisan fishing expeditions.â€
Carney argued that the focus on the Benghazi talking points was “provably and demonstrably political,†and that Republicans had made “outlandish statements†about the IRS targeting conservatives “and tried to politicize this right away.†When CBS News’ Major Garrett asked whether questions about the AP investigation were partisan, Carney acknowledged that Congress might have “legitimate questions†on that or other issues.
So Garrett followed up and asked if questions related to Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius’s fundraising for the Affordable Care Act were also legitimate. Carney grew irritated and responded by referencing conspiracy theories about the president’s birthplace.
“You know, we could go down the list of questions — we could say, what about the president’s birth certificate? Were that — was that legitimate?†Carney responded.
He went on to answer the question, saying that there was precedent for what Sebelius is doing and that it was within her authority “to encourage support for educational efforts related to health care.â€
IS IT TRUE May 21, 2013
IS IT TRUE May 21, 2013
IS IT TRUE that it has been said that the speed bumps we encounter in life are an opportunity to build character and to practice our cleverness to get over them?…speed bumps or “humps†as some prefer to call them in the road were not designed to build character but simply to control speed in areas where driving slow has been deemed to be necessary enough to obstruct the drivers of cars on these certain streets?…while school drop offs may be an appropriate place to rattle a few fast drivers teeth most places that have speed bumps including neighborhoods end up being avoided as they are some of the most annoying impediments that modern traffic engineers have devised?…that any business that is in a speed hump zone that has a competitor in an area with no speed humps is going to lose my business?…the only commerce that really benefits from speed humps are tire shops that make a mint realigning the front end of cars that regularly are tormented by speed humps?…there are places for speed humps but most places are not among those?…speed humps are only appropriate when a sufficient number of people are in immediate and daily danger from law breaking unsafe drivers?…speed humps punish us all and abuse our cars just to catch a few obnoxious drivers?…one of those “techno cop†cameras in front of each school drop off would be cheaper to install than speed humps and would not loosen the molars of law abiding drivers?
IS IT TRUE that a pattern seems to be developing in the relationship between Mayor Winnecke and the Evansville City Council?…that pattern is oddly enough a Republican Mayor who just can’t seem to concoct enough proposals to spend massive sums of money on trivial things held in check or at least opposed by a Democrat City Council that sees Mayor Winnecke’s big spending ways as unnecessary and somewhat wasteful?…once again Evansville finds itself doing things diametrically opposite of the national trends where Democrats can’t tax and spend enough and Republicans claim the role of responsible spending?…it is a good thing Evansville does not have a micro-version of the Federal Reserve with a printing press or a Toy’s R Us credit card or we would all be in real trouble by the time Mayor Winnecke leaves office?…we have heard many comments that Mayor Winnecke is channeling his inner Obama when it comes to buying frivolous things and a small block of Evansville City Council members are channeling Kentucky Senator Mitch McConnell?
IS IT TRUE the project of highest cost that has the Mayor and the City Council at odds with one another is the $53 Million Johnson Controls project that former Mayor Weinzapfel shoved down the people of Evansville’s throats without a vote in his last weeks in office?…he did that just before being invited to give a speech about “Smart Cities†within a month of being out of office by Johnson Controls?…we do not know what the former Mayor earned for that speech but we do know the City of Evansville is under contract to pay for it?…a clear majority of the City Council is against this and has instructed their attorney to appeal the approval ruling by the Indiana Utilities Regulatory Commission (IURC) hoping it is struck down?…if it is not struck down there is a high probability that the City Council will vote not to fund by a vote of 7 – 2 (the Weaver Mosby alliance is firmly in Mayor Winnecke’s pocket)?…the Mayor is then threatening to borrow the money through other sources and do it anyway once again carrying on the legacy and desire of his mentor Jonathan Weinzapfel?
IS IT TRUE a similar situation is brewing over the size and scope of whatever downtown Convention Hotel project is on the table today?…project support has been established for a project of $30 Million in the past but that project has morphed into a $70 Million project with retail, restaurants, apartments, and a parking tower thrown in as extras trying to replicate Branson Landing in Missouri?…we do not know what is going to happen but we do know Evansville is no Branson when it comes to being an entertainment capital?…Evansville is home to the World Championship of Cornhole though so keep those tourists on the edge of their seat and see if we can bring the World Championship of Rock, Paper, Scissors to town?
Hampton Inn, Jasper Celebrates Award and Remodel
Jasper, IN – Hampton Hotels (www.hampton.com), the global brand of mid-priced Hampton Inn and Hampton Inn & Suites hotels, has honored the Hampton Inn, Jasper, located at 355 Third Avenue, with the company’s Lighthouse Award, designating it as one of the hotel chain’s top performing hotels among more than 1,800 Hampton properties.
Hampton Inn, Jasper was recognized for its high rankings in overall accommodations, service and quality. The award criteria was based on customer feedback measured through guest satisfaction surveys on the hotel, as well as product quality and service scores measured quarterly by the Hampton Hotels brand.
“The competition to be among the elite group of Hampton Lighthouse Award winners becomes stronger each year as the Hampton brand continues to add more hotels and continually looks for ways to strengthen the guest experience. We are especially proud to receive this honor for the third time,” said Mary Mehringer, general manager of Hampton Inn, Jasper.
The three-story, 73-room Hampton Inn is located next door to the Schnitzelbank Restaurant and near the Jasper City Mill, the Riverwalk, Spirit of Jasper Train, Sultan’s Run Golf Course, and only a short drive from Holiday World & Splashin’ Safari. Hotel guests will enjoy many amenities, including a complimentary hot breakfast or “On the Run†breakfast bags, 24-hour coffee, Fitness Center, and indoor swimming pool. A business center, free WiFi, A/V equipment, and many other services are available for any business needs.
The Hampton Inn, Jasper is also pleased to announce the completion of its newly renovated lobby space. The layout follows the hotelier’s Perfect Mix Lobby design, featuring unique amenities to enhance the Hampton guest experience.
“The new lobby offers just the right balance of different seating options to meet a variety of needs,” commented Ms. Mehringer. “Friends and family can hang out at the large community table, while business travelers can find a quiet corner to check emails and return calls.”
A mix of comfort and utility seating styles are available to accommodate both business and leisure travelers. The community table with bar-height stools, for instance, offers space for groups to gather or for individuals to go to feel connected while traveling solo. Cozy lighting and contemporary original artwork complete the look, speaking to the spirit of the Hampton brand and the Jasper area.
In celebration of receiving the coveted Lighthouse Award and to showcase the recently remodeled lobby, the Hampton Inn, Jasper is hosting an open house for the community to attend. The open house is being held as a Jasper Chamber of Commerce Time Out for Business event. Join us at the Jasper Hampton Inn for this event on Wednesday, May 29 from 4-6 p.m. Enjoy refreshments from Schnitzelbank Catering, cocktails, tours, and networking.
For further information, please call Charlotte Roesner at (812) 634-2584 or email charlotte@schnitzelbank.com.