Greensburg — Information and forms from the Decatur County Assessor's office are hitting local mailboxes this week.

The mailer informs property owners what the assessed value was from last year and what this year's assessment value is. According to Decatur County Assessor Tami Wenning, the office is required by the state of Indiana to mail out the forms, known as Form 11s.

Wenning explained that her office does not yet know what the tax rates will be for 2010 payable 2011 so they cannot say what those taxes are going to be yet. By current state law, values are changed every year based on sales information that is collected every time property changes hands. The state controls that process, as well. The Decatur County Assessor's office has to collect sales disclosures from every 'valid' sale and provide scanned copies to the Department of Local Government Finance (DLGF) at the state level. After a year's worth of sales, a ratio study is put together using all of the sales information. In the long run, it creates a set of trended values that are supposed to reflect what is happening with the market. Properties are grouped into 'neighborhoods' and trending factors are applied to these neighborhoods. Although the state refers to these as 'neighborhoods,' the trended values do not necessarily apply to what residents may traditionally think of as neighborhoods, according to Wenning. That is because someone may build a $500,000 home just a few houses down from a traditional one-story ranch style home. The smaller home would be grouped with homes of similar square footage and construction type, not with the $500,000 home.

"There are some homes in our county that are so unique in their construction and size that they will have to be considered their own neighborhood because there aren't other homes locally that will compare," Wenning explained.

Even with the current poor state of the economy, there are still properties that continue to sell for more than they have been assessed, Wenning noted. Lake properties are some of the properties on which values are rising. The assessor's office is required to use state guidelines to assess properties and then apply the trending factors. When the whole process is completed, the bottom line value is supposed to represent what the property owner could expect to obtain when the property is sold on the market. Because this annual trending is done by sales information and applied to everyone, it is considered a mass appraisal. Currently, the assessor's office has not visited every property. There may be changes on the property that might affect the values that the office is not yet aware of.

If residents feel that their assessed value is significantly out of line, they have 45 days from the postmarked date on the Form 11 to file an appeal with the assessor's office. The first batch of letters that went out should have to file their appeals before Friday, Sept. 10. Appeal forms are available in the assessor's office or by going online at www.decaturcounty.in.gov, clicking on 'county offices,' choosing 'assessor' and then on the left hand side choosing 'resources.'

Wenning encouraged residents to not hesitate to call the office with any questions or concerns. Any exemptions or deductions that residents have applied for and are eligible for will be applied to the value and the tax rate will be multiplied by the remaining value.

There is an actual reassessment taking place now that requires visiting every property in Decatur County.

"There are those who think that we're doing this to 'make more money' but we are also finding areas where people have been over-assessed because they may have failed to tell us about a building being removed," Wenning said.

She added that the assessor's office, along with several other county-level offices across the state, try to let legislators know how complicated processes are becoming at the county level based on state government's desires. The mailing, done at the expense of tax dollars, basically just tells the assessed value of property. It is too early in the process to know what tax rates will be.