By David Slone
Times-Union

KOSCIUSKO COUNTY — Members of the Kosciusko County Council wanted to hear from the public at their meeting Thursday, July 11, regarding a property tax exemption ordinance for mobile and manufactured homes, but only two people commented on it.

After the public hearing, instead of giving it an up or down vote, the council voted 4-2 to “not take any action until we get more figures on the 2024 costs and incomes figures, and we’re going to send notification to all the entities (who received 2023 mobile home tax revenue) on this sheet that we want to discuss this, we wish for their input.”

The auditor’s office will send out the notifications to the taxing entities.

Council members voting to table the ordinance without a definitive timeline were Tony Ciriello, who made the motion; Dave Wolkins; Council President Mike Long and Vice President Kathy Groninger. Opposed were Councilwomen Joni Truex and Kimberly Cates. Councilwoman Sue Ann Mitchell was absent.

The ordinance would exempt mobile home personal property assessments. It would not include a mobile home assessed as real estate.

County Assessor Gail Chapman and Treasurer Michelle Puckett first presented the ordinance to the council on April 4, but because Senate Enrolled Act 183 didn’t take effect until July 1, the council couldn’t act on it until after July 1. The two women re-presented it to the council at their July 3 informational meeting, making it known that the ordinance would be up for adoption and there would be a public hearing on it at the council’s next meeting, which was Thursday. A legal notice was published regarding the public hearing.

In presenting the SEA 183 ordinance, Puckett and Chapman presented the council members with a packet of information, including “a brief overview of all the steps that the mobile home personal property takes within the county, the different offices that it affects and what we all do with that or don’t do with that depending on if they (the taxes) are collected or not.” If the taxes aren’t collected, they also provided the council with a lengthened timeline for certifying collections and judgments through the courts.

The council was given 2023 data, which is the last complete data the county has on mobile homes. That data included tax dollars collected from mobile homes and the breakdown of how those dollars were distributed to taxing entities.

“So for 2023, it’s $454,209.49,” Puckett said. “I do like to remind you that these dollars are not taken into consideration when tax rates are set or when the DLGF (Department of Local Government Finance) approves budgets. These revenues are outside of that because are they not a dependable stream. They can not be counted on, you never know how much you’re going to collect and how much you’re not going to collect.”

Cates said, “So, basically, it costs us to assess and that’s why we’re choosing to do this. Isn’t that correct, bottom line?”

Puckett said yes and the state provided the opportunity for the exemption to be presented to the council this year, but it’s been discussed for years.

Ciriello asked what direction were other counties going with SEA 183. Puckett said the bigger counties like Marion, St. Joe and Allen were “hard no’s” because mobile homes bring in millions of dollars of tax revenue to them. The smaller counties are definitely going to adopt it, but Puckett said Kosciusko County was kind of in the middle.

“We do generate a specific amount of income, but it does cost us as well, so ours, I believe, is a little bit more of a difficult situation. It’s not an easy yes or easy no, which is why we have given you the information that we have so you can consider all aspects of it,” Puckett stated.

As far as county government’s revenue from mobile homes, she said they are “definitely paying twice what we are collecting in revenue for us.” The revenue loss to the county is about 0.002%, she said, and the revenues are “just bonus dollars that you really can’t anticipate collecting.”

Cates asked Puckett for her opinion on the exemption. Puckett said her opinion would be yes because she understands the expenses and revenues.

Groninger asked if anyone reached out to the schools on the issue. Puckett said no one reached out specifically to the schools, but this was the third month they were having the discussion on it, the media covered it and no taxing entities ever questioned the mobile home tax exemption proposal during tax time and since the council’s discussion on it began.

Wolkins said that according to the Legislative Service Agency, in 2025 Kosciusko County could lose $759,000. He asked what it could be for this year. Puckett explained that $454,000 was the amount of revenue the county actually collected on mobile homes in 2023. She wasn’t sure what figures LSA was using on their estimated calculations, but if LSA was looking at 100% of what was billed, only 65 to 70% of mobile home owners actually pay their tax bills. The $454,000 is also before county’s expenses.

“There’s about 30-35% who do not pay, and then those mobile home personal properties then get pulled into the judgments and get certified for court,” Puckett said. If it was easy to collect 100% like LSA projected, then the county would always collect 100% and then they wouldn’t be having the conversation on the exemption.

For tax year 2023, the county had 3,211 active mobile homes, according to data provided by Chapman and Puckett. Of those, 70% paid their taxes and 30% did not. There were 8,498 judgments certified to court and 17,976 active accounts in collections.

Wolkins said when people heard about the exemption, he didn’t hear from one person who said they thought it was a good idea. With the possibility of taxing entities losing revenue from the exemption, especially schools, he said he wasn’t sure the county should be doing this.

According to information provided by Chapman and Puckett on revenue school districts collected in 2023 from mobile home taxes in Kosciusko County, Warsaw received $130,166.55; Triton, $2,657.79; Tippecanoe Valley, $25,814.52; Whitko, $28,158.45; Wawasee, $62,883.30; and WaNee, $1,835.96.

Chapman replied to Wolkins, “The commercial-industrial assessments, as a whole, went up — I’m going to say — over $300 million, so part of those will come down in appeals. We do have 107 appeals. But, even if we do settle with some of those appeals, all the assessed values for those major things … are going to be higher, so the tax revenue that is going to come into the county, based on those entities alone, are going to more than make up for what Warsaw is going to be losing in mobile home taxes.”

When the hearing was opened to the public, there was no one who spoke in favor of the exemption. Local businessman Don Zolman asked a question about manufactured homes being included, and Chapman said the exemption would just be for homes in the mobile home parks, not manufactured homes taxed as real estate. Rachael Rhoades, Republican nominee for a county council at-large seat, spoke against the exemption because of what the revenue loss could mean for schools.

After the hearing was closed to the public, Ciriello said he had phone calls, text messages and emails that were against the exemption. He said, like Wolkins, he could not support it.

At the July 3 meeting, Long had expressed his desire that anyone who was for or against the exemption to show up at Thursday’s meeting and speak up. Thursday, he pointed out there were only two that showed up and that was disappointing to him.

“I have not personally had any emails, texts, conversations — other than one at the Meijer store but I sought that out on my own. … To me, that’s disappointing,” Long said.

Cates said she respected every other entity’s financial situation, but “our duty financially is to our constituents of the county that we serve. So, to me, when we have our elected officials, who are heads of departments saying this is not a fiscally good choice for us to continue this, I feel like we have to take it seriously.”

Long said the small towns, schools and all the other entities are part of the county and they would have a loss of revenue totaling over $450,000.

Groninger suggested tabling the ordinance to give people more opportunity to weigh in on.
Ciriello made a first motion to table the discussion until the first part of 2025 so they could review the 2024 data. Wolkins seconded the motion.

Chapman commented, “This is why I don’t feel like you guys are listening to anything that I’m saying. That is upsetting to me. Listening to the other people, and I appreciate that, but you’re not listening to me. And so, be aware, that if we table this, I have to hire another employee to work in that department downstairs. So if you decide to table it until next year and then decide to do away with it, I’ve got to figure out something to do with another employee. I’ve already got three employees, I’ve already got a plan for them.”

She said she doesn’t have room for a fourth person to be in her office.

“So please think about all of it, instead of just the amount of money that is going to be lost. Think about all of it,” Chapman stated.

Truex asked if there would be a big difference between 2023 and 2024 tax revenues on mobile homes, and Chapman said there would not.

There was some discussion about Ciriello amending his motion, with him saying if he was going to amend it his amendment would be to kill the exemption completely and not revisit it until the state requires the county to. However, he finally did amend it as stated and the council approved it 4-2.