Tax appeals and questions about local government's structure in St. Joe County

IndianapolisWorks, government consolidation discussions in Allen and Vanderburgh Counties-- is this issue gaining momentum? This South Bend Tribune article describes problems with Indiana's system of local property tax administration that have left a backlog of appeals from the 2002 assessments still unsettled.

"[Commissioner Mark Dobson] said it shouldn't be necessary for the commissioners to be injected into a meeting with the assessors and their problems. "Our current form of government is broken," he declared. He also revived his earlier suggestion that county government be more centralized, the township assessors eliminated, and positions such as the county assessor and county recorder changed to appointed rather than elected offices."