Messy assessment situation in Allen County township

Dan Stockman of the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette wrote a terrific story last week on wide-ranging problems with property assessments in Allen County’s Cedar Creek Township. Click here to read the full version of:

Assessed Confusion: Property values missing, or off mark, in Allen township

According to the article, the current township assessor replaced the previous staff with his wife and son. Such arrangements are not unusual in many Indiana townships, and they are not illegal.

One common defense of this practice is that qualified individuals willing to do the work are difficult to find in rural areas. But even in the most populous county in the state (Marion), nepotism in township government is still prevalent (as noted by last spring’s special report by the Indianapolis Star).

SB 107, authored by State Senator Mike Young, would have addressed nepotism in local government for Marion County alone, but the bill did not receive a hearing in the Committee on Governmental Affairs and Interstate Cooperation this session.