New Albany Township voters do away with its assessor

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November 5, 2008

Measure had been pushed as a way to shrink government

By DAVID A. MANN The News and Tribune Wed Nov 05, 2008, 04:39 PM EST

HOW YOU VOTEDOn the ballot question regarding whether to consolidate the New Albany Township Assessor’s work into the Floyd County Assessor’s office:

• Yes: 54 percent

• No: 46 percent

By a margin of more than 1,000 votes, Floyd County voters chose to do away with the New Albany Township Assessors office.

That means the work handled by the office — which assesses property value for tax purposes in New Albany — will now be in the hands of Floyd County Assessor Brenda Egge.

As a result of the vote, Barbara Sillings, who currently holds the office, will be out of a job.

“I think it was the wording,” Sillings said, when asked about the results Tuesday night. Many people probably thought they were voting “yes” to keep the office due to the fact that it was followed by numerous judicial retention questions.

The fact that there was no name on the question likely didn’t help either, she added.

“It was meant to be.”

Sillings said she will find work in another field but would likely seek political office in the future.

About 8,647 residents, or 54 percent, voted in favor of doing away with the office. Another 7,474 voted against it, or 46 percent.

Voters in Clark County followed suit, voting to do away with the Jeffersonville Township Assessors Office.

The vote goes back to higher than normal property tax bills that many residents received last year because of a new system of assessment.

The new system used fair market value to determine taxes owed.

A report issued last year by the Commission on Local Government Reform, headed by former Gov. Joe Kernan and Indiana Supreme Court Chief Justice Randall Shepard, called for local government changes including the elimination of township assessors.

The general assembly passed a piece of legislation, which mandated that all townships with less than 15,000 parcels of real property be under the umbrella of a single countywide office. Those larger would be voted on.

—The Associated Press contributed to this story

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