Stay Informed

For organizers of the Pike County Agribusiness Forum, while every year’s program is different, the goal is the same: to help Pike County residents become more knowledgeable about a topic of local importance.

In its four years of existence, the forum has featured a variety of topics, including growing fruits and vegetables year round, zoning, how to start a small business, and property taxes, said Pike County Farm Bureau President Ken Meyer.

This year’s forum was March 11 and featured Dr. Larry DeBoer, who teaches agricultural economics at Purdue University and is a widely respected expert on Indiana’s property taxes. Property taxes are a hot issue in Pike County right now, Meyer explained.

“One of our power plants will be shutting down in two years, and that has decreased the assessed valuation of our county by 13%,” he said. “That’s created quite a bit of concern. A lot of people are very interested in how this will affect the tax rate.”

The answer, according to DeBoer, is that the tax rate will be affected quite a bit. DeBoer used 2019 property tax rates and levies in a simulation that showed, among other things, that the loss of the power plant’s assessment would increase tax rates by about 30 to 33 cents per $100 assessed value, mostly due to the increase in county and school rates. Taxpayers with property below the tax caps would see increases in their tax bills of 9% to 14%, in addition to annual rate and assessment changes.

But even beyond specific information about this particular tax issue, Meyer said he hoped the nearly 70 people in attendance simply learned more about their taxes.

“A lot of people aren’t sure what a tax exemption is versus a tax credit,” Meyer said. “They’re not sure about tax levy versus tax rate. About the only thing they really are sure of is that taxes have to be paid every year.

“What I’m hoping for is that people can go back home and say, ‘Now I understand how my assessed valuation can go down but my taxes go up,’” he said.

This particular program has been in the planning stages for about a year, but the bulk of the work in organizing it occurred over four months. Besides DeBoer, the forum also included a catered dinner and door prizes.

It’s open to any resident of Pike County at no cost, Meyer added. Part of the cost is paid for with money the county Farm Bureau raises each year selling food at the county fair, but the rest comes from donations and sponsorships.

“We have several businesses that we partner with who sponsor anything that we put on,” he explained.

It’s publicized through postcard invitations sent to county Farm Bureau members, flyers posted in local businesses, paid and unpaid publicity in the local newspaper and through social media.

Meyer said the county continues to host the forum because it seems to fill a need.

“We’re getting good feedback on a lot of the programs that we’ve put on in the past,” Meyer said. “I think it’s been a helpful educational experience.”