A little history

I started with the State Board of Tax Commissioners in April of 1987 as a Field Representative.  At that time the State Board of Tax Commissioners was comprised of 3 Commissioners appointed by the Governor.  The State of Indiana was divided into 5 areas and each area had a Supervisor.  The duties of the Field Representative included both Budgets and Real Estate appeal reviews.  The process for a taxpayer to object to their assessment in those days (between 10-year reassessments) was to file a petition for review at the County Assessor's office.  The State Board of Tax Commissioners held hearings in each County annually to review these petitions.  If sufficient evidence was provided by the taxpayer (or their representative) at the hearing, the hearing officer could "open" the property for review.  The County or Township Assessor woud then have the authority to review the property record card and make any changes that they deemed as necessary.  That review could be challenged by the property owner by virtue of filing an appeal.  We also reviewed appeals and made recommendatins to the Commissioners for their final determinations.  Since that time, Real Estate was divided into its own Division and curently has one Supervisor.

On the Budget side, the State Boad of Tax Commissioners held additional appropriation hearings in each County.  After the Unit filed the Additional Appropriation with the State Board of Tax Commissioners, the office set the date and time for the local hearing.  The Field Representative visited their assigned Counties each week so the additional appropriation hearing was always set fot the day the Field Representative was scheduled to be in their Counties.  It was not uncommon to hold multiple additional appropriation hearings for several different units when the Field Representative visited the County.  During the additional appropriation hearing the Field Representative would look at the Unit's ledger and review to make sure their were sufficient monies available to fund the requested appropriation.  Also, the Field Representative would check the State Statutes to make sure the Unit had legal authority within the Fund to make the appropriation for the purpose they were requesting.  We were considered a "Service" agency and the rest of the day was generally spent in the Auditor or Assessor office answering questions or meeting with other units of government to answer their questions.

We also held annual budget reviews in advance of the State's Budget Order, setting the approved budgets, levies and tax rates for each unit in every County.  This process was accomplished with each Supervisor setting a schedule for the Counties within their area for the Field Representatives and Supervisor to visit each County for the review process.  This was always done beginning the first week in October and was completed by the end of December, generally right before Christmas.  At these reviews the County would provide a room large enough for every Field Representative to set up their computer and have space to meet with a Unit of government.  All of the meetings were scheduled with each Unit having a time slot to come in and bring their books and requested budgets.  The times were set so that every Field Representative would have their own Unit and everyone was working a different unit at the same time.  We all used "Dot-Matrix" printers and the sound of several printers printing reports at the same time was deaphaning!  The Field Representatives would check each fund's cash balances and look at revenues to insure adequet funding for the budget.  If the approrpriations were deemed to be higher than the available funds, the Field Representative would advise the unit and they would need to identify areas in the budget to be reduced.  When the meeting was concluded the Unit would leave the meeting with their copy of the paperwork that the State Board of Tax Commissioners would later approve in the County Budget Order.