Once again, farmland assessments and property taxes are going up. The Department of Local Government Finance, which oversees the property tax in Indiana, has set the base rate per acre of farmland for 2015 taxes at $2,050 per acre. That's a 16 percent increase from the base rate for 2014 taxes. In December the DLGF announced the base rate for 2016 at $2,420, another 18 percent increase.
It's the holiday season, and in the Indiana Statehouse that means one thing: time for the state revenue forecast. Legislators gathered in Room 404 on Dec. 18 to learn how much money they'll have to work with for the 2016 and 2017 budgets.
It was like a scene from a movie. The kind Frank Capra would have made, had he made one that took place on Halloween. A nighttime streetscape canopied with a thick blanket of leaves in hues of red and gold. Front yards transformed into graveyards and other ghoulish settings. Just the right amount of fright.
Purdue Extension and the Purdue University Center for Regional Development are among partners in a new state initiative designed to improve the economies and quality of life of small communities.