After close of the Indiana legislature’s 2025 session, the Department of Local Government Finance has recalculated the agricultural land base rate for 2025 land assessments.
The DLGF sent assessing officials statewide a memorandum dated May 9 and signed by DLGF Commissioner Jason Cockerill with the new base rate. The amendment lowered the base rate after Wayne County Assessor Tim Smith mailed Form 11s that informed property owners of their new assessments.
Smith provided WWN the following statement about the change:
“Senate Enrolled Act 1 and House Enrolled Act 1427 retroactively effective January 1, 2025 amends the Agricultural Land Base Rate from $2,390 per acre to $2,120 per acre.
“As a result of this change, the Form 11 land values for parcels containing agricultural land are now incorrect. The memorandum that dictated this retroactive change was issued after the Form 11 mailing date of April 30.
“For an updated value, please refer beacon.schneidercorp.com and search for your parcel(s) and new value(s) or feel free to contact our office 765-973-9254 Ext. 4 or via email tsmith@co.wayne.in.us.”
Smith told WWN that sending new Form 11s would require about 8,000 mailings in Wayne County.
DLGF adjusted the methodology used to calculate the $2,120 base rate. With Indiana splitting almost equally between cash rent and owner-occupied production for agricultural land, the DLGF averaged the market values figured for cash rent and owner-occupied operations the past six years. The five lowest averages, which ranged from $1,039 in 2019 to $3,050 in 2022, were then averaged for the base rate.
With the passage of HEA 1427, the base rate will not apply to land assessed with a developer’s discount for land held in inventory.
HEA 1427 also impacted the business personal property tax exemption that will be used in 2025. The exemption will remain at $80,000 rather than rising to the $1 million included in SEA 1, which was passed and signed into law prior to HEA 1427’s passage. However, the exemption is scheduled to rise to $2 million in 2026.
Local governments receive revenue from the tax on business equipment.
A version of this article appeared in the June 4 2025 print edition of the Western Wayne News.