As reported by: AP Wire via Fort Wayne
Lake County officials have hired consultants to try to extract more property taxes out of area casinos, an effort being met with resistance from riverboat operators.

County Commissioners voted this week to pay Parker Poe Adams & Bernstein LLP, a Charlotte, N.C.-based law firm, $800,000 for work in this and next year and Laszlo & Popp, a Merrillville consulting firm, another $150,000 to help government deal with its largest taxpayers.

"The casino boats are tremendously underassessed," Lake County Assessor Paul Karras said this week. "There is going to be a dramatic change in this."

Karras said the consultants already have obtained $200 million in settlements during the last five years from U.S. Steel, BP and Mittal Steel.

But Rick Mazer, general manager for Horseshoe in Hammond, said his company is prepared to lobby the state to block Karras' initiative.

"We are the most heavily taxed industry in the state and the third-largest producer of tax revenue for the state," Mazer said. "We need to figure out how to keep it stable and growing and hiring. We shouldn't be looking to tax it out of existence."

Karras said there is plenty of unfinished work involving the casinos, which he said have been underassessed because there were no comparison sales.


Article By: AP Wire via Fort Wayne