ProgressOhio

With last night's focus on "Joe The Plumber" there's lots of research going on over the internet(s) as to who is "The Real Joe Wurzelbacher".

Was he a "plant" working for Fox News?

Is he really related to Charles Keating?

Is this story from the Richmond, Ind. Palladium about "The Real Joe Wurzelbacher"?

Palladium-Item (Richmond, IN) October 27, 2003 "Union Co. gets property tax bills; no appeals so far"

LIBERTY, Ind. - Property tax bills landed in most Union County mailboxes Tuesday but so far, no owners have appealed their property assessments.

A steady stream of taxpayers have asked questions in the assessor's office, but no deputies have been needed, Assessor Diana Baker said.

"We'll call them if we need help," Baker said.

Tax bills are due here Nov. 19. Property owners have until Dec. 4 to appeal their assessments, Baker said. Factual errors on assessments are being corrected as quickly as possible and new bills will be sent, deputy assessor Alma Alcorn said.

Taxpayers clutching their bills were lined up at the treasurer's window Friday. The reassessment shuffle has produced winners and losers. Owners of newer homes are seeing lower bills, but Joe Wurzelbacher of Cincinnati said he's one of the losers.

"They might as well bill me every four months instead of every six months because the increase is about equal to another whole payment,"Wurzelbacher owns a farm in Harmony Township and has several rental houses, so he's not eligible for the $35,000 homestead exemption. He also owns farmland in Hamilton County, Ohio, one of the most highly taxed counties in that state, but his taxes there are considerably less because Ohio allows farmers to enroll their land in a program that values it at current agricultural value, he said.

College Corner landlord Carolyn Portwood said her total tax bill has increased by a third.

"There seems to be a reward system to doing poorly. If you fix up a property it just costs you more," Portwood said. "Our tenants are good people but they work for a living. We can't command the rents in College Corner that they do in Oxford. You work and work and (the government) takes and takes. It's very discouraging."

Some taxpayers haven't signed up for exemptions to which they're entitled, Baker said.

[Source] Palladium-Item (Richmond, IN) October 27, 2003 "Union Co. gets property tax bills; no appeals so far"