Porter County will face a nearly $350 million loss in assessed value this year, John Scott, county assessor, said Thursday.

That loss could cause a 4 percent shift in tax burden from businesses to all taxpayers, including homeowners.

After the state restructured taxes in 2002, legislators eliminated the inventory tax -- a property tax levied on businesses' raw materials and finished products in their inventory.

Instead of putting the new regulation into effect immediately, however, the state gave counties until 2007 to phase it in or impose a local income tax. Because Porter County did not take either action, it will feel the full effect of the change this year.

The total loss of assessed value for this year is $348,417,090, Scott said Thursday as he released information regarding the county's inventory assessments . Data show some townships worse off than others.

The town of Porter, Westchester Township and Pine-Michigan City are the three taxing districts that will be hit hardest from the change. In each area, more than 50 percent of total assessed personal property (non-real estate) was lost. This means that more than half of businesses' property taxes in those areas will be redistributed to all taxpayers.

In Porter, about 64 percent of personal property will not be taxed because it is inventory. In Westchester Township, almost 55 percent won't be taxed and in Pine-Michigan City the figure is slightly more than 50 percent.

Only two of the 29 regions had no inventory assessment at all -- Dune Acres and Jackson-Chesterton. Other tax districts with minimal losses are Portage-Westchester, Pine-Westchester and West Porter Township. Each region lost less than 3 percent of its personal property value.

Overall, the $348 million loss for Porter County amounts to slightly more than 27 percent of its nearly $1.3 billion assessment of personal property.

Scott said that seeing the loss of assessed value for Porter County might help explain why tax rates could change. With property taxes making up most of the county's revenue, taxpayers will likely be shouldering most of the loss from the inventory tax elimination.

"We depend on that money to be part of our revenue and now it's gone," Scott said.