CROWN POINT | State efforts to quiet property tax critics have resulted in an artificial drop in the assessed value of Lake County's real estate, cars and large machinery.

The Lake County Auditor's office released the latest calculation of the county's taxable worth Tuesday. It totals $20.7 billion dollars or 15.33 percent less than the county was worth the previous year.

Assessed value typically rises each year with inflation in real estate.

But state and local officials said this drop is the result of the Gov. Mitch Daniels' and the Indiana General Assembly's 2008 property tax relief plan. The plan expands the homestead deduction, which lowers taxes for homeowners by giving them get a 35 percent reduction in property value on top of the $45,000 annual deduction already in place.

For now, the affect of the lower assessed value on tax bills remains unclear because local and state officials aren't expected to calculate the other major component: the tax rates. And those take rates are part of the tax bills that aren't mailed until later this fall.

Normally, a drop in assessed value will force the state to increase tax rates to ensure town, city, township and county public agencies have enough money to support government services. However, another unknown is the state's introduction of tax caps that would set upper limits on the amount of taxes any one property owner pays.

Lake County has had its own version of tax caps for the last four years, but the state's program is new.

State officials said they had to increase the homestead credit this year to balance tax breaks for local businesses. Otherwise homeowners would end up paying a larger share of government. Dissatisfaction by homeowners over higher property taxes in 2007 resulted in the governor's reform package.

County Auditor Peggy Katona said hard work by her office and the Indiana Department of Local Government Finance shaved two weeks off the calculation of assessed values. "This will give people more time to pay their bills this year," she said.

Tax bills didn't go out to homeowners in 2008 until the last weeks of 2008.

- Times Staff Writer Pat Guinane contributed to this story.