INDIANAPOLIS | Exorbitant property tax bills are flaring tempers around Indianapolis and sparking calls for legislative action.

But in Northwest Indiana, epicenter of the state's last property tax crisis, homeowners have little idea what to expect, and they won't see a tax bill until at least September.

"We have no way of knowing what the impact of the bills is going to be," Hobart Clerk-Treasurer Deb Longer said Tuesday. "People ask, and we can't tell them."

The news is bad in Indianapolis, where bills began hitting mailboxes last week. Homeowners in Marion and seven other counties are being hit with property-tax hikes of more than 35 percent, according to state estimates released Tuesday.

Homeowners staged a pair of tax protests outside the governor's residence last week, and Indianapolis Mayor Bart Peterson, a Democrat, has called on Republican Gov. Mitch Daniels to haul legislators back to the Statehouse to address what is being labeled a crisis.

"As governor, I will take every step I have authority to take to help Hoosier homeowners," Daniels said Monday night in a statement that didn't rule out a special legislative session.

For now, Lake and Porter are among more than three-dozen counties still in the dark.

Lake County delivered a final round of data to the state last week, but state officials say it will take at least eight weeks to calculate rates determining the size of local tax bills. Porter County has yet to ship its final assessment information downstate.

In late April, state analysts warned that the average statewide increase in residential bills could hit 24 percent. Lawmakers quickly crafted a plan to reduce the average spike to about 8 percent by spending $300 million on partial rebate checks -- an average of $236 per homeowner -- that will go out at the end of the year.

"I think it was the best (lawmakers) could do under the circumstances," said state Rep. Chet Dobis, D-Merrillivlle.

Still, Dobis, a 37-year legislative veteran, admits that the rebates are "a big Band Aid, not a solution," and he predicts that "before this is over we will have a special session."

Lake County Councilman Larry Blanchard, R-Crown Point, agreed the tax unrest centered in Indianapolis "absolutely demonstrates that what (legislators) did is only a Band-Aid."

Daniels said the state will approve any county's plan to let homeowners pay tax bills in installments and will expedite short-term loans to keep local governments afloat.

He said the state will not approve local budgets in Lake, Porter and nearly two-dozen other counties until their commercial and industrial real estate assessments are further scrutinized. And the state plans to cap future annual spending increases at 3 percent and put a hold on bond-funded projects until "spending is under control" in so-called "problem" counties, likely including Lake.

Meanwhile, local officials point a finger back at the state, which determines how much property taxes increase each year to pay for local schools and state welfare programs.