Senate Bill 271 Summary

• Allows fiscal bodies of counties, cities, towns, and Marion County's metropolitan development commission to adopt ordinances providing full or partial exemptions from property taxation on personal property located within their jurisdictions.

• Requires designating bodies to conduct a public hearing and provide notice to all taxing units at least 10 days before adopting an ordinance, with exemptions taking effect on assessment dates in the year following adoption.

• Mandates uniform application of exemptions to all qualifying personal property in the designated area and allows ordinances to be rescinded only after at least 2 years, with property already exempted remaining exempt until removed from service.

• Permits designating bodies to impose payments in lieu of taxes (PILOTS) on property owners receiving exemptions, with PILOTS amounts not exceeding the exempted tax amount and applied uniformly across the qualified area.

• Requires the Department of Local Government Finance to incorporate exemptions into personal property return forms and authorizes assessing officials to automatically apply exemptions if taxpayers fail to claim them.

• Effective July 1, 2011.