Federal investigators question a Portage business's tax break
NWI Times
Updated Nov 25, 2017
http://www.nwitimes.com/news/local/crime-and-courts/federal-investigators-question-a-portage-business-s-tax-break/article_a48774b8-152d-5ce7-853c-1318695ebc3f.html
PORTAGE — A recent federal inquiry may center on a significant tax break a local business received several years ago.
FBI and IRS agents visited Portage Township Assessor Alta Neri last week to ask questions about SRH LLC, which previously owned a multiacre real estate parcel at 5900 Southport Road on which Great Lakes Peterbilt trucks has been doing business for more than 20 years.
While the federal agents didn't serve a subpoena for records, they did ask about routine practices of the township assessor's office and took copies of documents related to a decision to reduce SRH's property tax assessments.
Neri said a tax representative for SRH filed appeals of its 2011-12 assessments.
She said properties usually are assessed at values, for taxing purposes, that follow the local real estate market. On this appeal, they used an alternate method of measuring the firm's business income and arrived at a lower value.
"We honestly did our job," she said. Neri was the chief deputy assessor at the time. She was elected assessor in 2014.
Neri said the documents federal investigators asked questions about are confidential.
But public records kept by the Porter County assessor's office indicate the assessment of SRH's parcel was reduced in value by at least 35 percent — to $1.6 million from $2.5 million in 2011, and to $1.6 million from $2.6 million in 2012.
Neri said that reduction accounts for SRH's 2012 tax bill dropping by nearly $22,992. The Porter County treasurer's office records indicate SRH's taxes went to $42,170 from $65,162.
Stephen Buha, listed as SRH's president in state business records, said this week no federal agents have questioned him about what he considers to be a routine tax appeal. "I was the president who filed it, but I didn't do it personally. I cannot speculate what this is about."
Valparaiso attorney Russell Millbranth, who has represented SRH, said he is baffled. "People quite often find their assessment is steep. There are a lot of companies that perform appeals of tax matters."
Spokespersons for the FBI, IRS and the U.S. attorney's office in Hammond declined to comment, saying federal law prohibits them from commenting on investigations.
Neri said she suspects the federal inquiry may be connected to the long-running investigation of Portage Mayor James Snyder, who is awaiting trial next year on bribery, extortion and tax evasion charges the U.S. attorney's office filed a year ago.
Snyder is pleading not guilty to all counts. Reached Wednesday by text message, the mayor said he would respond but did not. His defense attorney could not be reached for comment.
Business records kept by the Indiana secretary of state indicates SRH was first organized as a limited liability company in January 2003 and has remained active.
SRH's principal office was listed at the Southport Road address until 2015 when it moved to the Valparaiso residence of Robert Buha, who is listed as the company's secretary.
County records indicate the property at Southport Road sold in 2015 to Larson Properties LLC for $5.3 million. Neri said that will require her office to readjust the property's value upward in future tax cycles.
In September 2014, FBI agents visited Portage's street department and requested documents related to the purchase of automated garbage trucks from Great Lakes Peterbilt, Clerk-Treasurer Christopher Stidham said at the time.
City Attorney Gregg Sobkowski also had confirmed the FBI issued a subpoena at the time for all bid packages received by the city for garbage trucks purchased from 2012 to the present.
In August 2015, FBI agents visited the offices of Porter County Assessor Jon Snyder to inquire about property tax appeals from 2012 and 2013. The county assessor is a brother of the Portage mayor.
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