Marion County is not one tax rate. It is dozens of them, and the four municipalities that opted out of Unigov in 1970 — Beech Grove, Lawrence, Southport, and the town of Speedway — each carry their own certified taxing districts with rates that can sit well above, or below, the surrounding Indianapolis districts. We covered the history and the layered structure in our excluded cities overview. This post does something narrower: it pulls the actual 2026 certified rates from the DLGF's 2026 Certified Tax Rates by District report (prepared February 26, 2026) and walks through what the numbers mean for a real bill.
The 2026 certified numbers
Every parcel in Indiana sits in exactly one taxing district, and the DLGF certifies one gross rate per district — the sum of every overlapping unit's rate: county, township, civil city or town, school corporation, library, and special units. Here are the certified 2026 gross rates (per $100 of net assessed value) for the four excluded municipalities and their nearest Indianapolis comparisons:
| Taxing district | District no. | 2026 certified gross rate |
|---|---|---|
| Beech Grove — Center Township | 102 | $4.2369 |
| Beech Grove — Franklin Township | 302 | $4.2097 |
| Beech Grove — Perry Township | 502 | $4.2001 |
| Beech Grove — Warren Township | 702 | $4.1986 |
| Town of Speedway (Wayne Township) | 914 | $3.1302 |
| City of Southport (Perry Township) | 513 | $2.8330 |
| Indianapolis — Center Township | 101 | $2.7291 |
| Indianapolis — Wayne Township | 901 | $2.7096 |
| Indianapolis — Lawrence Township | 401 | $2.6927 |
| Indianapolis — Perry Township | 501 | $2.6923 |
| City of Lawrence (Lawrence Township) | 407 | $2.6094 |
| Franklin Township (outside city) | 300 | $2.4269 |
Source: DLGF, 2026 Certified Tax Rates by District.
Three things jump off the page:
- Beech Grove is the county's high-water mark. At $4.2369 in its Center Township slice, Beech Grove's rate runs roughly $1.51 per $100 above Indianapolis–Center Township ($2.7291) — a gap of more than 55 percent. All four of Beech Grove's township slices sit near $4.20, the highest districts in the county.
- Lawrence is cheaper than the Indianapolis district around it. The City of Lawrence's certified rate ($2.6094) comes in below the Indianapolis–Lawrence Township district ($2.6927). Excluded-city status does not automatically mean a higher rate.
- Speedway sits in the middle of Wayne Township's spread. The town's $3.1302 is well above Indianapolis–Wayne ($2.7096) but well below the Wayne "outside" district ($3.6418). Which side of a Wayne Township street you live on matters more than the "Speedway" name on the water tower.
Why these four run their own rates
The mechanics are structural, and they come in two layers.
Layer one: a separate civil government
When Unigov consolidated Indianapolis and Marion County in 1970, Beech Grove, Lawrence, Southport, and Speedway kept their own mayors or town council, their own police departments, and their own fire protection. Each of those functions is funded by a levy on the parcels inside the municipal boundary. In exchange, those parcels do not pay the consolidated city's rate or the Indianapolis police and fire special-district rates. Whether the swap nets out higher or lower depends entirely on how expensive it is for a small city to run full-service government from a compact tax base.
Layer two: schools, in two of the four cases
Beech Grove City Schools and the Speedway school corporation are independent districts; Lawrence students attend MSD Lawrence Township and Southport students attend Perry Township schools. Because the school levy is the largest single component of any Marion County rate, the two municipalities with their own school districts diverge from their surroundings far more than the two without. That is a big part of why Beech Grove and Speedway bracket the extremes while Lawrence and Southport land within about 15 cents of their Indianapolis neighbors.
The DLGF report also shows the school layer standing alone: districts 320 and 520 — parcels inside the Beech Grove school district but outside the city — carry rates of $3.2622 and $3.6141. Even without the civil-city levy, the small-district school rate keeps those parcels above every Indianapolis township district.
Note
Boundaries do not follow mailing addresses. Beech Grove's taxing districts touch four townships (Center, Franklin, Perry, and Warren), a "Lawrence" address can sit in unincorporated Lawrence Township at $2.4530, and Speedway's town limits do not match its zip code. The district number on your bill — not your address — determines your rate.
A $250,000 home, district by district
Take a $250,000 homestead and assume deductions bring its net assessed value to an illustrative $125,000 (the exact figure depends on your deduction mix). Gross tax before credits:
| District | Rate | Gross tax on $125,000 net AV |
|---|---|---|
| Beech Grove (Perry) | $4.2001 | $5,250 |
| Speedway | $3.1302 | $3,913 |
| Southport | $2.8330 | $3,541 |
| Indianapolis (Center) | $2.7291 | $3,411 |
| City of Lawrence | $2.6094 | $3,262 |
On paper, the Beech Grove homeowner pays about $1,988 more than the Lawrence homeowner for the same house. But that is before the constitutional caps — and the caps rewrite the story.
What the caps do to the gap
Indiana caps a homestead's tax at 1% of gross assessed value — $2,500 on a $250,000 home — with voter-approved referendum levies sitting outside the cap. Notice that every gross figure in the table above exceeds $2,500. At Marion County's 2026 rates, a typical $250,000 homestead is cap-bound in all five districts, so much of the headline rate spread never reaches the owner's bill. The differences that survive are the referendum levies (which vary by school district) and cap treatment.
Where the full rate spread does bite:
- Rental and other residential property (2% cap). A $250,000 rental caps at $5,000 — and with no homestead deductions, Beech Grove's gross tax on that parcel is roughly $10,500 against Indianapolis–Center's $6,823. Both hit the cap, but the cap credit is doing far more work in Beech Grove.
- Commercial property (3% cap). At $7,500 on a $250,000 parcel, an Indianapolis–Center business (gross about $6,823) pays its full rate, while the same building in Beech Grove is capped.
- Local budgets. Every capped dollar is revenue the city, school, and library never collect. High-rate districts like Beech Grove absorb heavy circuit-breaker losses, which feeds back into future budget and levy decisions.
And here is the part owners miss: when you are cap-bound, the rate stops mattering and your assessed value becomes the whole ballgame. The cap is 1% of gross AV, so a $20,000 assessment reduction cuts a cap-bound homestead bill by $200 — every year — regardless of the district rate. In Beech Grove or Speedway, appealing an inflated assessment is frequently the only lever that actually moves the bill.
Checking your own district
Your taxing district number is printed on your TS-1 bill and your Form 11. For how these rates were built — and the county's full district list — see our Marion County certified rates breakdown, and for the township layer underneath it all, the nine townships comparison.
To see how your assessment stacks up against comparable homes in your district, start with our Marion County property explorer or the property lookup tool. If your value looks high — and in a cap-bound district that is the number that matters — our tax appeal service builds the comparable-sales evidence and files on your behalf.