Your 2027 property tax bill will not be decided in the spring of 2027. Most of it gets decided this fall, in public meetings the average taxpayer never attends — the budget hearings where every county, city, town, township, school corporation, and library district fixes the property tax levy it will collect next year.
The Department of Local Government Finance (DLGF) published the official 2026 Budget Calendar in a February 18, 2026 memo. The two dates that matter most to taxpayers: units must hold their public hearing on 2027 budgets by October 23, 2026, and must adopt those budgets, tax rates, and tax levies by November 2, 2026. Between those dates sits a statutory window most Hoosiers have never heard of — the taxpayer objection petition.
Levies First, Rates Second
Indiana is a levy-controlled state. Each taxing unit budgets up to a maximum permissible levy — the total property tax dollars it may raise — and the tax rate is derived afterward by dividing the certified levy by the district's net assessed value. Nobody votes on your rate. They vote on the levy, and the rate falls out of the arithmetic.
The practical consequence: the budget hearing is the only public forum where the dollars themselves are on the table. By the time rates appear on a budget order — see our walkthrough of the Marion County 2026 budget order — the decisions are already made.
The ceiling on levy growth for 2027 is the maximum levy growth quotient (MLGQ), which the State Budget Agency must provide to taxing units by June 30 under the calendar. SEA 1's temporary 4 percent levy cap expires after the 2026 bills, so 2027 reverts to the underlying income-based formula — see our MLGQ explainer. Units that want every allowed dollar have to claim it in these fall adoptions; whether anyone pushes back is up to the people who show up.
The Fall 2026 Calendar
Every date below comes from the DLGF's 2026 Budget Calendar memo, which flags each as the last possible day and notes dates could shift by action of the 2026 General Assembly.
| Date | What happens | Authority |
|---|---|---|
| Aug 1 | County auditor certifies net assessed values to the DLGF; county fiscal body reviews estimated levy limits and circuit breaker losses at its first August meeting | IC 6-1.1-17-1; IC 6-1.1-17-3.6 |
| Sept 1 | Units with appointed boards (including certain libraries) submit proposed budgets to their fiscal body for binding adoption | IC 6-1.1-17-20 |
| Oct 13 | Last day to post the notice to taxpayers (Budget Form 3) of proposed 2027 budgets, net levies, and the public hearing to Gateway | IC 6-1.1-17-3 |
| Oct 23 | Last possible day for the public hearing on 2027 budgets — must be held at least 10 days before adoption | IC 6-1.1-17-5 |
| Oct 30 | Last possible day for a taxpayer objection petition (10 or more taxpayers), filed within 7 days of the hearing | IC 6-1.1-17-5(b) |
| Nov 2 | Deadline for all taxing units to adopt 2027 budgets, tax rates, and tax levies | IC 6-1.1-17-5(a) |
| Nov 9 | Units submit adopted budgets, rates, and levies to the DLGF through Gateway | IC 6-1.1-17-5 |
| Nov 13 | DLGF begins issuing 1782 Notices for pay-2027 budgets; units have 10 calendar days to respond | IC 6-1.1-17-16(g) |
| Dec 31 | DLGF deadline to certify 2027 budgets, rates, and levies for most counties | IC 6-1.1-17-16 |
Two nuances worth knowing. First, the October 23 and November 2 dates interlock: the hearing must precede adoption by at least ten days, so a unit that waits until the last possible hearing date has boxed itself into a last-minute adoption. Second, the memo notes that in Marion County and second-class cities, the public hearing may be held any time after the budget is introduced — the sequencing rule is looser there.
Note
The 2026 requirement that units adopt a separate levy ordinance with its own dedicated hearing is a related but distinct mechanism — see our post on the levy ordinance public hearing requirement. The budget hearing described here is the older, universal one under IC 6-1.1-17-5 that every unit must hold each fall.
Finding Your Units' Notices: budgetnotices.in.gov
You do not have to scan newspaper legal ads or county bulletin boards. Indiana publishes every proposed budget notice through Gateway at budgetnotices.in.gov, which offers three ways in:
- By address — enter your street address and the site maps the taxing units that apply to your parcel, with each unit's proposed budget, proposed levy, and public hearing date, time, and location.
- By county — browse all units in any of the 92 counties.
- By unit — a direct lookup, useful because the site cautions that special districts may not appear for every address search.
The site displays the most recent submissions from taxing units and keeps a separate section for corrected notices, including levy corrections under IC 6-1.1-17-16(i). Its own advice is worth repeating: verify that the listed units are actually your units before you rely on the results.
When you pull a notice, compare the current-year levy against the proposed 2027 levy. A unit proposing growth at or near its maximum is making a choice, not following a mandate — and the hearing is where that choice gets explained. For the broader family of state disclosure tools, see our transparency portal guide.
Tip
The October 13 Gateway posting deadline means every unit's proposed numbers should be visible online well before its hearing. If a unit on your bill has not posted by mid-October, that itself is a question to ask — the DLGF memo warns that units missing that date "will not have time to complete the process before the deadline."
The Objection Petition: Ten Taxpayers, Seven Days
Indiana law gives taxpayers a sharper tool than public comment. Under IC 6-1.1-17-5(b), ten or more taxpayers may file a written objection to a political subdivision's proposed budget, tax rate, or tax levy. The mechanics, per the DLGF calendar:
- The objection must be filed not more than seven days after the public hearing — for a unit holding its hearing on the last possible day, that makes October 30, 2026 the outer limit.
- If a petition is filed, the fiscal body must adopt, with its budget, a finding concerning the objections in the petition and any testimony presented at the adoption hearing (IC 6-1.1-17-5(c)).
An objection petition does not veto anything by itself. What it does is force the elected body to respond on the record before adopting — a documented finding that follows the budget into the DLGF review that begins with the November 13 1782 Notices. Ten signatures is a low bar: one street, one HOA email, one school pickup line.
What to Actually Do This Fall
A practical sequence for a taxpayer who wants a say in the 2027 levy:
- September: Look up your address at budgetnotices.in.gov and list every unit that taxes your parcel.
- Early October: As Budget Form 3 notices post (deadline October 13), compare each proposed levy to the current year and note the hearing dates.
- Hearing day (by October 23): Attend, ask what the levy increase funds, and get answers on the record.
- Within 7 days of the hearing: If the answers do not hold up, organize ten or more taxpayers and file an objection petition.
- After November 2: Watch for the adopted figures in Gateway and, eventually, the certified budget order.
Where AribaTax Fits
The levy side of your bill is set in these hearings; the assessment side — your share of each levy — is set by your assessed value, and that part you can contest individually. Start with our Indiana property explorer to see your parcel's assessed value and how it compares to neighbors, or use the property lookup tool for the full record. If your assessment is carrying more than its share of the levies adopted this fall, our tax appeal service builds the evidence and files for you. The levy is a group fight; the assessment is yours alone — and both get decided before your 2027 bill ever prints.