Indiana Should STOP Taxing Ski Areas Like Other Commerical Real Estate, as if the Weather Does't Matter

Entertainment and tourist travel businesses need to be taxed on a marginal, not fixed, basis.

The history of northern Indiana skiing also raises a public-policy question. Did Indiana’s property-tax system help push its small ski areas toward extinction?

A ski hill may own substantial acreage, a lodge, lifts and expensive snowmaking equipment, but it can earn meaningful revenue only during a short and unpredictable winter. Property taxes remain due whether the resort enjoys a 90-day season or loses most of January to rain and temperatures above freezing.

(This article will be follow up if and when the Pines Ski Area reopens this winter, or if the IGA entertains a bill to promote Indiana ski tourism by reducing the unbearable tax burden on these operators, basically forcing them to close down and sell the hill for decades now, since the states runs with the greatest vertical drop at Mount Wawasee shutdown, and LaPorte's nightly lit winter A-frame resort along the Indiana Toll Road, known as as Ski Valley, was developed into apartments.)

Indiana generally assesses real property according to its market value in use. That approach does not adequately recognize the extraordinary weather risk carried by a seasonal ski operation. A conventional commercial property can remain open throughout the year. A ski hill cannot sell lift tickets when temperatures are too warm to make or preserve snow.

The General Assembly should consider creating a special taxation category for Indiana ski areas. Instead of imposing the full conventional property-tax burden on land and skiing infrastructure, the state could authorize an admissions-based winter-recreation fee calculated according to skier and tubing visits.

The system might work as follows:

• Each qualifying ski area would report annual skier and tubing visits.

• A modest fee would be assessed for each visit in place of some or all property taxes attributable to ski lifts, snowmaking systems, trails and other winter-sports improvements.

• The assessment could be calculated using a rolling three- or five-year attendance average, preventing one unusually successful winter from producing an immediate tax spike.

• A hardship adjustment should reduce the assessment when actual attendance falls substantially below the average because of an abnormally warm or snowless winter.

• The state could reimburse affected local taxing units for part of the lost property-tax revenue, recognizing the jobs, tourism spending and recreational opportunities preserved by the program.

  
  

This would not be a subsidy without accountability. A resort would receive favorable treatment only while remaining available for public skiing, snowboarding, tubing, lessons or related winter recreation. If the property were converted into apartments, commercial buildings or an ordinary residential development, it would return to the conventional property-tax system.

Indiana already uses specialized tax treatment when the public benefits of preserving farms, forests and other land uses justify it. A carefully drafted winter-recreation classification could similarly recognize that ski areas preserve open space, attract visitors, employ young people and introduce children to lifelong outdoor activities.

Northern Indiana lost more than a few small hills

The disappearance of The Pines, Ski Valley and Bendix Woods ended a period when northern Indiana was a winter destination for families from Chicago and its suburbs. Parents did not need to spend thousands of dollars or fly their children to Colorado. They could drive to Valparaiso, LaPorte or New Carlisle and introduce them to skiing on manageable local hills.

Those beginner areas also supported a broader winter economy. Visitors purchased gasoline, ate in restaurants, rented equipment and sometimes stayed overnight. Ski patrol members, instructors, lift operators and lodge employees gained experience. Some children who began on Indiana’s 120-foot hills eventually became serious recreational skiers and competitors.

Ski Valley’s former LaPorte County site now appears to have been substantially redeveloped, reportedly with apartments or other residential construction covering at least part of the old property. That claim should be confirmed through current LaPorte County parcel and planning records before publication as a definitive fact. If correct, however, it demonstrates how final the loss of a ski area can become. Once the lifts are removed, the slopes regraded and the land covered with housing, the hill is unlikely ever to return.

The Pines presents a different possibility. The Valparaiso property remained recognizable as a former ski area after its 2008 closing, and recent activity has raised hopes that tubing could return first, followed eventually by skiing and snowboarding. Its reopening would restore a piece of northern Indiana’s identity and again give Chicago-area families an accessible place for children to learn.

Indiana should not wait until that effort fails to reconsider how it taxes highly seasonal recreational land. Paoli Peaks and Perfect North Slopes have survived through scale, extensive snowmaking and access to major population centers. Smaller community hills need a system that recognizes their different economics.

A skier-based assessment would allow the state to collect more when the weather and attendance are strong and less when winter fails to arrive. That is fairer than demanding essentially the same property-tax payment regardless of whether a ski area operates for twelve weeks or twelve days.

If Indiana wants The Pines to become more than another abandoned landmark, state and local officials should treat its potential reopening as an opportunity. Northern Indiana was once a genuine beginner-skiing destination.

Thoughtful tax reform could help it become one again.

Indiana has two surviving ski resorts.

Although most of Indiana’s ski hills have disappeared, two larger operations survived by investing heavily in snowmaking and expanding their reach: Paoli Peaks and Perfect North Slopes. Both remain seasonal operations whose opening and closing dates depend heavily on temperatures suitable for producing artificial snow.

Paoli Peaks

Paoli Peaks opened in southern Indiana in 1978. It was founded by an investment group led by Paoli physician Dr. Richard Graber. Built on the wooded hills of Orange County, the resort demonstrated that dependable recreational skiing could exist considerably farther south than Indiana’s traditional lake-effect snowbelt.

The resort offers roughly 300 feet of vertical drop, 15 trails, five chairlifts, surface lifts, terrain parks, night skiing and a separate snow-tubing operation. Its snowmaking system is essential because southern Indiana’s natural snowfall is limited and inconsistent.

Paoli Peaks traditionally attracts visitors from Indianapolis, Bloomington, Louisville and communities across southern Indiana and Kentucky.

It is now owned and operated by Vail Resorts and participates in the Epic Pass system. The resort’s official history says it began in 1978 under the leadership of Dr. Graber. Paoli Peaks provides additional historical and mountain information here⁠.

Perfect North Slopes

Perfect North Slopes opened near Lawrenceburg in 1980 on the Perfect family’s approximately 200-acre farm. Clyde and Ella Mae Perfect reportedly sold part of their cattle herd to finance the new ski operation.

Its beginnings were modest: two primary runs, handle tows and rope tows. The family gradually added chairlifts, expanded the terrain and developed one of the Midwest’s most substantial snowmaking operations.

Today, Perfect North advertises 23 trails, five chairlifts, eight carpet lifts, rope tows, terrain parks and 23 tubing lanes. Its approximately 400-foot vertical drop makes it larger than the former northern Indiana community hills.

Located near Cincinnati, the resort draws customers from Indiana, Ohio and Kentucky.

Perfect North also helped launch the career of Lawrenceburg native Nick Goepper, who went from training on the Indiana hill to becoming an Olympic medalist in freestyle skiing.

The resort’s survival demonstrates what Indiana skiing increasingly required: aggressive snowmaking, continual reinvestment, a large metropolitan customer base and activities such as tubing that appeal to visitors who do not ski. Perfect North’s current mountain information is available on its official website.

Together, Paoli Peaks and Perfect North Slopes are Indiana’s two operating downhill ski areas. If The Pines successfully restores skiing, the Valparaiso hill could become the state’s third—returning lift-served skiing to northern Indiana for the first time since The Pines closed in 2008. Think snow!