My Take on the Daniels Plan

First off, I’d like to say that this is one Director’s opinion of Governor Daniels property tax plan and does not reflect the other opinions of the Directors of Hoosier Access….unless they email me and inform that that they agree with me.

(Warning - lengthy)

After letting the Governor’s plan percolate with me and reading some other analysis of the Governor’s plan, I thought I’d give my own opinion since anyone with a computer and the internet can do this.

I have to give the Governor credit for using his bully pulpit effectively to announce his plan….to central Indiana. I’m not exactly sure if his plan reached the far grasps of “The Region”, distracted people in the northeast from the Fort Wayne’s mayors debate or if the southern portion of the state even cares. Nevertheless, I know I can’t remember a time when our state’s governor appeared on television to discuss one of the biggest issues heading into the 2008 election cycle…I mean General Assembly. I still give him props on the timing aspect though. He basically controls the agenda for the upcoming session and has plan to top it off. None of the Democrats seem to, so this plan ties their hands.

As for the plan itself, it wasn’t elimination, but I feel it’s as close as you can get. Parts of the plan, I really liked. Some of them I didn’t. Let’s break this down shall we:

(See the breakdown after the fold)

A proposal to cut every homeowner’s property taxes sharply and cap them forever, at no more than one per cent of a home’s true value

As a home owner, I am very much in favor of this. Now I know this bring out the hues and cries that he should have just eliminated property taxes if he was going to amend the constitution, but the numbers seem to have never added up. We see immediate relief by dipping slightly into the state’s surplus, but nothing like a former Governor did when the gas tax was apparently too high, but in turn sent the surplus then down the drain and economy into a tail spin. Did I mention that particular governor did it during an election year?

Lower the average Hoosier property tax bill by more than a third by removing forever the rest of school operating costs, and the cost of protecting abused and neglected children, from the local to the state level

According to the Governor’s numbers “Immediate relief should be provided to every homeowner on the May ’08 bills, and the full 1% ceiling protection put in place by 2009.” What makes me a little leery of this is that it takes something that was under local control and puts it under the states. Detractors are saying that the Governor is taking money from schools. I disagree. He’s making sure exorbitant amounts of money aren’t being spent on these ginormous high schools that in turn raise property taxes. Just ask the people in Fishers. What I don’t like is that the sales tax goes up again. That would be the governor’s second tax increase that I’m aware of (third if you count the tax increase for the new Colts Stadium that the donut counties surrounding Marion County have to foot…but the counties were forced into that one…it wasn’t a direct order from the Governor).

I will propose that any significant new capital project, or any spending in excess of the growth in local income, must be approved by voter referendum

Now this just makes sense. Every significant capital project should be approved by a voter referendum. Wise, wise move by Governor Daniels.

I will propose hard ceilings, with no exceptions and no loopholes, of 2% for rental properties and 3% for other businesses, also written into our constitution

Now this is where the Governor is taking some serious heat. Families get a 1% hard ceiling, but rental properties and small businesses are treated differently? That hard cap is passed on to the renter, not the property owner and as a small business owner I’m leery of being taxed differently than every body else. I have a feeling this may be the provision that the Governor may have to bend a little.

I will propose the elimination of all political assessors and the appointment by each County Council of a single, qualified and certified assessor to oversee trained professionals in conducting future appraisals

As a Republican you might think I wouldn’t like this.  This just adds to the growing rift between state and local government right?  Well, as much as I’m a fan of the small government model and local accountability, local assessors have dropped the ball on this one.  Many aren’t even trained in assessing home property, let alone business property.  I say hand this over to professionals.

All in all, I think this is the most sound plan out there.  We don’t drain the surplus, a permanent solution is created and excess government is eliminated.  It’s not perfect, but it’s the most realistic and promising solution presented.