Archive for the ‘Property Taxes’ Category

Nathan commented in Scott’s “Winner” post earlier that no one is talking about losers in the property tax deal. Well the Star may ignore them, but the panel on Indiana Week in Review sure didn’t.

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(H/T - Frugal Hoosiers)

Mitch Daniels should probably be in there somewhere, too.

Of course, don’t tell the angry sociopath at One North Capitol that her party’s highest-ranking person in state government–and pretty much all of her party’s representatives in the House–voted for property tax reform.

The more effort is expected attacking the reform package, driven by foolish knee-jerk reactions and blind hatred of the Governor, the more some Democrats are attacking others of their own party at the same time.

It is not for nothing that both The Hair and the Governor have generally been perceived as coming out of the General Assembly session as winners by pundits ranging from Abdul to Jim Shella.

Brian Howey has commented on the disconnect:

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After the Governor’s presser, and the usual round of retirement speeches and wide arrays of legislative mutual congratulations, your humble correspondent had a chance to sit down with Chris Mann of Veritas Rex and Josh Gillespie of Hoosier Access to talk with Lieutenant Governor Becky Skillman.

Photos of the event are available here.

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“Today is a great day for Indianapolis!”

-Indianapolis Mayor Greg Ballard

I briefly saw the Indy Mayor and his wife Winnie today while waiting for the start of Governor Daniels press conference after the official passage of the property tax legislation.  After I waived to them from across the hall, he came over, shook my hand and with a big smile shared with me those words.  He too was pretty elated with today’s victory for tax payers.

Your humble correspondent had the chance to be present in the Governor’s post-session media availability (thanks to the folks at the Lieutenant Governor’s office for hosting us, and for the Governor’s people for letting us participate downstairs).

The big phrase for the press conference was Indiana’s “new era of taxpayer protection” (it was only used a few dozen times); the beginning of a new era of reform and so forth.

Daniels was big on touting the session as a significant accomplishment; a great example of how Hoosiers of both parties can come together to get things done.

This was a point he likewise underscored several times; to say nothing of getting done on-time and even ahead of schedule (I attribute this to the motivating power of basketball and the presence of the Big Ten Tournament in town).

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Barring any crazy antics by Speaker Bauer (which can never be ruled out), we have a deal…a compromise if you will, on the property tax crisis. And it does include a constitutional amendment. Time to celebrate this compromise.

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I love that band!

It’s always too much to ask for The Hair to follow basic blueprints and instructions.

Credit where due; Speaker Pat “The Hair” Bauer has finally put forward a property tax plan that was not devised on the back of a napkin during a party put on by some big-bucks lobbyist.

The problem with this new Democratic plan, of course, is that it is not much less hair-brained than the plan that was napkin-born.

Let’s take a look at the write-up on it from the Courier-Journal:

House Democrats did an about-face yesterday, backing off a complicated plan they approved in January that would have restructured Indiana’s tax system largely as proposed by Republican Gov. Mitch Daniels.

They actually voted for Mitch’s plan, before they voted against it.

Instead, House Ways and Means Chairman Bill Crawford, D-Indianapolis, told Republicans in a negotiating session that Democrats want a simpler tax change — an increase of 1 percentage point in the sales tax that would fund a new property-tax break for homeowners.

The Democrats’ new plan would shift almost no local costs to the state budget, would put no new spending limits on local governments and would not require referendums for local construction projects — all tenets of Daniels’ plan and part of House Bill 1001 as passed 99-1 by the House early in the session.

There you have it.

No accountability in local spending.

No measures to slow the growth in spending.

And no restrictions at all on the taxation of land used for businesses, rentals, and farms.

Yes, farms.

The Democrats want no caps at all on the property of farmers.

All of this means that, if approved, the Democratic plan would do nothing to stop the growth in spending that was in large measure responsible for this problem.

Worse still, it would place the burden for paying for that growth in spending upon business property, rental property, and farmers.

The governor’s plan capped property taxes at 3% for businesses (including farmers).

The Democrats give them no cap at all.

All this means is that, as the property tax levy grows, it will be businesses, renters, and farmers that will be squeezed the most.

That’s a heck of a plan.

It’s so bad that they almost, almost should go back to the one that was drawn on a napkin.

Because it is stripped of any spending restraint whatsoever, in four or five years, the Democratic plan would see this state in a property tax crisis again.

The whole point of the additional measures in the proposals put forward by the Republicans and the Governor is to ensure that this is not a crisis again in a few years’ time.

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Now that we’re in the final week of the General Assembly Session the stakes to find a solution to the property tax problem have increased.  For Hoosiers, the problem has always been the same: we’re watching our property tax bills go through the roof and we can’t afford that.  For Republicans at the Statehouse the problem has been finding a plan that provides immediate relief and leaves open the possibility of future, and more extensive reform, if revenues allow for it (here I am referring to the House GOP Caucus’ plan in January to try and eliminate residential property taxes, a goal that the Governor has said he supports for down the road).  For Democrats the plan has always been the same: help create the problem, then let the Republicans try to develop a solution, and then come back with your own “solution” when it’s too late. 

A few weeks ago we had the Democrats advocating a half-baked solution of indexing property tax caps to personal incomes.  Then in the past few days the Democrats unveiled a new plan (after the Republicans brought forward their compromise) that takes the Governor’s one percent cap on residential property and one percent sales tax increase and pretty much strips everything else away.  The referendums, gone; the cap on local spending, gone; the constitutional caps on property tax rates; gone.  The Democratic “plan” really amounts to a stripped down version of what Republicans have already brought forward.

Now the question is whether or not Speaker Bauer and his fellow caucus members will actually compromise on their “plan” and support the true compromise put forward by Republicans.  If the General Assembly fails to pass property tax reform before the end of the session at the end of this week, then Governor Daniels has raised the possibility of a special session.  I can’t imagine legislators, especially those facing primary races, enjoying being called back to finish the work they failed to do. 

Update: Brian Howey on Saturday posted a piece on property taxes that was not to friendly to Democrats.

[The Directors of Hoosier Access are pleased to have Lt. Governor Becky Skillman, who is giving us this exclusive, to give us her view on the current situation with the property legislation in the legislature.]

Property Tax Legislation Must Be Immediate and Permanent

By Lt. Gov. Becky Skillman

This week, Senate and House Republicans came together to outline their joint proposal for property tax reform, a plan that goes a long way towards providing Hoosier taxpayers immediate and permanent relief. Throughout the session, Governor Daniels has been accepting of modifications to his property tax proposal. He does, however, insist that the four basic pillars of the plan – immediate relief, permanent protection, assessment reform and local spending control – remain in place in the final version. The Republicans have maintained these must-haves.

The version of tax reform put forth by the two Republican caucuses reflects several concessions to Democrat members. The Governor has agreed to these compromises in order to provide the best solution possible to all Hoosiers. He has agreed to phase in the circuit breaker caps, raising the earned income tax credit, increasing the renters deduction, just to name a few. That said, the Governor and I expect the same cooperation from Democrats in both chambers.

As a former legislator myself, I am confident that all 150 legislators would prefer to pass a lasting and permanent property tax package now instead of going back year after year – as they have been doing – to tweak the law. While the Republican compromise plan is not anyone’s first choice, it is certainly better than status quo. And like the Governor has said, anyone who can’t agree on this plan is not ready to protect Hoosier homeowners.

From the Indy Star:

Legislators take steps toward property tax compromise
March 6, 2008

Gov. Mitch Daniels praised the proposal laid out this morning by House and Senate Republicans, saying it represented bipartisan compromise by giving more help to low income people to address concerns raised by Democrats.

“In the spirit of compromise, I’m prepared to sign this bill,” Daniels said of the GOP version of House Bill 1001. “It reflects the best thinking of both sides and a very fair, meet-in-the-middle solution that’s very much in the interests of Hoosier taxpayers.
He used strong words, though, for any lawmaker who might not support the plan.

“If this isn’t good enough for somebody, then they don’t want to cap property taxes,” he said.

The latest proposal on how to deliver property tax relief was made this morning by Senate and House Republicans, who stood together on the steps of a Statehouse staircase to support a plan that they said would deliver immediate and permanent relief to homeowners.

The proposal picks up some Democratic ideas, including raising the earned income tax credit for the working poor to 9 percent from the current 6 percent and giving additional property tax relief to senior citizens.

“I don’t think there’s a deal-breaker here at all,” said Senate President Pro Tempore David Long, R-Fort Wayne.

He and House Minority Leader Brian Bosma, R-Indianapolis, both said they hoped Democrats would join them in embracing the plan.

“This is not a partisan” plan, Bosma said.

(Read the rest of the Indy Star article here)

I don’t want to get my hopes up on this, but it looks like meaningful property tax relief may actually happen this session.   It may not be complete repeal, like many wanted, but I think this is the best thing we could have ever received short of repeal (which couldn’t happen anyway).  Governor Daniels will get his constitutionally added tax caps on residential property while the Democrats will get increased relief to the poor and to Senior Citizens. This looks like a win-win, but with “The Hair” in charge, nothing is for sure.

The real question for these legislators is, if this legislation passes, how many elected officials will have just saved their jobs. (Obvious answer here is, not elected assessors.)

Here’s a quick video the Governor just released regarding property taxes.

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