“I’ve talked to lawyers and both the Constitution and statute are clear. He’s qualified as he has been for all his previous elections."INDIANAPOLIS – Although the move is unlikely to survive the session, the Indiana House voted 85-11 Monday to accelerate the adoption of property tax caps that legislators decided last year to phase in over a longer period.
This year’s tax bills will be limited to 1.5 percent of assessed value for primary residences; 2.5 percent for farmland and rental properties; and 3.5 percent for other business property.
Those caps are scheduled to drop to 1, 2 and 3 percent, respectively, for property taxes payable in 2010.
But Bill Crawford, D-Indianapolis, offered an amendment to retroactively impose the 1-2-3 caps this year – saving $200 million for taxpayers.
“Keeping their money in their pockets is something I think taxpayers will appreciate,” said Crawford, chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee. “If that is baloney and foolishness, that’s the kind of baloney and foolishness I will stand for every day of the year.”
But the taxpayer savings would mean local units of government would have less money to provide services. And it would be retroactive to the beginning of the year, meaning local units would have to adjust budgets that were passed last fall under the existing phase-in approach.
That is why House Republicans called the move a “duck and cover” and said it would never be enacted into law.
“We’re governing here by the seat of our pants,” said Rep. Jeff Espich, R-Uniondale. He and others said the move is an attempt to draw attention away from the fact that House Democrats have refused to act on a measure that would make the tax caps part of the Indiana Constitution.
“Honestly, does anyone really think this is serious?” asked House Republican Leader Brian Bosma, of Indianapolis. “I’ll vote for it. But it doesn’t mean anything.”
Sen. Luke Kenley, R-Noblesville – the fiscal leader in the Senate, who pushed for the phase-in – laughed when informed of the House action.
He said the purpose of slowly phasing in the caps was to give local government units time to prepare through increasing local option income taxes, making cuts or finding other efficiencies.
“We’ll probably stick with that menu,” Kenley said. “We appreciate their interest, but it’s unlikely that would be acceptable to local units, and it wouldn’t be fair to them.
“They’re really going to cut the throats of local government,” he said.
