The Hoosier Pundit has a post commenting on whether Indianapolis Democrats should repeal the controversial county option income tax they forced through earlier this year.
The Democrats in Indianapolis adopted a county option income tax to pay for public safety. (Indy was given special dispensation by the legislature to raise this income tax by itself — other counties had to implement two income taxes designed for property tax relief before the public safety tax was an option.) Indianapolis Republicans railed against this tax increase. I believe mayor-elect Ballard was among them. (Correct me if I’m wrong on that.) I believe there is also a lawsuit challenging the validity of the vote on the tax increase because one of the council members wasn’t legitimately a resident of the district to which the member was elected.
Hoosier Pundit says it would be “vindictive” of the Democrats to repeal the tax. Why? Give the voters and the Republicans what they said they wanted. It might be a little passive aggressive, I suppose, but on what grounds can these people complain? I would be shocked, shocked to find out that the Marion County Republicans would want the political issue of the tax increase to use against the Democrats and the tax revenue they need to actually run the city.
Update I was considering this post and previous comments I’ve made on various boards and trying to figure out why the topic of Indy’s county option income tax and its potential repeal was of such interest to me. I was only mildly interested when it was passed, after all. And, of course, the political gamesmanship is interesting as well. But I don’t think that’s it.
Here’s the thing. Nobody likes paying taxes, but taxes are necessary for a functioning government. A functioning government is necessary to make our communities places where we can live happy lives. It’s tough to prosper in a shit hole.
Was the Indy county income tax a necessary one? I have absolutely no idea. I have no knowledge of Indy’s budget, what expenditures are necessary and what expenditures are unnecessary. But, I think it’s important for political operatives to be judicious in the taxes they oppose. By all means, oppose the unnecessary ones. Citizens will also not thrive if they are taxed for government expenditures that are not beneficial. But, raising a huge stink over a necessary tax increase creates a toxic political environment that leads to a dysfunctional and underfunded government which in turn contributes to our communities turning into shit holes.
And, at the end of the day, it doesn’t matter whether or not I think the Indy tax increases were necessary. The only important thing is whether Indy’s new masters — Ballard and the Republican County Council members regarded the tax increase as necessary but railed against it anyway, purely for political gain. That sort of hypocrisy should be condemned in the harshest possible terms. If they regarded the tax increase as unnecessary and railed against it, that is obviously fine. But, at the same time, they would have no reason not to repeal the tax themselves or basis for complaint if the outgoing Democrats repealed the tax prior to departure.
I’d like the Republicans to get the credit for doing away with most (if not all) of it.
of course they know the increase was necessary. they are the ones who begged and screamed for about a year on end that mayor peterson do something about public safety. and then when he finally did something, they started screaming even louder. it was never really about crime; it was always about their hatred of bart.