Lesley Stedman Weidenbener, writing for the Louisville Courier Journal, has an article entitled Economy could imperil tax plan. House Speaker Bauer says that Indiana’s slow economy might affect the State’s ability to assume school operating costs from local government. Part of the current proposal is that the sales tax goes up, property taxes go down, local government loses homestead and property tax replacement credits, and the State assumes local welfare and school operating costs. If the State doesn’t assume the school operating costs but there are still no property tax replacement credit or homestead credits, then property taxes wouldn’t go down as much.
As an advocate for local government, this feels like it has the potential for local government to be left holding the bag again — kind of like they did with the initial property tax spikes that were caused by decisions made at the State level. We’ll see. Maybe it’s just a high profile way for Speaker Bauer to rub Indiana’s slow economy in Gov. Daniels’ face.
The current tax solutions being proposed are doomed to failure.
Decreasing property taxes by shifting the burden to sales taxes during a recession without addressing government spending doesn’t add up.
Its time to take action on reducing the cost of delivering government services.
We’ve got to stop governing like this.
A Message From Former Governor Joe Kernan:
http://www.indianachamber.com/