The Journal & Courier has an article on some of the fallout from the property tax legislation; namely the reduction in funds for schools. Crawfordsville schools will receive $1 million less in funding. In Delphi, they’re looking at a 21% reductionin the budget. Frankfort’s schools will receive $780,000 less, about a 12% reduction. This quote struck me as local government finance in a nutshell:
Bill Hasser, a Delphi resident, said he is happy to see property tax relief but doesn’t want to see cuts result from it, especially in the schools.
$1M? Pocket change. The City of Gary is going to “lose” $47 MILLION DOLLARS (in your best Dr. Evil voice).
Gary Schools are going to lose something like $17M dollars.
Now, the City of Gary has a tax rate over 8% of assessed value, so they totally need to cut back. They would be facing these cuts even if the “reform” had not passed, as Lake County already had tax caps of 2%/ 3%/ 3%.
Bill Hasser, a Delphi resident, said he is happy to see property tax relief but doesn’t want to see cuts result from it, especially in the schools.
Also, he’d like a pony. *sigh*
And Gary may lose some if it’s best “income” if the Miller section of Gary gets their wish to seceed from the city.
It’s troubling that so many people can’t see how it all fits together.
I mean, you don’t need a Luke Kenley level if intelligence about matters, but if you’re advocating cuts in property taxes, a cut in services and/or an increase in another tax is going to come *somewhere*.