The Indianapolis Star has an article by Michele McNeil and and Mary Beth Schneider entitled $200 million turns lawmakers’ heads which focuses on ideas by the General Assembly on how to use the tax amnesty money. Governor Daniels has the best quote, “”I’d just say, ‘Don’t let it burn a hole in your pocket,’ ” he said. “Let’s pay off the credit cards before we buy any new cars.”
Senator Kenley has a respectable idea on how to use the money:
Sen. Luke Kenley, R-Noblesville, believes it should be used for a one-time crisis. He’s floating an idea that tax amnesty money should be used to help schools, particularly in small, rural areas, cope with rising heating and fuel costs. “Schools are already running on tight budgets,” he said.
House Democrats want to use it to ease the property tax crunch that will be caused by the 2005 budget. I don’t think this is a particularly good idea because the pressure on property taxes is going to be recurrent under the current budget scheme.
House Democrats want to use the money to pay for property tax breaks in 2006, when some taxpayers are expecting to see double-digit increases in their bills. They would accomplish this by shifting some of the cost of providing welfare services from counties and their property taxpayers to the state. That also means lawmakers would have to come up with more money in 2007 if they want to continue those tax breaks. “This is emergency relief,” Bauer said. “A long-term answer is going to take a lot of time. This is an emergency issue.”
However, the fact that so much pressure has been put on local government to raise property taxes because of what was done in the 2005 budget, the statement by Representative Espich that the state budget is expected to generate a surplus sufficient to allow the State to assume child welfare burdens currently paid for by the counties. Why would you hit local government and, by extension property taxes, so hard that the State generates a surplus?
Leave a Reply