The Louisville Courier Journal has what appears to be a fairly misleading headline: “Daniels casts Bauer as obstacle to property tax relief.” The article discusses Bauer as an obstacle to a vote on a Constitutional amendment with respect to property tax caps. The reason the headline is misleading is that the property tax caps are already law — hence, there is no “relief” to be had through the constitutional amendment. Proponents of the constitutional amendment would argue that it is necessary to prevent burdens in the future; but it wouldn’t do a thing to reduce property taxes from the levels already set by Indiana law. From reading the article, this error appears to be the paper’s and not Gov. Daniels.
I don’t know about the error being the paper’s, unless they’re guilty of not looking into things more deeply.
We had a round of emails go through our neighborhood casting Bauer as the obstructionist to property tax relief, specifically citing Daniels and a group called “Watch Dog Indiana”. Quoting my neighbor, realtor Kurt Flock:
“I attended a rally at the Statehouse this morning in support of SJR 1, which needs passage by the Indiana House of Representatives so Hoosiers have a chance to vote on putting important property tax caps into the Indiana Constitution. SJR 1 was passed by the Senate, but it’s being held up in the House of Representatives by House Speaker Patrick Bauer (D-South Bend). The purpose of today’s rally, which was attended by Hoosiers from across the state and co-sponsored by the Indiana Association of REALTORS®, was to demand that SJR 1 be brought to a vote. Governor Mitch Daniels (shown beneath the “Keep Your Promise Now” banner in photo below) exhorted the crowd to contact their state reps and ask that SJR 1 be brought to a vote THIS SESSION. Oddly enough, a year ago, around 80% of Indiana House voted in favor of this legislation. Now, the bill is stuck in the the political machinery!
I’ve included some background and resource links below from an email I received from watchdogindiana.org. Regardless of where you stand on this issue, it is important to communicate your feelings strongly and quickly to your State Representative and Speaker Bauer.”
I think Bauer is doing the right thing. It won’t get a state wide vote any sooner if they vote this year. And sales and income taxes are obviously unstable (look up revenues vs projections for the last several months) so we can’t base a state budget on them. A stable, easily projectible income is needed to run government – property taxes provide that.
And with property taxes I know exactly what my my share is. But with income and sales tax my share is kind of hidden. I can obviously determine my income share, but does anyone know what they actually pay in sales tax?
I would like a discount on my state taxes for all the time the republican party has spent on Constitutional Amendments over the last 2-3 years.
We’ve already got a gay marriage ban and property tax cap through the legislative process. Can’t they be happy with that, have a coke and a smile, and move on?
It’s like their little minds are only capable of dealing with three issues; taxes, gays, and abortion.
If your mental faculties are that limited, it’s probably not a good idea for you to be serving in government.
Chris –
Why limit it to Republicans and amendments?
Include all the stupidity from both parties, and we could do better than just a discount on taxes – I’m pretty sure we’d be in line for some heavy duty rebate checks!
(Preferably funded by cuts to the politicos’ pay and benefits…)
I support a full-time legislature. I think problems facing lawmakers are so complex and numerous that the part-time legislature is antiquated.
However, I fear all the extra time we would give them would be used for utter bullshit like property tax and gay marriage amendments. If lawmakers are that insecure with the legislation they write, they shouldn’t be in the legislature.
Amendments don’t make your laws that much more effective, it just makes it much harder to fix the fuck-ups after we find them.
My preference is against a full-time legislature in its current form. Full time buffoons instead of part-time buffoons (the word buffoon here being used in lieu of a naughty, and insulting word – take your pick).
Start over, limit lobbying, flight from legislator to lobbyist, double-dipping “second” jobs, psychological testing against electing sociopaths and those with narcissistic personality disorder, and more. Then, maybe a full-time legislature sounds palatable.