The Indianapolis Star editorial board has an editorial chastising House Republicans for playing games with property tax legislation. In particular, their insistence on trying to add the same sex marriage ban to the circuit breaker legislation was over the line.
Republicans tried to load up HJR 1 with 18 amendments, including 11 that dealt with eliminating property taxes. Another proposed a cap on state spending. One even tried to graft a constitutional ban on same-sex marriage into the resolution.
The problem isn’t that Republicans wanted to tweak the bill. It’s that their proposals had little or nothing to do with the core issue: whether to write tax caps into the constitution.
Want to debate eliminating property taxes? Fine. But don’t scuttle compromise legislation in the interim. Want to argue over a ban on same-sex marriage? Find an appropriate vehicle, not the most pressing issue facing this state.
Perhaps the Indianapolis Star editorial board has a short collective memory. Recall that in 2004, House Republican Leader Bosma staged a walkout, killing all sorts of legislation, because the gay marriage ban was the “most important” issue facing Indiana. (Keep in mind, the property tax train was already barreling down the tracks at that point; it just hadn’t yet reached the station.)
Doug,
Funny how you note that property taxes problems were barreling down the trracks in 2004, just like they were in 2005 when DST was the most important item to the rebublicans. They could in theory fixed this entire mess then and taken complete credit for the work as all three chambers (house/senate/gov) were in there control. Yet they solved the “What time is it in Indiana” problem first. I always mention this to my rebublican friends who have no answer!
I think they even made it worse in 2005. They went ahead and reduced funding for the homestead credit and property tax replacement credit in order to balance the State budget. This, of course, was basically a shift from state general fund revenues to property tax revenues.
Oh, and, just for the record, the Dems did plenty of dawdling and looking the other way on the property tax issue over the years as well. It was simply a tough, tough situation that nobody wanted to deal with. Now that the property taxes spiked to “crisis” levels, a politician can get away with raising the sales tax to replace revenues. But, prior to the property tax mess becoming obvious, there would’ve been political hell to pay for raising the sales tax.
Thanks Doug for pointing this out. Now let’s see how the Repugs in the House respond. I doubt they listen to anyone, as they pretty much snubbed their own Governor. Or maybe they have their eyes on someone else anyway? How is Eric Miller doing these days anyway?
You are absolutely correct in your analysis Doug. The state GOP is proud of their stance in sabotaging tax relief for all in order to push their theocratic agenda. I wrote the other day that the GOP had made a deal with God, but it’s starting to backfire on them.
One of the frustrating things is that it’s not the whole state GOP. Over in the Senate, it’s clear that there are a significant number of Republicans who want to concentrate on property taxes and the like.
I might be mischaracterizing them a bit, but you have the Kenley wing on one side and the Drozda wing on the other side. I think Sen. Long is on the Kenley side of the fence, by and large, but he has to proceed cautiously because Garton – who was also on that side of the fence – got tossed by Sen. Walker, who is decidedly on the Drozda side of things.
That’s probably correct, certainly the ratio of nut jobs in the House is considerably higher (led by Bosma). But, I do happen to think that a large segment (perhaps getting smaller) of the GOP is still pushing for a theocracy.
How else does one explain the rise of The Ayatollah Huckabee?
Even speaking as a Christian, I am strongly against that concept (not to mention that I could really care less if Adam and Steve are wed).
Wow, this is interesting. What do we need to do to keep our legislators on track? Let’s remind them what their job is.
I’m a particular fan of the Hoosier Property Tax Reform Alliance. Their message is clear, and we need to echo this message to the House. They seem to understand their charge, but don’t they realize that this is not politics as usual? We must continue to demand immediate and lasting change in Indiana’s property tax system.
1. I believe the state of Indiana needs meaningful reform to our property tax system.
2. I believe we need equitable, county-level assessments by trained, highly qualified property assessors.
3. I believe homeowners’ should have a reasonable expectation of their property tax bill and the assessment should be capped at 1% (one percent) of the property’s true value.
4. I believe I have the right to hold my local government accountable for their spending.
5.I believe government should be transparent and taxpayers have a right be informed and have input into how their taxes are spent.
http://www.hoosierpropertytaxreform.com
Sounds too much like a catechism to me.
Yeah, I just want a reasonable tax policy and slowed gov’t growth. I’m not in it for a movement nor do I think Property taxes per se should be abolished.
But the theocrats reign in all levels of God’s Own Party. The Cons asked them in, the Neocons massaged them and thought they could control them if they used their issues to wedge whack into office. But even they never planned that the Wingnuts would get their agenda done. In fact, they need the Wingnuts bothered enough to drag out the vote, but never get what they want, so that they are constantly stirred up. Now they get this disintegration of their party. Play with fire, get burned.
Doug- Responding to your comment #3, I disagree that dealing with the property tax situation is a ‘tough’ thing. Oh, it’s a tough thing if the proposition is to extract as much tax money as possible, taking it to the line such that the top dollar is grabbed yet the legislator isn’t unelected. That is tough sledding. Treacherous even.
But if what they really wanted to do was cause actual relief, that’s a fairly easy thing to do. Just cut the spending marginally, at a tiny cut level like 1% across the board.
The commitment by both Rs and Ds has been towards walking this line, because the deepest commitment is towards the spending. The Rs are only the best targets here because they have been talking more about property tax relief.
But truly, even Luke Kenley, the alleged tax expert, while not talking about theocratic items as the top of his list, still votes for them, and never really gets around to cutting any spending. This makes him a ‘smart rat’. Drozda is out there catching the (deserved) arrows, but Kenley’s no different.