The Indianapolis Star had a column on July 25 entitled Don’t blame businesses; they pay their share. The column was written by Kevin Brinegar and Patrick Kiely and it basically asks that the blame not be placed on businesses because, after all, they pay their fair share. Now, in this context, would it have killed the Star to add a little more context like, say, I don’t know, that these guys are lobbyists for the Indiana Chamber of Commerce and the Indiana Manufacturers Association? Because, at least on the version I’m getting online, that information is nowhere to be found.
This part was a little amusing:
The elimination of the state’s tax on inventory has also been a focal point of “what went wrong.”
When the inventory tax repeal passed the 2002 General Assembly, measures were provided to protect homeowners, but it was up to each county to act. Counties were encouraged to eliminate the inventory tax early — before 2007 — and to implement a homestead credit in order to negate any shift in taxes to homeowners from an inventory tax elimination that has helped secure thousands of new jobs throughout the state.
“Implementing a homestead credit” is so much nicer than saying, enacting a local income tax to offset the lost inventory tax revenue. But they’re right. Counties were given the option to impose a local income tax to offset the inventory tax losses. That Marion County did not was poor planning. Once the decision was made by the General Assembly to shift the tax burden from businesses paying inventory taxes to property tax payers or, at a county’s option, income tax payers; it was foolish for Marion County to fail to act.
Their argument is that businesses were over taxed before. By extension this means either that government was spending too much or other tax payers were paying too little. Regardless, the fact of the matter is that residential property tax payers are paying more because business interests are paying less. We can certainly have a policy debate about whether this is a good thing or a bad thing.
I don’t fault them for making their pitch, but the Star really ought to be a little more forthcoming about the background and interests of their columnists in a situation like this. I guess “Business Lobbyists say Businesses Not to Blame” wasn’t a catchy enough headline.
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