Niki Kelly, writing for the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette has an article on the fate of HB 1001 which was heard in the Senate Tax & Fiscal Policy Committee yesterday. The bill has some provisions that would provide some temporary relief from the, in some cases double digit, property tax increases local governments would need to impose as a result of the failure of the 2005 budget to provide adequate funding. (State legislators might disagree, but essentially the State “balanced” its budget on the backs of local government.)
Senator Kenley appears to have a philosophical disagreement with the short-term fix. He wants a more comprehensive approach to reduce local dependence on property tax revenue by allowing local governments to obtain revenue from food & beverage taxes, innkeepers taxes, and local income taxes. This more comprehensive approach is unlikely to get support from House members during an election year. Another source of irritation for Senator Kenley is the, frankly, irresponsible provision stuck into the bill by the House that purports to eliminate property taxes by 2009 but does not do the hard work of suggesting replacement sources of revenue or cuts in government services.
I was intending to relocate to IN for family reasons,but was FLOORED by finding out I have to pay 3.4% on my retirement income(which I have never paid before anywhere else). SS is exempted but that doesn’t help me) Also, there’s a county tax on income and a personal property tax ( whatever that is).Unless real estate raxes are DIRT cheap,moving to Indiana will cost a lot of money.Ive lived in IL, FL PA and WI and only WI seems worse than IN. So I may end up commuting to Indianapolis area from Illinois to see my family. I thought one out–of -state perspective on taxes might be of some interest to Hoosiers.Maybe Im also missing something