As part of the property tax relief bill this year, the General Assembly gave local governments some flexibility to shift taxes from property taxes to income taxes. Tracy Warner has a column which mentions that there is not yet much momentum to make that shift in Allen County. The problem is that the deadlines are close and the issues are complicated. Furthermore, you have to coordinate a decision among all of the taxing units in the county. The shift can be accomplished this year, and there are certainly reasons to make the shift, but it seems like it would be extremely difficult for our elected officials to obtain and process all of the information they need to make a decision on whether and how to implement the tax shift. For example, which shift option do you use – a) for all property owners; b) for homeowners only; or c) for homeowners and rental-housing owners? How much – the full 1% or something less?
And that’s just step one of the options – as I recall, there are two other potential income tax options for counties. I forget #2 off hand. And #3 involves a tax that would benefit public safety, but requires #1 and #2 to be implemented.
So, I don’t think the lack of momentum noted by Mr. Warner should be taken as a lack of interest; probably more of a cautiousness stemming from numerous decisions of consequence that have to be made with, as yet, limited information.
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