According to a story in the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette, the House engaged in a bit of idiocy last night, voting “98-0 to eliminate all property taxes by 2009. But there was no funding mechanism attached to replace the $5.5 billion in revenue raised by local property taxes.”
That prompted Senator Kenley’s response:
“This is a proposal that’s not responsible,†said Sen. Luke Kenley, R-Noblesville, chairman of the Senate Tax and Fiscal Policy Committee. “We’ll deal with it in the Senate. I have volunteered to be the No. 1 bad guy.â€
Voting for nonsense legislation because it feels good is just a waste of time. If you want to engage in symbolism instead of crafting sound legislation, stick the sentiment in a House Resolution and get your warm fuzzies that way. If you want to get rid of the property tax, come up with a mechanism for replacing those funds.
Great post, and thankfully, the Senate will kill this idiotic measure….I used to work in the legislature, and I’ll never forget a description that one wag used to describe the house and senate chambers. The House Chambers are brown and somewhat earthy in tone, while the Senate is much more austere, and with its white marble walls, takes on a fancy restroom appearance. How appropriate then for the Senate to flush all the crap down the toilet it gets from the House.
On TV last night, Chet Dobis, the author of this legislation actually said with a straight face that the legislature would “probably” need to find replacement revenue. Ya Think?
I’m not always a fan of Luke, but he’s right on this. Why in the world would the House pass such crap? So many worthless legislators…on both sides of the statehouse, both sides of the aisle.
If the worthless a-holes were serious they would get to the root of the problem which is spending. Cap the rate that property taxes can increase and cap the rate that the budget can increase.
Then they can look at the people who say more, more, more every year and tell them their hands are tied. Can someone please explain why they wouldn’t want to do this?
Kenley’s the yay-hoo who unabashedly ran interference for the Colts new $540 million stadium. Everything he says is pro-big government and pro-big business. He just can’t bear to lose the revenue !
Bigger scam is property tax assessment; according to our assessor, land in this subdivision is worth $1.18 a square foot. I couldn’t sell this lot for half that rate, who the heck builds a house inside 465 ?
Argle bargle !