POLITICIANS and TAXATION

The last two or three weeks have really got my dander up regarding politicians and taxation here in Indiana. Our township recently received the statements for our property taxes for 2007. Our property taxes, based on a new 2006 assessment, increased by 33%. That was the average for our township, however, some property owner’s taxes were increased by two or three hundred per cent. Needless to say, as other township's and county residents have gotten their statements, their taxes have increased by similar amounts. In addition, the statements for all counties in the state were due out with first half payment due in May and since the assessors were late in completing their assessments, payment due dates were postponed and all kind of due-dates exist throughout the state. As the citizenry have received their property tax statements, they are up-in-arms about the increases. People really feel that something is wrong with the property tax assessments or calculations.

The legislature was warned early this year that there were property tax problems and that they needed to enact legislation to “once-and-for-all” re-evaluate the property tax laws. The legislature fooled around the whole session, accomplishing next to nothing, tending to the needs of the state’s lobbyists, and then announced that there wasn’t enough time to properly deal with property taxes. Instead of doing something they voted a rebate for everyone which would be mailed later in the year. They didn’t even consider just letting people deduct the amount of the rebate from their second half of the year taxes to save the postage. I think they thought if everyone received a check from the state in the mail closer to the next election, they would reelect the legislature out of gratitude. From what I’ve heard, most of the citizenry have already made up their minds about how there are going to show their "gratitude" to Speaker Bauer and the bunch that’s called the legislature.

Meanwhile, after numerous remonstrances and complaints the governor has stepped in and made some decisions after evaluating the problem. Most significantly, it was reported that the commercial property in Marion County was bypassed in the reassessment and they suffered no rate increases. As an example it was reported that one woman’s condo was previously assessed for less than $500,000. And then on the reassessment it was increased to $1,000,000 value. Simultaneously an automobile dealer down the street had no change in his assessment from 2005 of $986,000. This bypassing of commercial property in the reassessment smells of somebody involved in collusion of some sort. The governor canceled everything about the reassessment and authorized a new assessment for Marion County to include all commercial property. He also appointed a committee to streamline Indiana’s tax structure. Hopefully, this committee will come up with some good recommendations to which the legislature will respond. I personally don’t think the Governor is at fault in this fiasco, but I do blame the legislature and the local assessment offices and I think people will remember them and their petty bickering in the next election. I take note also that the state legislature found the time and agreement to give themselves a raise.

And then to add insult to the stupidity of the legislative and assessment processes, our Mayor of Indianapolis, “Bart Simpson” managed to pick this time to request a .65 % increase in the county income tax. That had to be approved by the Democrat-controlled City – County Council. After some questionable procedural actions the Council voted to thrust that on the county taxpayers. I think the voters will clean house on the Mayor and the Council also.

I have some recommendations that I think will get government back in charge of the taxpayers. They are as follows:

1. Term limits- 3 two-year terms for House members, 2 six-year terms for Senators.
2. Six years out of office before being allowed to work as lobbyists.
3. Pay raises must be voted on by roll call.
4. Every bill involving an expenditure of taxpayer funds must stand on its own under sponsor’s name.
5. No “Pork” under any name.
6. No campaigning more than six months prior to a national election
7. All collected campaign funds must be turned over to the National Treasury immediately following an election.

This will do for a start and it can’t happen to soon!!