Loading ...THE DANIELS TAX PLAN
Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels tonight unveiled his plan to reduce Hoosiers’ property taxes by an average of 35-percent in 2008. In a live broadcast tonight Daniels said a one-percent cap on residential taxes and a one percent increase in the state sales tax would help provide Hoosiers with more than three billion dollars in tax relief. The state would also keep more than $2 billion in property tax replacement credits that it gives to local governments to subsidize property taxes.
Daniels said he wanted to eliminate property taxes but there was no way the plan would work. He also looked at increasing the income tax, expanding the sales tax to services and levying a real estate transfer fee, but none of those were feasible.
Daniels’ plan also has the state picking up the costs of child welfare and school operating costs. Local boards would also be created to approve all local spending projects and a referendum would be needed for some building projects. It would also replace county and township asessors with a single assessor per county who would be appointed by the county council and have to meet certain professional qualifications.
The two Democratic candidates for Governor threw some criticism at Daniels earlier today, both Jim Shellinger and Jill Long Thompson said the tax crisis was one of the Governor’s own making because his Department of Local Government and Finance approved the assessments which led to the high tax bills.
The Governor says it unacceptable that citizens would lose their homes because of property taxes. I have to give Mitch credit. For all grief that the property tax issue has caused this plan, at least to start, addresses two main issues, increasing taxes and capping spending.
Now comes the fun part; the Legislature and the public. Here we go!
October 23rd, 2007 at 7:44 pm
While not perfect (read eliminating property taxes), the plan is realistic and gets the job done. Don’t overlook the requirement for referrenda on major public spending projects such as school construction. It is surprisingly painless to the common worker and homeowner while local governmen officials with surely howl at the elimination of elected assessors and local control of spending approval and welfare.
I’m not a Mitch fan but he did an excellent job in designing this.
Sadly, I’m expecting Pat Bauer to torpedo it.
October 23rd, 2007 at 8:31 pm
Off the subject.
HELP!
We are in desperate need of someone willing to volunteer a few hours a week to deliver Greg Ballard yard signs to North and Northeast Indy. We will get the signs to you.
We will keep your name anonymous.
Contact Tim Dugan (flipper) at
317-440-3174
Be safe
October 23rd, 2007 at 8:38 pm
Great Job Mitch! I can see you put a lot of time, effort an thought into this plan. But REALLY Monroe picking the person to assess my house? I THINK NOT!!!!!!!!
October 23rd, 2007 at 9:43 pm
Are we to assume that everyone’s soon to be reassesed tax bill will remain the same?
My gut is that not many property tax totals will change in Marion County once reassessment is done. Is the Governor talking a cap on that or will the soon to come 2007 numbers get reduced?
His paln is fine assuming it lowers the 2007 tax bills.
Look for a fight in the General Assembly on this but ultimately it will be Bauer’s ox that gets gored. There will be trade offs as always.
October 23rd, 2007 at 9:44 pm
I was expecting something more drastic than a 35% reduction.
Kind of anticlimatic but a big step in the right direction perhaps.
October 23rd, 2007 at 9:49 pm
I am totally not understanding Jim Shellinger and Jill Long Thompson saying it’s Mitch’s fault taxes are high.
The last 25 years in central Indiana have seen -
- Glitzy huge suburban schools
- A new Pacers arena
- A new football stadium
- Another new football stadium
- Multiple convention center buildouts
- Subsidies to every hotelier and business imaginable, to the point of codifying tax breaks in law
- A new library we didn’t need (need any more than the literacy programs that we coulda spent the money on)
- And if the airport doesn’t do enough business, we’re on the hook for that.
Central Indiana will spend $60 million a year for the next 30 years on a stadium for the Colts, which, looking at the last 20+ years, has not brough any economic activity whatsoever to Indy except for the sales of blue clothing.
October 23rd, 2007 at 11:35 pm
Sorry to go off thread, but this website needs a message board for crying out loud.
Senator Lugar is going to support the DREAM Act alongside Dick Durbin tomorrow morning. He is going to introduce it with Dick Durbin at a staff meeting! Please call and email him to make sure he votes NO for the DREAM Act.
senator_lugar@lugar.senate.gov
(202) 224-4814
Senator Cornyn explains it well in this paragraph:
“Unfortunately, the Durbin bill contains a number of gaping loopholes, while failing to address the much larger need for comprehensive immigration reform and the immediate crisis at our borders. For example, it contains no firm requirement for the illegal immigrant to graduate with a degree from an accredited U.S. institution of Higher Education (either a two or four-year institution), it grants them broad access to federal student loans at a time when we are struggling to meet loan needs for our own citizens, and it extends the benefits to adults, rather than focusing on children. Moreover, from a law enforcement perspective, his bill does nothing to prevent fraud, allows certain criminal aliens to qualify for legal status, and ties the hands of law enforcement by severely limiting their access to application information.”
Call / email Lugar NOW! You only have a few hours because DICK Durbin and Dingy Harry Reid filed to invoke cloture. Cloture vote is tomorrow and they only need 60 YES votes to prevent a fillibuster.
October 24th, 2007 at 12:32 am
Why NOT tax services??! We had our picture taken to give as a requested-daughter-mandated birthday present to my daughter and I was surpised there was no sales tax on that tranaction!? I would excuse taxes on financial instruments (don’t cut off our nose to spite our face) as long as no one has the balls to go the full boat and do the Fair Tax, but “Portraits”?!?! There are tons of other examples that are not taxed…
My g*d, do ‘they’ donate that much to the Parties?Q?Q?!!