This will be short and to the point. I am predicting the Mayor’s proposed public safety tax will not pass when it comes up for a vote on Monday. There are at least two previous “yes” votes that are now in the “no” column. The dissention in the ranks is growing. It’s unclear whether the apprehension is coming from an angry public or the Councilors see the Mayor as politically vulnerable and have no desire to take the hit. This could change as the week goes by, but as of today, the votes are not there to pass a tax increase. Stay tuned.

I’m not really quite sure of what to make of the tax revolt taking place in Marion County. The people are mad about their taxes and their elected officials are going to raise their taxes. So I figure if taxes are going up, maybe a little truth is necessary here.

CLAIM: City officials have consistently pointed at increases in their child welfare payments and a loss of the inventory tax as the reason for the massive increases in property taxes.

TRUTH: According to their own sample data, and using Center and Washington Townships as examples, child welfare payments were only seven and six percent of the increase. When it comes to the inventory tax, the loss was responsible for 22 percent of the increase in Center Township and 9 percent in Washington. This could have been offset by applying the County Economic Development Tax; which the City-County Council failed to do and is now paying the price.

One big reason for the tax increase is trending (assessments); it was responsible for 50 percent of the increase in Washington Township and almost 19 percent of the increase in Center.

CLAIM: City officials say they have cut $83,000,000 from the budget over the past three years.

TRUTH: They may have cut spending in some places but it was added in others. For example, over the past three years Marion County spending went from $170 million in 2003 to $250 million in 2007. There is some good news here, the levy for Indianapolis Consolidated City did go from $26 million in 2003 to $22 million in 2007.

CLAIM: Indianapolis Public Schools say the current tax crisis outcry made them pull their $475 million building project off the table.

TRUTH: According to state officials, Governor Mitch Daniels made it clear that he was not going to allow school building projects to go forward in “problem” counties and IPS knew this before they made their “decision” to pull the spending off the table. So IPS is trying to take credit for something it wasn’t going to be allowed to do anyway.

CLAIM: There has not been an early release from the Marion County Jail since August 2006.

TRUTH: There hasn’t been an early release because the County stopped calling them early release. The County now does Operational Releases. That means if you commit certain crimes, you never get to jail you just go home. You can’t early release someone from jail if they never get to jail in the first place.

These are just a few examples of the truth being the first casualty of taxation. There are more outrages out there, such as the County Salary Recommendation Panel is formally recommending raises for all county elected officials like the clerk, assessor and coroner. There are people who also want to use what little surplus the state has left to provide property tax relief by giving money to local governments. Why don’t we just give more crack cocaine to Whitney Houston and that will solve her addiction problems?

Indiana State Auditor Tim Berry is reporting a surplus this morinng. Indiana took in more than $1 Billion than it spent. However, after meeting its statutory committments, Indiana actually has about $250 million in the bank. I can just see every elected official in Marion County getting their hands out saying the money should be used for property tax relief.

That is a bad idea. First, there are other counties in Indiana that also have property tax problems. Second, and more importantly, giving elected officials more money is like giving Whitney Houston more crack. All it is going to do is make the problem worse.

The planets are now in alignment for real government reform in Indiana. There’s no need to spoil it by giving politicians something they don’t need, which is more of your money!

The City-County Council may delay tomorrow’s committee vote on the Mayor’s proposed public safety tax increase. Council Vice President Joanne Sanders says there is a possibility the Administration and Finance Committee may delay voting for the 65-percent tax increase. Sanders says they discussed delaying the vote tonight. Sanders says there is a question as to whether the Governor has the legal authority to extend the deadline for counties to use the local option income tax to for homestead property tax credits and whether that extension would apply to Marion County’s public safety tax. It’s unclear whether the recent protests, including today’s where at least a thousand people showed up to protest property taxes, is having any effect on that decision.

If the Committee does delay a vote, the Council could either reschedule another committee meeting or take it up at the July 23 meeting as a committee of the whole. Councilors will likely meet shortly before tomorrow’s meeting and decide whether to delay the vote.

I usually spend my Sunday mornings out of town in my other home with gourmet coffee and the talking head shows, today I was on Monument Circle watching at least 1000 protestors get mad about their tax bills.

There was nothing really new said, but for me the big question is will this actually matter? You see politicians are notorious for being patient. When the public gets mad, they will simply wait until the anger subsides and then go back to business as usual.

If the people in Marion County are really upset about taxes and spending, they will express their frustrations at the polling booth (if they can get in) in November. Until then, the protests are good, but no one of this will matter if apathy takes over.

So the best way to think of it is not as a sprint, but as a marathon and who crosses the line first, the voters or the status quo.

Gentlemen, start your engines. The race is on.

House Speaker Pat Bauer is giving a cautious reception to the Governor’s tax ideas. Bauer reiterated his position that local governments should use the tools given to them by the legislature and he worries that they won’t under Daniels’ ideas. Bauer also says tax relief should go to citizens and not to local governments. He says there should be a concrete plan worked out before lawmakers come back for a special session.

Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels is offering more ideas to provide property tax relief for Hoosiers. In a letter to state lawmakers this morning the Governor is proposing “local circuit breakers” which would allow counties to use their share of the $300 million in tax relief to offset the increase in tax bills. In addition, Daniels is also suggesting turning the property tax rebate checks into credits applied to this month’s tax bills. The Governor also says he’s open to other ideas.

While the details still need looking at, this makes a lot more sense than floating $75 million worth of “payday” loans. Also, this will force local governments to control their own spending if they have to take in less money from the taxpayers and not get their grubby hands on the money now, while hard-working people would have to wait for a rebate.

The Governor has already offered other suggestions including giving counties more time to implement a local option income tax to offset the increase in property taxes. He has also ordered the Department of Local Government and Finance to review the assessments in Marion County and order a new one if necessary.

A hearing is scheduled on July 23rd at the statehouse to look at the property tax problem across the state

Since no one is talking about cutting spending in this age of income and property tax increases, I have a thought. How about a seven percent cut in across the board spending for all Marion County governments? By my quick guestimate, these local governments are spending about $1.4 billion of your money this year. A 6.7 percent cut would yield about $100 million in savings for the taxpayers. I’m all for cutting more if you guys are, but I think that’s a good place to start.
Who’s with me?

Indianapolis Mayor Bart Peterson is offering his plan for tax relief, borrow $75 million. It makes sense for the Mayor to offer this. We borrowed more than $450 million to pay for police pensions. And we borrowed $100 million to pay for pensions back in 2004. Borrowing is no way to solve your money problems. Maybe we should take a couple million to the local pea shake houses and take our chances there. It couldn’t be any worse than racking up more debt. But at least there was no tax increase.

Mayor Bart Peterson’s office is responding to whether they will take advantage of local option income tax to offset property tax increases. Deputy Mayor Steve Campbell says “Never say never and there are some options, but our stance is why use another tax increase to fix what the State can fix WITHOUT a tax increase?”