A rebate? They have to be kidding (05/03/07)

A rebate check? They have got to be kidding.

Though the Indiana General Assembly came through with a Band-Aid approach to property tax relief in the final hours of the 2007 session, House Democrats insisted on a cockamamie pay-us-then-get-paid-back system that's bound to cost money and dump a burden on county employees.

Instead of simply reducing the amount owed in property taxes and noting the tax relief on your bill - as is done with existing property tax relief and the Homestead Credit - the new plan calls for folks to pay the higher tax bill, then wait several months before receiving a check from the state.

The reason for this is unclear, but our guess is it's simply so the lawmakers involved can take credit for giving you a rebate check. It casts them in a more heroic light, if you will, than a simple line notice on your tax bill.

Trouble is, it also costs money.

State Rep. Bill Davis, R-Portland, said the other day that some states which use the rebate approach have found that each check costs as much as $20 in processing expenses.

Think about it. In Jay County, there are something like 15,000 different parcels of property. Thanks to the midnight maneuvers in the House - the county will have to submit a claim to the state for each and every one before rebate checks can be issued.

Is this a system that makes sense? Or is it a system designed for maximum political play?

To top it all off, despite the pleas of thoughtful legislators on both sides of the aisle, the General Assembly adjourned without doing more than offering a temporary fix. The whole notion of seriously reconfiguring and re-thinking how local government and schools are funded went by the wayside. It's not even the topic of an interim study committee.

In other words, in a few years, probably with the clock ticking toward midnight, we'll be going through the whole process again.

That qualifies as many things, but it doesn't qualify as good government. - J.R.[[In-content Ad]]