Property tax problem has many causes (01/07/08)

It is a gross oversimplification to blame the rise of property taxes on local government spending.

But it's an oversimplification that meets the political needs of some folks in Indianapolis.

Any honest appraisal of the property tax situation has to take into account the following:

•Court decisions that required Indiana to assess property based upon market value rather than an arcane and outdated formula.

•The failure of the Indiana General Assembly to deal with those court decisions over a period of several years, during which the primary strategy was to stall and hope the problem would go away.

•The simultaneous increase in the market value of homes in urban areas, which guaranteed that those whose tax bills went up the most were those whose complaints were most likely to be heard by politicians.

•The decision by the Indiana General Assembly to do away with the inventory tax without providing for a meaningful replacement for those tax revenues.

•The decision by the Indiana General Assembly to get out of the business of property tax relief by phasing out programs which had been in place for nearly 30 years, so that those tax revenues could be used to fuel state spending rather than reduce property tax burdens.

All that's complicated, however, and the Daniels administration -whose fingerprints are on some of those factors leading to higher property taxes - has wanted to revamp local government.

So local government spending has been nailed as the fall guy for higher property taxes.

Rather than accept responsibility, state government - the people who have been setting the rules that local government officials and school boards have had to deal with for years - decided it's easier to blame the local folks.

And it's easier to change the subject.

In one of the slickest sleight of hand moves in Indiana political history, Gov. Mitch Daniels has managed to shift the debate from how to provide property tax relief to how to "streamline" local government. In other words, he changed the subject.

And in a style characteristic to his administration, he has taken a "top down" approach, appointing a commission to come up with proposals for rewriting the rules of how local government and school governance is to be handled in the state.

The commission was bipartisan, and so are the proposals. But that doesn't make them any more valid or any more sensible. They're really just a distraction to keep us from holding those responsible for this mess accountable. - J.R.

(On Tuesday, a look at the commission's proposals.)[[In-content Ad]]