Gov. Daniels pitches property tax relief plan to local leaders in Elkhart

by Dustin Grove (grove@wsbt.com)

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Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels pitches property tax relief plan to Elkhart Chamber of Commerce

Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels came to the Elkhart Chamber of Commerce Friday, Jan. 25, 2008, to pitch his property tax relief plan to local leaders and business owners. (WSBT photo)

By Beth Boehne

Story Created: Jan 25, 2008 at 6:26 PM EST

Story Updated: Jan 25, 2008 at 6:26 PM EST

ELKHART — Governor Mitch Daniels brought his property tax reform plan to our area on the heels of bipartisan support in the Statehouse.

A slightly amended version of the governor's plan passed 93-1.

At the Elkhart Chamber of Commerce Friday, Daniels pitched it to local leaders and business owners, hoping for their support, too.

The governor says it would cut property taxes statewide, on average, by a third. It flew through the House Thursday, and sounds great to homeowners.

As the governor has put it, it would tighten the belt on local governments. But some local leaders are concerns it may be too tight.

"This is about protecting taxpayers,” said Gov. Daniels. “For too long the question has been, ‘What does government want?’ The question I believe has to be, ‘What can taxpayers be reasonably expected to pay?’”

The plan would hike the sales tax by 1 percent, cut property taxes by a third, and cap them at 1 percent of a home's value.

“I think the governor does a really good job of explaining it,” said Mayor Allen Kauffman, R-Goshen. “It plays well to a lot of people.”

But Mayor Kauffman still has concerns.

“We do have concerns about being able to continue free trash pickup and continue to have as many police officers and firefighters as we have and people to plow the snow and we don't have an abundance of any of those,” he explained.

The nay vote in the house came from Democrat Craig Fry of Mishawaka, who said past efforts haven't worked and neither would this.

"They’re gonna get a third cut?” he asked on the Statehouse floor. “Well, what about the 12 percent relief before, the numbers they used in the past? None of that ever came true."

But Daniels says this plan is different.

"We are lifting off of counties and cities some burdens they have complained about for a long time, specifically child welfare,” he said.

And education spending, too.

"We think we've found a fair and balanced way to do this while providing the biggest tax cut in Indiana history,” he said.

The bill now goes on to the Senate. From there, the Senate and the House will try to reach a compromise by the March 14 deadline.

This wasn't the governor's plan exactly. One of the parts that didn't make it was the referendum idea, which would put public building projects up for a vote.

House Republicans hope they can put that back in at some point.

But House Speaker B. Pat Bauer said this week he hasn't ever seen both parties cooperate to this extent. And the governor says he, too, was pleasantly surprised.

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