Indiana legislators have until Friday at midnight to come to an agreement on property tax reform. (WSBT file photo)
Story Created:
Mar 10, 2008 at 8:29 PM EST
Story Updated:
Mar 10, 2008 at 10:18 PM EST
SOUTH BEND — Indiana lawmakers have until Friday at midnight to finish overhauling Indiana's property tax system, and key lawmakers reported little progress toward a compromise as the final week of the session began.
It's been the top priority at the statehouse over the last two months, and lawmakers say they're still committed to passing a significant and sweeping property tax reform bill this year. But the clock is ticking.
Several key lawmakers met behind closed doors Monday to talk about it, including House Speaker B. Patrick Bauer (D-South Bend), but told reporters no new agreements were made.
There are several key differences between Republican and Democratic proposals. The most noticeable point of contention surrounds whether or not proposed caps on property tax bills should be made permanent by including them in the state's constitution.
Most Republicans support the idea, along with Gov. Mitch Daniels' plan to cap homeowners' bills at 1% of a home's assessed value, rental and agricultural property at 2%, and commercial property at 3%.
Most Democrats agree with the cap levels, but don't want to see rentals, agricultural property, and businesses included in the constitutional amendment until there is more information on the impact of the caps on local governments.
Other key differences center around whether to require major government spending projects to be approved by voters, whether to shift the cost of tax levies, including school and welfare funding, to the state, and whether to eliminate township assessors in favor of transferring those duties to the county assessor's office.
That last issue has divided some local leaders too. Richard Mochel is one of them. He's been Madison Township's Trustee-Assessor for 42 years, and says claims that township assessors helped cause property tax problems are wrong.
"I'm sorry to hear that, yes," he said. "I don't think that's true. People will not have anyone to talk to in their community."
But a new poll released Monday by State Senator John Broden (D-South Bend) shows taxpayers might think otherwise.
61 percent support shifting school funds off property tax rolls.
90 percent support tax caps at different levels for residential, commercial, and agricultural properties.
80 percent say they want township assessors eliminated in favor of consolidating their responsibilities under the county assessor's office.
More than 10,000 surveys were mailed out, and Sen. Broden says more than 1,000 were returned and included in the results. He also says some taxpayers he's spoken with believe that move would increase the accuracy of assessments, and save taxpayers money through consolidation.
But Mochel doubts that would happen, because he says there aren't enough people working in the county assessor's office to do it.
"There's nobody that's going to do the job I'm doing for the amount of money I'm doing it. And somebody's going to have to do it," Mochel said.
And some lawmakers agree.
Senator Broden says it is important for voters to have a local voice.
"It's important people not feel they have to go to some central main office downtown, and that there be so called "satellite" offices, similar to what you have with license branches," he said from the Statehouse. "We didn't want there to be a situation where it became an inconvenience for people to interact with the assessor's office, so we're definitely trying to address those concerns."
Senators narrowly rejected the idea of eliminating township assessors last week in a 23-23 vote.
Some House Republicans also introduced a bill that would allow voters in larger townships with over 15,000 parcels of land to decide who does their assessments. That would include Portage and Penn townships in St. Joseph County.
Because of that, Sen. Broden says the debate may be put on hold.
"I think there's going to be sort of a back to basics approach to owner occupied homes and homesteads," he said. "And a whole host of other issues, including referendums and assessors, that have been sort of collateral issues to property tax reform may be put off for another day."
But when that day might come is still unclear, along with what might happen with HB 1001 itself.
If the two sides can't come to some sort of an agreement by the time their session ends this week, Gov. Daniels could call a special session to keep lawmakers at the Capitol until a compromise comes.
Tuesday, Mar 11 at 9:29 AM Cliff wrote ...
I guess I'm baffled. This was supposed to be a top priority. That means give and take on both sides. If they can't come to some agreement, I would think they ALL would be worried about their job security. It doesn't have to be made part of the constitution if there is too many details people are thrilled with. Try some of the ideas and if they are acceppted by the people then after a year or two look at adding them to the constitution.