Those of you in Ohio, Illinois, Michigan and Kentucky may have been wondering what that strange, high-pitched whine is that has been coming from the Hoosier state.
It is the sound of millions of homeowners getting their property tax bills. On average, the bills jumped 25 percent but, for many, their taxes doubled or even tripled.
Suddenly, Hoosier homeowners have discovered what farmers have known for years – the Indiana property tax system is broken. Furthermore, they are discovering that the people who said they were going to fix the problem didn’t and actually made the situation worse.
I remember the occasion very well … It was during the Indiana State Fair, and Indiana Farm Bureau officials gathered the media in the Farm Bureau building for a press briefing on a campaign called “Stop Taxing Our Property.” The goal of the campaign was to convince the state legislature to reduce the amount of local government financed from property taxes. It was an effort that was very popular within the farm community, but virtually ignored by everyone else. This event took place almost a decade ago, and ever since Indiana Farm Bureau has been a lone voice calling in the wilderness for tax reform.
Year after year state lawmakers would gather in Indianapolis, Ind., and promise tax reform. Year after year Farm Bureau would offer suggestions and recommendations that would fall on deaf ears. The state’s most powerful political forum – the state teachers’ union – actively opposed reducing property taxes, fearing a loss in funding for local schools. Politics, on both sides of the aisle, kept the hard decisions from being made and allowed the problem to be swept under the rug.
Finally, this year, lawmakers ran out of band-aids to cover up the festering problem and the result was a shockingly big jump in the tax bills of most homeowners. Now we have taxpayers marching to the Governor’s residence demanding change. An organization has been formed to (guess what) abolish property taxes. The media has been quick to join the fray by exposing problems in the rest of the system that includes a mismanaged bureaucracy that can not even get tax bills sent out correctly or on time.
Homeowners are almost comical in their hysteria as they look around for someone to blame. One poor irate individual was on television charging this was “taxation without representation.” Not only do these folks not realize this is not a new problem, they are unaware that their duly elected officials helped create this mess. There are calls for a special legislative session, but lawmakers have already spent years at the Statehouse trying to reach a solution.
The danger is that, under pressure from irate voters, elected officials will rush into a quick fix. This situation has been years in the making, and an overnight solution is not likely. What is likely is that some real progress may get made.
Farm Bureau now has a lot more company calling for property tax reform. It has done a lot of research on this issue and will hopefully now get the attention and support they deserve on the property tax issue.
Indiana Farm Bureau has launched a special telephone line and e-mail box to help taxpayers get involved in fixing the problem. Tax reform is now an issue that farmers and city folks both take seriously. If elected officials will get as serious about fixing the problem, we can put some WD-40 on this squeaky wheel that has been squeaking too long. The views and opinions expressed in this column are those of the author and not necessarily those of Farm World. Readers with questions or comments for Gary Truitt may write to him in care of this publication.
This farm news was published in the July 18, 2007 issue of Farm World, serving Indiana, Ohio, Illinois, Kentucky, Michigan and Tennessee. |