Governor asks citizens for help with tax policy reform

The Governor created a commission to seriously study the layered bureaucracy of state government with the goal to reduce our tax burden. The commission provided a forum through which we can submit policy suggestions. This link takes you to a document which explains tax levies and increases.

THE GOVERNOR'S CHARGE TO THE COMMISSION
The purpose of the Blue-Ribbon Commission on Local Government Reform (hereafter The Commission) is to develop recommendations to reform and restructure local government in Indiana in order to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of its operations and reduce its costs to Hoosier taxpayers.

Background
Indiana currently has about 2,730 local units of government with the authority to levy property taxes. This includes 92 counties, 1,008 townships, 117 cities, 450 towns, and 293 school corporations. Only 9 states in the country have more. To govern all of these units, Indiana elects an estimated 10,746 officials – including 1,100 with responsibility for property tax assessment.

Only 11 states have more than Indiana’s 92 counties. Many states that are much bigger geographically and demographically (including California, Florida, Pennsylvania, and New York) have substantially fewer counties and thus county governments. Only 18 states have more school districts. Indiana school districts range in size from more than 30,000 to fewer than 200 students, with 52 districts having fewer than 1,000 pupils. Only 13 states have more library districts. 31 states have no township government, and of the 19 states that do, only 8 have more than Indiana’s 1,008 townships.

For its size and population, Indiana has far too much local government. The structure and organization of local government in the Hoosier state has remained fundamentally unchanged since the mid-19th Century, the time of the adoption of the state’s second constitution. Despite the enormous economic, social, and technological changes that have occurred since that time, Indiana’s system of local government would still be very recognizable to Hoosiers from the Civil War era of our history.

As a result of this “layering” of local government, a typical Hoosier pays property taxes to at least five different taxing units, and often many more. Some of these “levies” (the technical term for the share of local government spending paid by property taxes) are capped by state law and can only grow at a fixed rate per year. But other levies are not capped, and these have grown and will continue to grow in an unregulated and rapid manner. The overall result is that, during the past 20 years, property taxes have increased at more than twice the rate of inflation and tax base growth. Since levies have grown faster than the tax base, the result is increased property tax rates and a growing property tax burden for Hoosier citizens.

The Commission on local government reform website provides access for citizen activists to submit policy reform suggestions. These are the questions that the commission is charged to answer:

1. What local government offices might be eliminated to achieve efficiences and cost savings for Hoosier taxpayers? In specific, should township/county property tax assessors be abolished in favor of a uniform process managed by the state?

2. What local units of government (including schools and libraries) might be succe4ssfully consolidated to reduce overhead and administrative expenses?

3. What services of functions of local government might be reduced, eliminated, or provided in new ways to achieve savings for Hoosier taxpayers?

4. What constitutional, statutory, administrative, or other charges are necessary to achieve significant reforms in the structure and organization of Indiana state government.

If you want to publish your suggestions after you submit them to the Governor's commission, you can add them to our comments section and they'll become a public record and should fodder some debate.