"The Official Portrait of Miss InDiana"

"The Official Portrait of Miss InDiana"
aka "Miss Victory"

Thursday, January 10, 2008

The property tax activists are winning another battle

Message from Attorney John Price:

Fellow Taxpayers:

Tuesday, January 8th was a good day for taxpayers in Indiana.

1.) For the first time in the last 7 months a legislative Committee actually heard evidence on proposals to repeal property taxes. The Senate Rules Committee listened for 4 hours to legislators, lobbyists, and yes, taxpayers, testify on SJR 8, Senator Waltz’s bill to repeal all property taxes, residential, farm and business.

2.) The original plan by Senator Long was to assign SJR 8 to his Rules Committee in which it would die a 2 ½ month death without a vote. However, Senator Young told us last night that he decided to come up with an amendment to make SJR 8 palatable to Senator Long and the Senate. His amendment took our repeal of farms and businesses, which is unfortunate. Neither Eric Miller nor myself endorsed the Young Amendment in our testimony in the Senate Rules Committee.

3.) The key questions, yet unanswered, are a.) does the Speaker back the Young Amendment, i.e., repeal of homestead property taxes; b.) where is Mitch on all this?

4.) When farmers find out that they will pay property taxes on their farm land, but homeowners won’t, how will they react?
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5.) When business owners find out that they will pay property taxes on their businesses, but homeowners won’t, how will they react?

6.) A bill was moved yesterday requiring referenda on major local spending projects. Will it pass both Houses, with opposition by Counties, Cities and School Corporations?

7.) Thanks to Eric, Dennis, David, Leon, Glenn, Mmoja, David, Jeff, Laurie, Richard, Mona, Paul, David (yes, all 3 of you Davids), and all those who attended and added great weight and testimony to the Tuesday historic events. You are all making a difference!

John R. Price, Chairman
INDIANA PROPERTY TAX REPEAL ALLIANCE, INC.
9000 Keystone Crossing #150
Indianapolis, IN 46240
317-844-8822
Fax 317-844-7766

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Leon thinks that NW Indiana should not be the model for tax reform as Gary, Hammond, Whiting had a lot of homeowners who paid little or no taxes on their homes and now they don't have jobs, schools, or prospects. The Gary Plan is stupid and just creates more dependency. Replacing legislators who don't get it is the answer.

Anonymous said...

We are all about replacing legislators who do not do as we ask.

For instance, David Orenlichter who is a state representative from Indianapolis bravely attended many of our property tax rallies last summer. Over and over he was asked to support property tax repeal.

Instead of simply doing as we ask, he went to the state house and called for his own plan that simply continues forward the status quo. He refuses to support repeal which is what the vocal majority of his district have told him they want.

Now he wants to be our voice in Congress. While well educated, he certainly sees no need to do our will in the state house. Why should we expect David O. to do our will in Washington?

Part of our strategy is to get politicians replaced that do not echo our voices.