Contacting Indiana Senate Candidate Steve Keltner

I received a letter from a woman who is diligently doing her homework on the Indiana Senate race coming up this election. She lives in Steve Keltner's district and seemed unhappy with Senator Lubbers representation in regard to our property taxes.

Steve is guest at a wine get together tomorrow night at Deano's.

Here is the letter that Steve wrote to her:

"Thanks for your attempts to be an informed voter!

My stand on property taxes has changed little in the last 2 years...They can be and must be eliminated. This was recently supported by Senators Waltz and Young at a fiscal committee meeting. However, even they have done a poor job in distributing the revenue. As I pointed out in my testimony at the same hearing, there are hundreds of taxes and fees that Hoosiers already pay (outlined in the Indiana Handbook of Taxes, Revenues and Appropriations). The needed funds can be spread out over those taxes and fees with little pinch on the pocketbook.

The General Assembly wants to distribute the revenue over 3 county level taxes. That will be very painful for Hoosiers. By limiting the scope of the solution set to 3 taxes, they set the resolution up for failure. The reasons for this a entirely political.

My problem with property taxes remains they require us to pay regardless of employment. Further it's based on no specific standard of assessment. Income tax forces you to pay a percentage of money you have earned. People on a fixed income can't come up with more. If they earned more they could pay more.

As I tell people, the 3/2/1 does not solve the problem but must be passed to start the process of taxpayer protection. It must be followed with a bill to eliminate the tax the following year. Thirty other states have adopted some form of taxpayer protection. Indiana has no intention of doing so.

Overall, the process has taken 2 years so far, but elected officials are starting to support my position. More will do so if I get elected.

Please contact me at any time with questions. We are having a little get together tomorrow evening. Please join us if you can so we might visit more. Event info: http://www.votekeltner.com/update.html

Best Regards,

Steve Keltner
Candidate, Indiana Senate - District 30"