By ERIC BRADNER and BRYAN CORBIN, Evansville
Courier & Press Statehouse bureau
corbinb@courierpress.com
INDIANAPOLIS - Indiana House members Thursday night once again put the property tax "ball" back into play by linking limits on homeowners' property taxes to income.
That's something Gov. Mitch Daniels and most Republicans in the Legislature oppose.
With just four hours remaining before their midnight deadline for voting on Senate bills, the House passed 64-to-35 Senate Joint Resolution 1, which calls for amending the state's constitution to create caps, or "circuit breakers," on property taxes.
The constitutional amendment was one element of Daniels' property tax relief plan.
Daniels' original proposal would cap taxes on homesteads at 1 percent of assessed value, taxes on rental properties at 2 percent of assessed value, and taxes on businesses at 3 percent. The Republican-controlled state Senate approved that constitutional amendment.
In the Democratic-controlled House, however, the amendment was changed so that the cap on homestead property taxes would be 1 percent of household income, instead of 1 percent of assessed value.
House Republicans blasted that idea as unworkable and inconsistent, but House Democrats said it was necessary to protect senior citizens and homeowners on fixed incomes.
Terry Goodin, D-Austin, called swapping household income in place of assessed value "grandma- and grandpa-friendly." Responding to the governor calling the plan "half-baked," Goodin said it's better than the "flour and eggs" the governor proposed.
Taxes on rental and business property would remain tied to assessed value under the House Democrats' version of SJR 1.
Most of Daniels' plan is contained in a separate piece of legislation, House Bill 1001, which the Senate approved Tuesday and is now headed for conference committee negotiations. But SJR 1, the constitutional amendment the House voted on Thursday, is separate from that.
Voting yes on SJR 1 were Reps. Kreg Battles, D-Vincennes; Dennie Oxley, D-English and Russ Stillwell, D-Boonville.
Voting no were local representatives Suzanne Crouch, R-Evansville; Dennis Avery, D-Evansville; Phil Hoy, D-Evansville; David Crooks, D-Washington and Trent Van Haaften, D-Mount Vernon.
Crouch said she voted no because House Democrats had substituted the household income provision.
Avery said he is not against writing property tax caps into state law. But Avery said they should not be amended into the state constitution. Hoy, too, said he opposed amending the changes into the state constitution.
Senate President David Long, R-Fort Wayne, opposed writing exceptions into the caps.