EDITORIAL: Property tax relief cannot come too soon for Hoosiers

Times of Northwest Indiana

Marion County's property tax revolt should be instructive for folks in Northwest Indiana. Hundreds of people there have staged protests over the large jumps in property tax bills.

Tax bills in Lake and Porter counties are still about two months away, but time is running out for a solution to this revolting property tax mess.

Lake County has until Aug. 1 to decide whether to enact an income tax to raise money for property tax relief. The County Council should put off that decision as long as possible. Setting a meeting for 8 p.m. July 31 to discuss the issue and then take a vote, up or down, on the new tax would be a smart move.

In the meantime, legislative leaders in both the Indiana Senate and the House of Representatives need to be talking with each other to work quickly on a property tax reform consensus.

That solution must include a change to the distribution formula for the Lake County income tax. As it now stands, the money raised from affluent communities would flow disproportionately to the spendthrift communities.

The ultimate solution to the tax crisis is to cut government spending. That cannot be overemphasized.

A true solution to the property tax crisis must include government spending reductions, not merely shifting to a different revenue source.

The General Assembly must quickly devise a plan to provide short-term relief, but it also must set up a blue-ribbon panel -- as the House GOP leaders suggested -- to study options for long-term relief. The recommendations should be ready by the start of the 2008 session, if possible, or in plenty of time to digest the report by 2009.

That panel should include discussing property tax relief options up to, and including, abolishing the property tax entirely and shifting to other revenue sources.

But look also at ways to streamline government, reducing the number of layers and making government more efficient and more affordable again.

As Gov. Mitch Daniels said Monday, "We have far too many layers, elected offices, geographic units, school districts and overhead."

It's time to restructure government for the 21st century, not the 19th. It's time to make the government be a friend to the people, not a monkey on the people's backs.