EDITORIAL: Real tax relief depends on real reforms

By the time the 2008 legislative session begins in January, state lawmakers could find the table crowded with property tax reform bills.

The latest to lob a proposal was Rep. David Orentlicher, an Indianapolis Democrat.

He would cut homeowners' property taxes by 62 percent, he said, but raise the state's sales tax (from 6 to 7 percent) and the state's income tax (from 3.4 to 4.4 percent).

One of the goals of his reform, Orentlicher said, was to even out tax rates, from township to township and county to county.

That should give pause: What should lawmakers be attempting to accomplish?