EDITORIAL: Turn up heat on officials for property tax problems

The IBJ

   If there's a silver lining to the spike in property taxes, it's the public's reaction. With the future of family budgets and the state's urban areas in jeopardy, the public is finally focused on tax policy. The outrage shown at multiple rallies by people of all income levels is what's needed to force elected officials to finally agree on long-term relief.
   But the opportunity will slip away if we don't act quickly. There's no better time than now to harness this high level of public engagement and press for solutions to our most vexing public finance problems. If it takes a special session of the General Assembly to bring focus to the debate on taxes and local government, that's what legislators must submit to.
   The public must keep the pressure on until leaders on both sides of the political aisle work together to fashion a long-term solution. Then the governor should call lawmakers back to approve it.
   The saying that the Legislature never gets anything done until the final week or two of the session has, unfortunately, become a self-fulfilling prophecy. It was never truer than this year, when legislators waited until late April to pass a few relief measures and a laughable rebate program to take the sting out of higher tax bills. They spent four months mostly avoiding the larger issues of how local government is structured and funded.
   For all the hue and cry about local government's getting its house in order, the public shouldn't forget that locals can only do so much without state approval.
   Stripping away excess layers of government at the township level has long been a goal of Mayor Bart Peterson, but state lawmakers haven't been willing to give locals the freedom to abandon outdated and expensive structures.
   The Indiana Association of Cities and Towns put forth in this year's session its Hometown Matters legislative package, an effort to shift to local decision-makers the responsibility for replacing property tax revenue with other sources of funds. But most of the group's requests fell on deaf ears.
   Gov. Mitch Daniels has been supportive of calls for local government reform but hasn't done enough to promote it. In fact, his first statement in response to the furor over property tax bills pointed the finger at local governments, a disappointing response from a governor who has a track record of solving problems instead of playing political games.
   Assigning blame won't restore sanity to local government finance and it won't stop property owners from taking the misguided and damaging step of trying to escape high tax bills by moving across county lines.
   Running away from the problem might help in the short run, but a city with falling property values and fewer taxpayers is destined for more crime, less investment and a bleak future. That's clearly not in Marion County's best interest, but it's bad for surrounding counties as well. A rotten core will affect today's affluent suburbs sooner or later.
   The public must disregard geographic boundaries real and imagined, put aside traditional party loyalties, and demand that elected officials work together to find a lasting solution to our property-tax woes.