By JASON MICHAEL WHITE, Daily Journal staff writer
A lobbying association for cities and towns is speaking out after its property-tax proposal didn’t get a vote by a legislative committee.
The Indiana Association of Cities and Towns is criticizing the House Ways and Means Committee for not voting on a proposal to reduce city and town governments’ dependence on property taxes by letting them collect sales, income, hotel or food-and-beverage taxes.
“Quite frankly, I’m fairly disgusted,” said Greenwood Mayor Charles Henderson, a Republican who is active in the association. “To not even give us a vote, … they passed their bill, but they wouldn’t even give our bill a vote.”
Association members hope to rally enough support from the Senate to get their proposal included in another bill.
Committee chairman Jeff Espich, R-Uniondale, decided not to call for a vote on House Bill 1399 Thursday because of time constraints in this year’s short session, according to House Republicans.
But the association said Espich was an outspoken opponent of the bill and had his own version of a property-tax relief proposal.
Espich was concerned that HB 1399 requires municipalities to use only part of their new revenue for property tax relief and that some communities would not have to use any of the new revenue for property tax relief.
He did not want to give local governments the ability to impose new taxes and bring in new revenue, he said during a Wednesday hearing that city and town officials from across the state attended.
Everyone wants to lower property taxes, Franklin Mayor Brenda Jones-Matthews said, but the state cannot realistically reduce property tax revenue without giving municipalities another, more fair way to get funding.
Otherwise, cities and towns would be in jeopardy of going broke and having to cut back on services, such as police and fire protection, since they currently depend on property tax dollars for most of their budgets, said Matt Greller, executive director of the association of cities and towns.
Temporary solutions proposed in the House will not help, he said.
Espich pushed his own property-tax bill through the committee a week earlier. House Republicans have touted the bill as a significant relief to property taxpayers but have not, as yet, provided financial information to support that claim. Espich said part of the bill, a 3 percent cap on local property tax increases, probably won’t make a difference to most homeowners, but he said it sounds good politically.
Another part of the bill gives a one-time, temporary tax credit that is expected to save homeowners statewide an average of 7 percent.
In another stance against rising property taxes, the House voted unanimously Wednesday to eliminate all property taxes statewide by 2009. Some lawmakers called the vote symbolic, since state representatives do not have a plan to replace the $5 billion generated yearly by property taxes.
Espich said that he does not believe property taxes can be eliminated statewide.
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