EDITORIAL: Cold facts about Pence 'tax cut'

If our communities aren’t livable, economic growth will stagnate. In addition, some Hoosiers with highly marketable work skills will choose to leave the state because of quality of life issues.

Jerry Kessler of Kendallville, a retired banker with years of experience in local economic development, pointed out in a Jan. 31 letter to the editor one of the many facts Pence seems to be overlooking: The business personal property tax is a tax burden passed on to many out-of-state-customers.

Kessler wondered why Pence should ask legislators to transfer to Hoosier shoulders a tax burden that is currently being handled by out-of-state customers.

“The tax is a built-in cost of doing business, same as utilities, wages, Social Security tax and cost of material,” Kessler wrote. “So when the product is sold out of state, which most products are, the consumer who purchases or benefits from the items pays the tax. If we do away with a billion-dollar revenue to cities and county government, that’s now being paid by out-of-state buyers, this tax will have to be passed on to local residents.”

According to the Association of Indiana Counties: “With complete elimination of the business personal property tax, homestead property owners would pay an additional $169 million in property taxes and farmland owners would pay an additional $88 million in property taxes, all without the guarantee of job creation.”

Indiana already is one of our nation’s most “business friendly” states.

Business friendly. But not work force ready. We can’t honestly say the Hoosier work force is near the top when it comes to being prepared to meet the needs of business.

It takes money to invest in education and work force readiness.

We’ve gone about as far as we can go with tax cuts.

We can’t phase out the business personal property tax and keep our communities and education adequately funded without increasing the tax burden on working people.