Evansville Courier & Press
Few state laws have so powerful an impact on Hoosiers that they are recognized by their numerical signature by taxpayers and public officials alike. One state law that is that familiar is House Bill 1001, the state's property tax law passed in the last session of the Indiana General Assembly.
Local government officials and homeowners who closely follow taxes and spending are so engaged in the issue that their conversations routinely include someone saying "1001 this" and "1001 that."
They all know that 1001 is the law that, among other features, will cap property taxes, bringing down to earth the tax bills for Hoosier homeowners, many who were hit the year before with crippling bills.
Overall, the tax law lowered homeowners' tax bills an average of 29 percent statewide
Taxpayers loved it, while local officials feared it for the limitations the caps might place on their ability to pay for necessary government services.
Starting this year, the law will limit property taxes to no more than 1.5 percent of the assessed value for residential property, to no more than 2.5 percent of assessed value for rental property and farmland, and to no more than 3 percent for businesses.
In 2010, the limit on homes will go to 1 percent of assessed value, to 2 percent for rental property and farmland, and it will stay at 3 percent for businesses.
This is the same law promoted by Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels that also increased the state sales tax, shifted some fiscal responsibilities from local to state government and led to the elimination of most township assessor positions in Indiana. Yet, it is the cap on property taxes that remains in play going into the 2009 session of the legislature, which begins Wednesday.
Gov. Daniels and others want to see the caps on property taxes become a part of the state constitution. Daniels sees it as the completion of the process he started with his property tax control initiative during his first term.
"This is an extremely important objective. I think it's better for everyone here if the General Assembly finishes its part of this process now," Daniels said in a news story by Courier & Press staff writer Bryan Corbin, published on Tuesday.
The proposal to set the 1, 2 and 3 percent caps into the legal concrete of the constitution is contained in Senate Joint Resolution 1. The resolution was passed during the last session, Corbin reported, but it must pass again, either in the 2009 or 2010 session, before it could go to the voters in a referendum in 2010. Of course, if it did become an amendment, it would take the same time-consuming process to reverse it.
This newspaper strongly supported the passage of HB1001, but we fail now to see the necessity of sealing those caps in the state constitution.
It comes down to this: Daniels and others want to make it as difficult as possible for future legislatures to get rid of the caps.
Those caps are effective tools for controlling the burden on taxpayers. And, they are the law of the state, facing no serious threat for reversal.
But we believe it is too nearsighted to tie the hands of future lawmakers, say 10 to 20 years down the road. Nobody can know now what challenges they will face.
Look at it this way. If Hoosiers want to insure that the legislature will not reverse the caps featured in HB1001, then elect lawmakers who promise to keep the caps in place.
At the same times, legislators are extremely sensitive to the wishes voters. They are not likely to lift the caps without a very good reason - a reason that no one can foresee today.
At the least, let's give the tax law time to work. As State Rep. Russ Stilwell, D-Boonville, told Corbin, "One needs to know what the impacts are before we unilaterally stick it into the constitution."
HB1001 is a good law, as is; keep it that way.