LAPORTE, IN -- The DLGF has issued its long awaited Resolution 2008-01 DLGF on the LaPorte County reassessment fiasco and they will be back in town Thursday for another public meeting DLGF Public Hearing - May 15th. Is the glass half full or is the glass half empty? To overstressed taxpayers (aka Republicans) in Michigan Township the reassessment glass probably now appears half full. To wasteful whiners in local government (aka Democrats), the reassessment glass probably looks about half empty. But from my perspective (aka Libertarian), there is a third way of looking at it that might be considered by some - reality suggests that we damn sure need to get ourselves a new glass.
The “fair market” property tax assessment that has been created by state legislators is a flaming disaster that is anything but fair. The assessment process is not fair, it never has been fair, and it NEVER will be fair. There are just too many games that so-called assessors, either qualified or unqualified, can use to play with the value of property. They did it with Indiana’s old assessment system, they are doing it with Indiana’s new assessment system, and they will continue to do it with the mildly tweaked “capped” system legislators voted to continue on with next year. It is only because of the magnitude of the current reassessment change that just about everyone who is paying attention can see what a totally bogus system those legislators have created.
But as if the reassessment process itself wasn’t bad enough, those whiz-bang state legislators added a whole slew of deduction/credit games like the Homestead Credit to further confuse and compound the problem. But in an extreme example of self-important ignorance to show voters just how much they were doing to help, they even added “rebate checks” to the plates of local people who haven’t yet figured out how to get an accurate property tax bill out on time. Legislators, PLEEEEEEASE don’t “help” us like that anymore.
For far too long the DLGF has been a rubber stamp that gave local officials just about everything their hearts desired and did absolutely nothing to look out for local taxpayers (i.e. Taj Mahal type school buildings for some). That unchecked local spending by schools and government is largely responsible for the current property tax disaster. But perhaps for the first time ever, the DLGF appears to have discovered a backbone and actually is trying to do what it is supposed to be doing, albeit far slower than it should be. Local officials who have been feeding at the public trough don’t like it very much and are pitching full scale hissy fits.
Like County Attorney Friedman who gets reimbursed by LaPorte County taxpayers for creating, then “resolving” conflict, Rep. Scott Pelath is now pitching one of the really big fits - very ironic considering he is one of the 151 people who helped create this friggin mess in the first place. But instead of venting his spleen on the DLGF, Rep. Pelath should take a good look in the mirror, ask what he has done to make this mess, and what he can do to fix it now.
Way back in December 2001, the Libertarian Party of Indiana foresaw the property tax Titanic and came up with a tax plan that had some good conceptual ideas on what could be done to miss the iceberg. After ignoring those ideas and hitting the iceberg full throttle, last year state legislators finally took some of those ideas and started to run for the lifeboats with a couple of them. But unfortunately they missed some really big ideas that still have a lot of potential to fix Indiana’s property tax mess once and for all.
Not that my two cents worth matters much, but to meet the constitutional requirement of “Uniform and EQUAL”, I think Indiana should adopt a “flat tax” type of property tax assessment that values property based solely on the square footage of land and structures. The entire costly and error prone reassessment process could be eliminated and assessors could no longer play games with property values. All would pay their fair share for police and fire protection, streets, and other government services deemed ”essential” by local taxpayers. Renters would be treated the same as homeowners and they would not be unfairly subjected to a property tax that could be twice as high than a “homeowner” would pay for a similar property. People would not be penalized for fixing up their homes, apartments, or small businesses. Both you and your neighbors, homeowner or renter, would pay exactly the same rate for the government services utilized. No rebate checks, no Homestead credit/deduction political games, no unfair market reassessment/trending bullshit.
Seems like a pretty simple and fair fix to me.
