Time for Truth in Taxation
I’m not really quite sure of what to make of the tax revolt taking place in Marion County. The people are mad about their taxes and their elected officials are going to raise their taxes. So I figure if taxes are going up, maybe a little truth is necessary here.
CLAIM: City officials have consistently pointed at increases in their child welfare payments and a loss of the inventory tax as the reason for the massive increases in property taxes.
TRUTH: According to their own sample data, and using Center and Washington Townships as examples, child welfare payments were only seven and six percent of the increase. When it comes to the inventory tax, the loss was responsible for 22 percent of the increase in Center Township and 9 percent in Washington. This could have been offset by applying the County Economic Development Tax; which the City-County Council failed to do and is now paying the price.
One big reason for the tax increase is trending (assessments); it was responsible for 50 percent of the increase in Washington Township and almost 19 percent of the increase in Center.
CLAIM: City officials say they have cut $83,000,000 from the budget over the past three years.
TRUTH: They may have cut spending in some places but it was added in others. For example, over the past three years Marion County spending went from $170 million in 2003 to $250 million in 2007. There is some good news here, the levy for Indianapolis Consolidated City did go from $26 million in 2003 to $22 million in 2007.
CLAIM: Indianapolis Public Schools say the current tax crisis outcry made them pull their $475 million building project off the table.
TRUTH: According to state officials, Governor Mitch Daniels made it clear that he was not going to allow school building projects to go forward in “problem” counties and IPS knew this before they made their “decision” to pull the spending off the table. So IPS is trying to take credit for something it wasn’t going to be allowed to do anyway.
CLAIM: There has not been an early release from the Marion County Jail since August 2006.
TRUTH: There hasn’t been an early release because the County stopped calling them early release. The County now does Operational Releases. That means if you commit certain crimes, you never get to jail you just go home. You can’t early release someone from jail if they never get to jail in the first place.
These are just a few examples of the truth being the first casualty of taxation. There are more outrages out there, such as the County Salary Recommendation Panel is formally recommending raises for all county elected officials like the clerk, assessor and coroner. There are people who also want to use what little surplus the state has left to provide property tax relief by giving money to local governments. Why don’t we just give more crack cocaine to Whitney Houston and that will solve her addiction problems?
