A TOUCHDOWN FOR TAXPAYERS!

For many of you skeptics out there who believe the average citizen has no impact on the way government is run, here is a story that may make you change your mind.

The Indianapolis Colts are getting a brand-new stadium to play in: the $700 million Lucas Oil Stadium courtesy of the Indianapolis area taxpayers. They used to play in the RCA Dome, but the powers-that-be decided the RCA Dome (less than 25 years old) wasn't good enough anymore and wanted a new stadium for the Super Bowl champs.

Taxpayers would foot the majority of the bill for the new stadium; the Indianapolis Colts and the NFL will only pay $100 million towards the $700 million price tag. In addition, the Colts get all the revenue from the naming rights to the stadium, all game day revenue, and any other revenue from events held at the stadium.

The RCA Dome will also be torn down even though it still carries a bond debt of $75 million, and taxpayers will continue to pay for a building that no longer exists (deja vu-Market Square Arena).

The Marion County Capitol Improvements Board began making plans to auction off the contents of the RCA Dome (everything from urinals to signs to stadium seats) with all the proceeds going to the Indianapolis Colts Foundation and the Indiana Sports Corporation in a deal made by the CIB and FORMER Mayor Bart Peterson. What would the taxpayers get from the auction of their public property? Zilch!

The Indy Star newspaper carried the article about the RCA Dome auction.

The Marion County citizens became outraged at this public slap in the taxpayers' face and rightly so. Radio stations, local activists, and blogs spread the news and mobilized citizens. Taxpayers began pressuring the Marion County Capital Improvement Board to reverse their decision. Taxpayers made it clear to the CIB "business as usual" was no longer going to be tolerated.

A lawsuit was immediately filed on behalf of Marion County taxpayers; the lawsuit contending since the RCA Dome was built using taxpayer money, all money from the proceeds of the auction should go back to the taxpayers and used to help pay off the bond debt for the RCA Dome.

Facing overwhelming public outrage and a lawsuit, the Marion County Capital Improvement Board changed their decision on the auction proceeds. Money from the auction (at least $1 million clear) will now go back into the CIB's general fund.

Touchdown for the Marion County taxpayers!

GOVERNOR DANIELS, LT. GOV. SKILLMAN SIGN HISTORIC PROPERTY TAX REFORM BILL INTO LAW

REFORM CALLED VICTORY FOR HOOSIER TAXPAYERS

Today is an historic day for Indiana. At 1:00 p.m. this afternoon in the Statehouse rotunda, Governor Daniels, House Speaker Pat Bauer, Senate President Pro Tempore David Long and I signed HB 1001, the property tax relief bill, into law.

You will find details of the plan below. This plan will usher in a new era of taxpayer protection in Indiana thanks to some great cooperation and compromise in the Statehouse.

Taxpayers will no longer be asked to open their pocketbooks to pay for government's overspending. Instead, government will have to operate within its budget and learn to maximize every taxpayer dollar.

I am proud to have the opportunity to stand among the Hoosier lawmakers who worked with us to pass meaningful property tax relief. We will be kicking off a new era in Indiana-one that puts Hoosier homeowners first.

LT. GOVERNOR BECKY SKILLMAN

Wednesday, March 19, 2008


Key elements of HEA 1001

The plan adopted by the General Assembly meets all four of the key elements laid out by Governor Daniels as essential to providing meaningful and lasting property tax reform in Indiana.

Immediate Relief

**Homeowners will see an average tax cut of more than 30 percent in 2008 vs. 2007 bills

**2008 homeowner relief increased by $620 million - the total expected collection from the
sales tax increase - bring the 2008 total homeowner relief to $870 million

Permanent Protection

**The plan caps homeowner property taxes at 1 percent of a home's assessed value starting in2010. (In 2009, the cap will be 1.5 percent)

**The plan caps property taxes for apartments and agricultural land at 2 percent of assessed value in 2010 (In 2009, the caps will be 2.5 percent)

**The plan caps business property taxes at 3 percent of assessed value in 2010 (In 2009, the cap will be 3.5 percent)

**When caps are fully in place, the plan delivers $1.72 in tax cuts for each $1 of new sales tax.

**This plan takes the first step toward placing the caps in the Indiana Constitution. Taxpayers will get a chance to approve the caps in the November, 2010 general election only if lawmakers approve them again next year.

**The plan caps homeowner property taxes at 1 percent of a home's assessed value starting in 2010. In 2009, the cap will be 1.5 percent.

**State takes over about $3 billion of costs that were previously on local property tax rolls:
**The remaining 15 percent of school operating costs
**Child welfare levies
**Costs of juvenile incarceration in state facilities
**State fair and forestry levies
**Health care for the indigent
**Pre-school special education levies
**Costs of police and fire pensions pre-1977

Limits on Local Government Spending

**Referenda required for new school and local government capital projects.
**For elementary and middle school projects over $10 million
**For high school projects over $20 million
**For local government projects over $12 million or 1 percent of assessed value
**Eliminates loopholes on levy appeals that previously enabled local governments to
spend more than budgeted
**County Council oversight of non-elected board budgets

Improved Accuracy and Fairness in Assessment of Property Value

**Reduces the total number of assessors from 1,100 to 92 county assessors and 42 township assessors, an 88 percent reduction.

**Requires referendums this November in townships with more than 15,000 parcels to determine if township assessor duties should be transferred to the county

**Increased requirements for assessor certification that will mean more equity, uniformity and fairness

**A process in place to remove an assessor who does not meet performance expectations.

**Stronger state oversight with the Department of Local Government Finance required to be party to any vendor contract

Other Elements of HEA 1001

**Provides transition period to ease the impact of the property tax caps on local government

**Provides special accommodations for Lake and St. Joseph counties, due to their high property tax rates and heavy reliance on property taxes to fund local government services

**Provides $120 million for schools in 2009 and 2010 to reduce the impact of the tax caps

**Increases school "rainy day" fund to ensure adequate funding is available in the event of an economic downturn

**Limits property tax bill increases to no more than 2 percent annually for seniors who make less than $30,000 annually (single) or less than $40,000 (joint), if the assessed value of their homes is $160,000 or less.

**Increases renters deduction from $2,500 to $3,000.

**Increases earned income tax credit for lower-income Hoosiers from 6 percent to 9 percent.

TEAM HAMMOND MEETS WITH GOVERNOR DANIELS ON PROPERTY TAX REFORM

From left: Wes Miller, George Janiec, Ted Prettyman, Eusebio Alvarez, JoAnn Palko, Governor Mitch Daniels, and Jim Premeske

For all those doubting Thomases, here is proof positive that Team Hammond members did in fact meet with Governor Mitch Daniels on Friday, March 7, 2008 in his private suite at the Radisson Hotel in Merrillville. Team Hammond met with the Governor in an hour-long meeting to discuss property tax reform, referendums, the distressed unit board, and controlling government spending. Members also addressed specific concerns and were reassured by the Governor property tax reform would be forthcoming in the current legislative session.

THE SWISS CHEESE BILL-SCHOOL CONSTRUCTION IMPACT

As far as holding down school construction, there is one major glitch in the compromise.

That is the referendum requirements for local building projects. Setting the limit for schools at $10/$20 million is a farce. Now instead of having a single project, the big project, other than classroom buildings, will be broken into many small projects, and other than the remonstrance process, these projects will skate right under the referendum limit.

A retired school financial administrator illustrated the situation by using Washington Township , Marion County as an example:

"Currently there is a bond issue for a total of $50 million including several projects which are all under the $20 million limit if considered individually.

There is also a proposal to renovate practically every building in the school district at a total estimated cost of $180 million, but if you take each of the 11 projects separately the total for each would be slightly over $16 million, and this is below the cap for a referendum. All the school district has to do is seek approval for 11 different projects and they have skated under the limit. As long as the remonstrance process remains in place there is still a way for local residents to control the school district, but we both know the referendum process is much more burdensome on the community than a realistic level of capping projects for a referendum."

The school construction problem has not been fixed.

From Greg Wright, School Board Member
Washington Township School Board, Marion County
Friday, March 14, 2008

PROPERTY TAX AGREEMENT REACHED

Leaders in the Republican-controlled Senate and Democrat-controlled House have struck a deal on major property-tax reform legislation, including constitutional caps on the taxes for most homeowners and others.

A vote by both chambers is expected on Friday, if not sooner.

Top lawmakers in each chamber are today selling the proposal to their rank-and-file members. The legislature has until midnight Friday to pass House Bill 1001, the measure that includes the property-tax proposal.

All members of the House and Senate were meeting behind closed doors today to learn details of the agreement.

House Speaker B. Patrick Bauer, D-South Bend, however, did discuss a few elements of the plan before meeting with fellow Democrats. The proposal includes the framework of Gov. Mitch Daniels' property-tax plan, capping homeowners' tax bills at 1percent of assessed value, 2 percent for rental properties and farmland and 3 percent for businesses.

The agreement also would include placing those caps in the state's constitution, a concept Democrats have resisted. When asked this morning whether such a constitutional amendment would be part of the final deal, Bauer responded: "Probably."

There would, however, be exceptions.

House Minority Leader Brian Bosma said that under the agreement, the caps would not be applied to Lake and St. Joseph counties, two areas of the state that would have been hit the hardest under the caps. Bosma declined to detail what kind of standard those two counties would be held to.

"The speaker has been very insistent that those counties be treated in a different fashion," Bosma said. "That certainly would not be my choice."

Bosma did say, however, that Marion and all the rest of the state's remaining 90 counties would be held to the caps under Daniels' proposal.

The agreement also includes referendums on building projects. Bauer, however, said referendums only would be required for projects of a certain size. He did not detail what threshold would be required for a referendum.

"Up to a certain size, you can go ahead and build, but if it's up higher you have to do a referendum," Bauer said. "So we tried to keep really big projects under a referendum but the moderate ones not. The very, very big projects would have referendums."

Democrats had pushed to have all classroom and lab projects excluded from referendums while Republicans pushed for referendums on all building projects.

The agreement also would keep a Senate provision that would eliminate township assessors in townships with fewer than 15,000 parcels. In more populated townships, a referendum would determine whether to keep or eliminate township trustees.

Under the deal, local units of government that could not make ends meet due to revenue lost by the plan's property tax caps could appeal to a Distressed Unit Appeal Board, which would have the power to temporarily lift caps or take other steps to help a city, town or school district adjust to the property-tax caps.

The agreement also includes $50 million in 2009 and $70 million in 2010 to assist schools districts that would lose revenue under the caps.

"Those who need to govern can continue to govern. Those who need to educate can continue to educate," Bauer said of the deal. "I think we have a fairly good balance."

Lawmakers declined to discuss many of the additional details of the agreement, citing the need to discuss the matter with fellow lawmakers first.

"I'm encouraged that there is an agreement. Am I thrilled with the content of the agreement? No, I'm not," Bosma said. "It meets much of the framework the governor proposed in October and that the Republicans endorsed as well. It's absolutely better than nothing."

House Ways and Means Chairman Bill Crawford, D-Indianapolis, called the agreement "tolerable."

Crawford said he remains "extremely concerned" that the levies that are being moved off property taxpayers and to the state will prove too expensive for the state to maintain in an economic downturn. State revenues have fallen nearly $90 million behind expectations in recent months."

It's going to make budget-making next year extremely difficult," he predicted.

Among the levies that Republicans have wanted to be picked up are school general funds, child welfare, juvenile incarceration, school pension bond debt and the pre-1977 police and fire pensions.

Lawmakers did not detail this morning which levies the state would assume under the latest agreement, which Rep. P. Eric Turner, R-Marion, called a "great compromise."

A conference committee report reflecting the agreement is being drafted at the Statehouse. The next step would be for the conference committee considering HB 1001 to approve the deal. Then, HB 1001 would move before the House and Senate for final votes.

"If I had my druthers, I would do it tonight," Bauer said of a final vote. "We probably can't do it today. It takes a while to have this processed. I would hope we would be able to do it tonight, but it probably will be tomorrow."

Regardless of when a final vote is taken, Bauer said it's clear leadership in the Senate and House are on the same page. The remaining task is to convince their members to agree.

"We have an agreement, period," Bauer said. "It's basically compromise all the way through."

From the Indy Star
Thursday, March 13, 2008

Team Hammond activists Jim Premeske, Florian Bolsega And Joe Sturonas Rally For Property Tax Repeal

Governor Mitch Daniels Talks To Tax Repeal Activists