Residents Express Frustration Over Property Tax Increases(posted June 29) Concern over pending increased property tax bills rallied people to State Representative Phil Hinkle's June 28 town hall meeting to discuss their concerns. Tax bills are scheduled to arrive in the mail by the first week of July. Hinkle told group that he did not vote for the property tax rebate that is scheduled to arrive in the mail by the middle of December. Hinkle called the rebate less than "a band-aid" to overhaul the tax system. Richard Copeland preferred the government make an automatic deduction from the property tax bill instead of paying the cost of processing the check and mailing it to millions of property taxpayers. Hinkle hopes taxpayers are wise enough to apply the rebate to their escrow account to help offset the shortfall that has occurred because of the tax increase. Mortgage companies set aside money in escrow accounts to pay property taxes. Hinkle explained the rebate will be easy to spend during the Christmas season. "Oh my God Christmas has arrived," he said in reference to the taxpayer pulling out the check from the mailbox. Hinkle said the increased property taxes are a shift in taxes as a result of legislative action that occurred six years ago to end the inventory tax by 2007. He explained that Marion County residents are being hit hard because the City-County Council did not phase in incremental increases over the six year period to make up for the loss in inventory tax. Linda Lucas expressed her frustration over the increase. "They take away the inventory tax and put it on us." Tom Copeland thinks the increase in property taxes might be the final straw for some homeowners. He speculates the additional tax burden will increase home sales because "people will start jumping the county line" since the Mayor is proposing an income tax to fight crime. Hinkle proposed ending property taxes and shift the taxing authority to the local governments. It would mean increasing sales tax, income tax and creating other taxes. He noted there has been a proposed tax called school construction income tax that would capture a better share of the taxes from more payers instead of relying just on property taxes to cover the construction. Hinkle is conducting a petition drive to have a constitutional amendment to end property taxes, www.repealpropertytaxes.com. He called the current property tax system a botched system because it is a combination of market value and reproduction cost. He said the system is unfair because it does not allow homeowners to deduct depreciation like income rental property. "I am really tired of the local governments saying it is the legislature's fault," he said. He noted local entities can control their spending to avoid a need to increase property taxes. Each taxing entity sets its tax rate to raise the amount of money it needs to fund its budget. Richard Copeland said the state is not doing everything it can to collect all of the taxes. He said there are many businesses that are delinquent in paying sales tax. A better collection system may help reduce the increased property taxes. Jerry Urick said he has been doing some work at the Wayne Township Assessor's Office. He discovered that many property owners are claiming a homestead tax credit when it is income rental property. Hinkle requested that if anybody knew of anyone claiming homestead tax credit that is not entitled, they should contact him so he could report it to the county auditor's office. |