Bardon Opposes Total Property Tax Elimination(posted Aug 3) Indiana State Representative Jeb Bardon told the Eagledale Neighborhood Association that he does not favor the total elimination of property taxes as a solution to abort the sky rocketing property tax situation. He did not doubt the property tax situation is a mess, but said that relying on sales and income tax to fund the schools and public safety would not be a good idea because of the unpredictability of the economy. "Sales tax and income tax would have to double to cover property taxes. Sales tax would have to be added to services too," he said. Bardon agreed the property tax situation is "a muddy mess." Bardon's district could feel the real punch soon. He expressed concern because half of his district is comprised of rental properties; therefore, they are not eligible for homestead or mortgage deductions because they are not the primary home. Bardon also feared the property tax situation could increase the number of vacancies in his district, causing devastation to neighborhoods. He said foreclosure and predatory lending pales to what this could do to the housing market. Bardon listened to his constituents' concerns at the August 2 meeting. John Littlejohn called the exemptions "a game." He claimed that income rental people do not use anymore services than the property owners. He said the income rental business will suffer because no one will want to buy a $40,000 house and pay $2,000 in property taxes. Jo Coleman insisted that many property tax payers can't afford the market value system. She preferred the assessment be based on lot size and the house's square footage. Bardon said he favored eliminating township assessors and have one uniform method of assessing homes. He would like to provide some relief to property taxpayers by using the state's $1.25 billion surplus. He said the market value system is too complex and agreed there is incompetency among assessors executing the assessment with the trending system. He noted that Department of Local Government Finance is reporting some cases of fraud with the assessors. He said the numbers they submitted to the state for review were not the same numbers they used locally to assess the property. He did not say where this occurred. |
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