Staff editorial: Vote 'no' on property tax cap amendment

Researching candidates’ positions isn’t enough to make you a responsible voter.­­

Before you go to the polls this November, you should take the time to consider the implications of at least one of the amendments on the ballot.

If adopted by voters, the constitutional amendment to cap property taxes would permanently limit lawmakers’ ability to alter the property taxes to meet different communities’ needs and provide the sort of basic services that hold a community together.

Institutions such as schools, law enforcement, libraries, parks and firefighting all suffer when they don’t receive adequate funding, and all of them rely on property taxes to cover their operational costs.

Already, basic services have been negatively impacted by Indiana’s 2008 law that limited property taxes. The Wall Street Journal reported that Indiana cities have already begun laying off police officers and firefighters in anticipation of the amendment being passed.

Despite the fact that an estimated 64 percent of Hoosier voters support the amendment, there are at least two reasons why the Editorial Board encourages voters to decide to vote down the amendment.

First, as State Senator and Senate minority leader Vi Simpson, D-Bloomington, told the Wall Street Journal, the amendment is being approved before legislators, and voters have an opportunity to fully appreciate its effects.

Even Hoosiers that ultimately support enshrining property tax caps in the state’s constitution should take a few years to examine the effects of the 2008 law.

The current law can be altered relatively easily if it is judged to have negative effects. Its best elements can be preserved and its defects discarded. An amendment can only be appealed through monumental effort on the part of our government officials, something we all know they’re not very good at.

Second, limiting property taxes is at its heart a way of abdicating to regressive tax policies.

To compensate schools for their funding losses under lower taxes, the Indiana legislature simultaneously raised sales taxes to 7 percent from 6 percent. And when the sales tax failed to generate sufficient funds, Gov. Daniels had to order schools to cut spending by 300 million dollars.

Less public services and a tax burden shared less equitably do not promote robust communities and equal opportunities.

Capping property taxes is simply too drastic an approach to take, and one that has too negative of an impact on local communities’ ability to provide basic government services like schools, libraries, parks, and road construction­­.

These are among the most basic of things that a government does for the people that it serves.

Instead of taking a drastic, practically irreversible, step of amending the constitution to permanently cap property taxes, we should turn to innovative public policy that keeps communities affordable while allowing them to provide the services that made them attractive to residents in the first place.

One alternative to setting statewide property taxes uniformly low is to vary tax rates by the number of years the homeowners have lived in the home. By taxing new residents at a higher annual rate of the home’s value, we can make sure we don’t allow the tax burden to drive people out of their homes while funding necessary public services.

That’s the sort of legislative solution that makes communities viable.

Of all of the choices you will be asked to make this year on election day, the one that will have by far the most direct impact on your local community will be how you vote on the property tax amendment.

Make the right decision for your community and vote ‘no.’