No to Question #1

Before going to work this morning, I went to the Fairmount Town Hall, which serves as the polling place for most of the town and for its surrounding township, and cast my ballot. I do not mind saying that I voted against public question #1 for 2010:

SHALL PROPERTY TAXES BE LIMITED FOR ALL CLASSES OF PROPERTY by amending the Constitution of the State of Indiana to do the following: (1) Limit a taxpayer's annual property tax bill to the following percentages of gross assessed value:

(A) 1% for an owner-occupied primary residence (homestead);

(B) 2% for residential property, other than an owner-occupied primary residence, including apartments;

(C) 2% for agricultural land;

(D) 3% for other real property;

and (E) 3% for personal property.

The above percentages exclude any property taxes imposed after being approved by the voters in a referendum.

(2) Specify that the General Assembly may grant a property tax exemption in the form of a deduction or credit and exempt a mobile home used as a primary residence to the same extent as real property?

This is an echo of a property tax panic in 2007, when property taxes in Indianapolis, Muncie and a few other places became so outrageously high that it sparked a taxpayers revolt. Legislation in 2008 put caps on those property taxes. However, the rightists wanted caps permanent, and the only way to do that would be to amend the caps to the state constitution: Hence the question above.

Outside the constricting effect on local government services like police and fire services, schools and libraries, bringing about their decay, the question itself is a deception.

My take on this is that the citizens of Indiana have paid, and keep on paying, for the profligacy and governmental incompetence of the cities of Muncie and of metropolitan Indianapolis. The passage of this constitutional amendment means that the payment will continue for many years to come. And the legislature is going to have to raise taxes, anyway, once the general public feels the pain of diminished police and fire protection and public education.