From the Elkhart Truth:
Leaders across Elkhart County have long charged that they’re being short-changed by the state.
And even though a state legislative proposal meant to address the issue has seemingly stopped in its tracks, don’t expect them to stop the clamoring.
“I’m absolutely disappointed,” said Goshen Mayor Allan Kauffman, who favored the proposal and took part in a special state legislative committee last year that looked into the matter. “I don’t think the state wants to fix this.”
Employers here, as in all Indiana locales, withhold a portion of their workers’ pay — the part that corresponds with the state and local income taxes they have to pay — and send it to the Indiana Department of Revenue. Only after workers file their tax returns each April are the income tax funds corresponding to Elkhart County — and all other counties — sent back, based on who actually fills out returns.
Thing is, not every worker here files returns, notably some undocumented immigrants, Elkhart County leaders say. As such, Elkhart County, the city of Elkhart, Goshen and other taxing units here don’t get their fair share, they charge. As they see it, the state pockets a portion of income tax revenue that they think should be coming here, millions of dollars a year, perhaps.
It’s bad enough that locales don’t get the revenue they’re due, say officials like Kauffman and Elkhart County Council President John Letherman. But in light of caps on property taxes, which limit the ability of counties, cities and other govermental units to generate revenue, it’s doubly tough, making locales scramble, scrimp and cut even more to make ends meet. At the county level, funding for road maintenance has taken a particular hit while Kauffman warns that in light of limited revenue, the city of Goshen may once again have to consider the idea of trash-collection fees.
“I think it’s only fair we get every penny that we send down,” said Letherman, one of many officials who has sounded off on the matter for several years now.
State Rep. Wes Culver, R-Goshen, had authored legislation to address the seeming discrepancy, House Bill 1479. The measure would have required state officials to accurately track the amount of local income tax money coming in from each of Indiana’s 92 counties — something not done, apparently — and return the total back in full, once processed.
The Goshen lawmaker, however, recently received word from Rep. Tim Brown, R-Crawfordsville, chairman of the House Committee on Ways and Means, that H.B. 1479 probably wouldn’t get a committee hearing. That would effecitvely stall the measure.
Brown told Culver it’s the state’s view that Indiana communities are not being short-changed, Culver said.
See the full article here:
http://www.etruth.com/article/20130219/NEWS01/702199955
