From the Northwest Indiana Times:
Lake County officials worry the only thing worse than passing a new tax would be passing one that leaves county government still millions of dollars in the hole.
County officials who once denounced a local option income tax as a downstate Republican conspiracy have been quietly calculating its potential to rescue local government from financial peril caused by declining government revenues.
They have been studying a bewildering array of income tax variations and distribution formulas to find a combination generating the most revenue and least taxpayer outcry.
Tension among county officials faced with this challenge was on display last week when state Sen. Ed Charbonneau, R-Valparaiso, unveiled a new income tax model.
It offers Lake County an incentive to pass a 1 percent income tax by unfreezing its property tax levy and giving local officials the freedom to spend three-fourths of the estimated $96 million the tax generates on any government operational need.
The remainder goes to economic development projects, such as South Shore commuter train extensions.
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A bi-partisan delegations of local legislators added their support to the new tax initiative, which is expected to receive a full Senate vote this week before moving to the Indiana House of Representatives.
Lake is the only county in the state that hasn't adopted a local income tax and is being punished for its refusal by the General Assembly, which has frozen the total amount of property taxes, called a levy, collected annually since 2007.
The freeze, combined with property taxes caps, has forced county officials to shrink their payroll by 300 jobs and borrow $15 million this year to avoid either deficit spending or even deeper cost-cutting.
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http://www.nwitimes.com/news/local/lake/lake-county-officials-talk-income-tax-to-balance-spending/article_f5811a27-9bcc-5205-ae82-00d8c6a071e6.html
