From the Indianapolis Business Journal:
Hoosiers love our low taxes. But there are times when that reality—which politicians play to the hilt—gets in the way of good public policy.
We hope that doesn’t become the case this fall, as Indianapolis tries to get its arms around its serious public safety problems. It’s difficult for the city to respond to concerns about the recent murder spree when spending is so tightly restricted by property tax caps—constitutionally mandated ones at that.
But there is an escape valve of sorts that city leaders should consider using judiciously: raising the local option income tax for public safety. Boosting it from the current 0.35 percent to the allowable maximum of 0.5 percent would raise about $25 million.
Raising taxes always should receive close scrutiny, and urban areas can accelerate their declines if they raise taxes so much that they become uncompetitive compared with suburban neighbors. But an increase this modest would not send Indianapolis over the precipice.
The consequences of doing nothing could be much more dire. The worst fallout from violence is the lives lost and families destroyed. But the drumbeat of negative headlines also, little by little, chips away at the city’s reputation as a safe place in which to live and do business. If the city can’t get its crime problems under control, much of the progress here that began under Mayor Richard Lugar and continued under Bill Hudnut, Steve Goldsmith, Bart Peterson and Greg Ballard could be lost.
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http://www.ibj.com/article?articleId=42897
