By Morton Marcus in the Logansport Pharos-Tribune:
The Indiana General Assembly is generous when giving away the revenues of local govern-ments. The latest scheme, advocated by the politicians wielding power at the state level, is to give a nice tax break to businesses at the expense of local governments.
They propose to get rid of the property tax on business equipment.Such property, called “personal,” is used by firms to make products and provide services.
Long ago, households too paid the “personal” property tax. Today, a computer system used in a business is subject to the tax; a computer used in a household to surf the web and send pictures to Granny is exempt.
There were good reasons for getting rid of the tax on household goods. It was widely ignored, and those who did not ignore it, most frequently lied about what they owned and how much it was worth.
There may be good reasons for getting rid of the tax on business machinery. Such a tax is believed to discourage businesses from investing in new equipment. No one seems to have evidence that this is true, but it is believed and that is good enough for the governor and the legislature.
We have had wonderful announcements from new and existing Indiana firms about how much they are going to invest in new equipment around the state. Not one of those announcements said firms would have invested more without the personal property tax.
Unfortunately, no one seems to have a clear idea of how cities, towns, counties, schools, libraries and other local entities will replace the lost property tax. But then that has never been a concern of those who press for lower property taxes.
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