From the Elkhart Truth:
County commissioner Mike Yoder is working on a new plan to offset losses from property tax caps.
In a Saturday, Dec. 14, meeting, council members agreed to fund a lobbying team to help this new plan advance in the coming legislative session.
“The purpose of the lobbyist is to ensure that the cause doesn’t get lost in the fog,” Yoder explained later. “We want to make sure that our legislation is in the mix, and that (the lobbying team) actually assists our legislators.”
Yoder hopes to implement a new local option income tax of up to 1 percent. This option, he said, would help schools, towns and cities immensely.
He thinks this plan is better than the three local option income taxes available now, because “we will only raise what we need,” he said.
“Every year we calculate our circuit breaker losses,” Yoder explained. “Next year, if we only lose half, then that (tax) rate will only be 0.5 percent. Eventually, the rate declines or it could go away.”
During Saturday’s council meeting, council president John Letherman noted that nobody wants to talk about raising taxes, but the discussion is sometimes necessary.
“We are getting close to the end our reserves — we have to do something,” Letherman said. “Shame on us if we don’t try.”
The county’s contract with Barnes and Thornburg, a law firm based in Indianapolis, supports a team of two lobbyists at $5,000 per month, Yoder said.
“We should know by mid-January whether we have any chance at all of getting this,” Yoder said.
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http://www.elkharttruth.com/article/20131214/NEWS01/712149985
