From the Washington Times-Herald:
One of Governor Mike Pence’s signature pieces of legislation for this session of the Indiana General Assembly is getting poor reviews from local government leaders. The governor is proposing the elimination of the business personal property tax. Pence has made the measure the centerpiece of his legislative agenda for the short session calling it necessary to spur job creation. If enacted the bill would remove more than $1 billion in taxes for businesses around the state.
Removing that tax would also take the same amount of money out of the money used to run local governments and schools. The impact on local taxing units in Daviess County alone would amount to almost $4.9 million. Those taking the biggest hits will be the city of Washington, the Washington Community Schools and Daviess County.
Taking the business equipment tax off the books would eliminate $328,000 from the city of Washington. “With the tax caps and circuit breakers in place we have already been hit pretty hard,” said Mayor Joe Wellman. “We really can’t afford that. It’s just like your home. If you lose some of your income you either have to cut expenses or find new money.”
Right now there is no remedy being placed on the table to allow local government to make up the money. “I don’t think there are any more inefficiencies in local government,” said Wellman. “Now we’re looking at reducing services. As a state we have to decide what we expect government to provide and what we are going to do away with. Are we going to cut fire or police protection? I don’t think the business personal property tax is broke so don’t fix it.”
“I don’t know why we would want to do this,” said Daviess County Council President Jo Arthur. “Indiana is already ranked as one of the top states in the nation for business. We are already very competitive.”
Daviess County will lose $267,000 if the tax comes off the books. “That would be a significant hit for the county,” said Arthur. “It really concerns me. It certainly is not friendly to local government. If that passes we have no choice we would have to cut services. It looks like it will be the state taketh away and leaves local government trying to figure out how to replace it.”
The impact may be most significant on schools. Changes in the state school funding formula, tax caps, vouchers, and circuit breakers have already dug pretty deeply into public school funding. Taking the business equipment tax off would add one more hard hit to the Washington School budget removing $270,000 a year. “You add that to the other cuts we have had in the last few years and it totals around $1 million less in operating revenue,” said Washington Schools Superintendent Dr. Dan Roach. “This district has already made numerous cuts. We can’t close a building because we need the space for the kids, so we’ve reduced staff, consolidated bus routes and increased class sizes. Another $300,000 loss in revenue will make it very difficult to give the kids what they need.”
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http://www.washtimesherald.com/local/x12784161/Local-leaders-want-state-to-keep-business-personal-property-tax
