From the Fort Wayne News-Sentinel:
So, it turns out that the debate on gay marriage isn’t sucking all the oxygen out of this General Assembly session after all. Legislators are considering plenty of other initiatives as well, including a tax cut many states would fear even in a robust economy, let alone a shaky one. Along the way, they might show Congress a thing or two about the right way to achieve compromise so that everybody gets a little bit of what they wanted and nobody has to give up on basic principles.
Gov. Mike Pence got the ball rolling with a legislative agenda that included complete elimination of the state’s business personal property tax, which is levied on business equipment. His fellow Republicans in the House and Senate let him know quickly he wasn’t going to get that, but they’d give him something.
Senate Republicans approved a measure that would cut the tax for companies that have less than $25,000 worth of business equipment, affecting about 70 percent of businesses across the state. They would also cut the corporate income tax from 6.5 percent to 4.9 percent. Three years ago, the Legislature cut the tax from 8.5 percent.
The House Republican version would give counties the option of keeping the tax in place or exempting their companies from it, allowing each county to decide how important industry is to it and acting accordingly.
House and Senate Democrats are doing their part, too: They voted against everything. They are listening mostly to the 16 statewide organizations representing the interests of local government who have started a “Replace Don’t Erase” campaign in an effort to keep their revenues stable. They’ve already given up about $800 million because of property tax caps enacted by the state, and this would cost them hundreds of millions more.
Of course, under the House version, they would be able to replace some of the lost revenue by increasing other local taxes they have control over.
That’s the main reason we like the House’s approach better than the Senate’s. It would be a small step toward local autonomy. The state has flirted with home rule in fits and starts and often seems to have trouble giving up control. It is especially controlling when it comes to fiscal matters. If counties don’t have control over their financial destinies, all the other home rule concessions are practically meaningless.
Let our local officials determine their constituents’ needs and devise budgets accordingly and pass the taxes to fund them. If they get it wrong, trust us, we’ll let them know.
http://www.news-sentinel.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20140203/EDITORIAL/140209907/0/SEARCH
