Governor: Local Governments "rigged to overspend"

Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels made his pitch for property tax reform before a room packed with Evansville realtors Friday, two days after making a state wide pitch in his state of the state address. Daniels was the keynote speaker at the area board of realtors by-monthly meeting, and wasted little time launching in to a detailed explanation of why his property tax plan would benefit the state. Daniels spoke for the better part of 2 hours, spending the last hour answering questions. The governors plan to repair the states property tax mess include cutting residential rates to a maximum of 1% of a homes value, eliminating the system of township assessors and replacing it with a single county assessor to create more even assessments, and raising the states sales tax from six to seven percent to make up for lost revenue. He would also shift child welfare and school costs from county levies to the state, freeing up some of the spending burden that counties feel. But the biggest tenant the governor is stressing, and perhaps the most controversial, would put a referendum system in place for local government spending. Daniels has long lamented the fact that the state has 2600 local taxing authorities. Vanderburgh County has around 20, but some in the northern part of the state have as many as 80. They range from school districts and library boards to township governments to levee authorities. Daniels wants to see taxpayers get the opportunity to vote on big ticket expenditures. Without that oversight, the governor says, local taxing agencies have existed in a system that is "rigged to overspend." Daniels may have good reason to be upbeat about his tax plan. It passed out of the House Ways and Means committee by a unanimous vote, and without changes. It now moves to the full house for consideration, where it could be amended or otherwise changed. Governor Daniels used his time before the realtors to urge them to contact their senators and congressional representatives to encourage them to support his measure, urging them not to underestimate the power of their correspondence.