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ANGOLA — Area legislators have their own goals for the upcoming legislative session beginning today, while the issue of a proposed constitutional amendment to cap property taxes seems to be a high priority going in.
Already law, property taxes are capped at 1 percent for homeowners, 2 percent for rental property and 3 percent for businesses. Gov. Mitch Daniels is pushing to get the caps part of the Indiana Constitution, making them permanent.
Area legislators voiced concerns about the proposal, largely over potentially higher rates for agricultural properties. Sen. Dennis Kruse, R-Auburn, said he would have preferred to see his proposal, a 2 percent cap across the board for all property owners, though he felt the current bill was still better than nothing.
“Overall, it’s still a better thing to do than to not do anything,” Kruse said.
Rep. David Yarde, R-Garrett, said he “still has a lot of unanswered questions,” about the proposal, “especially concerning the agriculture and business tax level.” However, Yarde said the homeowners he had heard from were “definitely in favor,” of a referendum.
Rep. Dick Dodge, R-Pleasant Lake, said he’s undecided at this point about the caps, although he generally favors allowing referendums on such issues, which would be necessary to make it part of the constitution.
“I’m just unsure about the 1-2-3 percent caps,” Dodge said.
Sen. Marlin Stutzman, R-Howe, said he was working on another aspect of property taxes as part of his legislative goals for the session. Stutzman has introduced a bill that would cap how much assessments could go up in a given year, barring major improvements to a property.
“I still hear a lot of complaints on assessments,” Stutzman said. “We’re trying to be more fair to taxpayers.”
Sutuzman said he was also trying to open up the appeals process on assessments as well.
Stutzman said he was also introducing bills that would limit the ability of those who are employed by town government and who serve on town and city boards to funnel money to their departments.
Stutzman and Kruse are coauthoring a bill that would allow the state to opt out of federal health care legislation. Stutzman said he hoped his tax credit expansion would allow the state to expand health care without having the state be mandated to expand its own Medicaid spending.
Kruse said he was also putting together another “state’s rights” bill, which would make guns manufactured and purchased in the state not subject to federal gun laws.
“The goal is to establish that Indiana has rights as a state, that we don’t have to do what the feds say all the time.”
Kruse will also be introducing bills to bring equalize prosecutors’ pensions with those of judges, changing taxes on cable television companies, and a bill to set the start of the school year as the Tuesday following Labor Day, with the end of school set for June 10. “They would have to get 180 days in that period,” Kruse said.
Yarde’s bills will include one to ban convicted sex offenders from public libraries. Yarde said he had been made aware of incidents at several libraries where sex offenders had bypassed internet firewalls and accessed child porn web sites from libraries. He said he was also concerned that children would see these people at the libraries as friendly faces, not as someone to be avoided, as they might on the street.
Yarde said he would also be introducing bills forcing companies with automatic renewal contracts to inform customers of any potential discounts they might receive, and requiring parents to call schools to notify them if their children would be absent.
Dodge’s bills included clarifying the rules set by the Department of Natural Resources for different lakes, and changing the methods by which recreational vehicles and trailers were taxed. Dodge said a move two years ago to change taxes on such vehicles from personal property taxes to excise taxes, to be paid when purchasing a license plate, created a loophole for those whose trailers were permanent structures and who didn’t get their plates.
The fate of a potential referendum to allow casino gambling in Steuben County was a mystery, lawmakers said. Dodge said he didn’t know than any bill had been introduced yet. Yarde said that while he’s only heard “bits and pieces,” about potential legislation allowing a referendum, rumors indicated that no such bill was likely during this session.
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