Everyone says we need to do something about our overreliance on property taxes in Indiana, and it's sure to be on the agenda for the next session of the General Assembly. It's also clear that the system has been tinkered with so many times that it's difficult to understand, let alone argue that it's "fair" to various kinds of property owners in any meaningful sense. But probably there will be nothing quite this radical proposed:
Advance America founder Eric Miller says he has lined up 80 legislators and legislative candidates in support of his proposal to amend the state constitution to repeal property taxes.
Miller provides his reasoning here at his Web site devoted to the issue. While he acknowledges that repealing the property tax would require the increase of other taxes, he provides no answers for that -- let the legislators deal with it, he says. Just what the General Assembly wants to hear. I don't know, though. This is the kind of bomb throwing that can make people talk about what they really think about taxes and what government does with them. Of all the government taxes, property provides the mosst stable source of income, but the nature of ownership has changed dramatically since such taxes began. How would things we different if government had to tax us on just what we earn or spend, and without the ways property taxes affect our decisions on everything from home ownership to business development?
