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| IFB: Treat Indiana taxpayers equally |
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The 2010 Indiana General Assembly will consider language amending the State Constitution’s section on assessment and taxation. The legislature passed language in 2008 which would enshrine property tax caps into the Constitution to limit property tax liability on a property’s assessed value. The language must pass two consecutively elected legislatures before it can be put on the ballot to be ratified by a majority of the state’s voters.
In the political deal-making that was part of the legislative process, Lake and St. Joseph counties were excluded from some of the provisions of the property tax caps until 2020. The taxpayers in the other 90 Indiana counties, as described by the legislation, are provided limits on their property tax liabilities beginning with property taxes due and payable in 2012. This provision treats property taxpayers in Lake and St. Joseph counties differently than other Indiana taxpayers.
This is simply not fair, and it is no doubt unconstitutional.
The State Constitution has a Bill of Rights listed in Article 1 which includes: The General Assembly shall not grant to any citizen, or class of citizens, privileges or immunities, which, upon the same terms, shall not equally belong to all citizens. (Indiana State Constitution, Article 1, Bill of Rights, Section 23)
The language proposing to amend property tax caps into the Constitution grants to a certain class of citizens immunity from property taxes for which they would otherwise be liable. The amendment also treats taxpayers in ninety Indiana counties differently than it treats those in the other two counties. Both of these provisions appear to be clear violations of the Indiana Constitution’s Bill of Rights and should be thoughtfully revisited by the General Assembly during its upcoming session. |
| 11/11/2009 |
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