Indiana

The Caps, They Are A Comin?!*

By Abdul Hakim-Shabazz

Indiana lawmakers moved another step closer Thursday to giving Hoosiers a chance to vote on putting property tax caps in the Constitution.  

HJR-1 came up on second reading and three amendments were offered to the proposal, none of them passed.

• HJR1-01 ? William Crawford, Failed 31-68
  Deletes the St. Joe and Lake County provision  exempting their debt service from the caps.
• HJR1-02 ? Nancy Michael, Withdrawn
  Takes business personal property, including agricultural personal land property, and put it under a 1% constitutional cap. (Currently at 3%).
• HJR1-03 ? Craig Fry, Failed 15-82
  Puts a cap on assessed value change. Maintains the 1%, 2%, 3% caps. Puts tangible property at 1%. Puts other residential property at 2%.  Puts ag land at 2%. Other real property at 3%.  Puts personal property at 3%. Delays effective date for taxes due and payable in 2014. At time of sale, the AV resets at market value.

Had one of the amendments passed, the entire process would have potentially had to start over from scratch. As any amendment to the Indiana Constitution cannot be altered when passed by subsequent sessions of the Legislature.

A full House vote could come as early as Monday.  A full Senate vote could come later next week.

If, more like when, approved by both chambers, it will go before the voters in November.

*Once again, the blogmaster does not discuss property tax repeal because he has a life.

Full post as published by Indiana Barrister on January 08, 2010 (boomark / email).