The demand for property tax cuts has reached a new fever pitch with Republican lieutenant governor candidate Micah Beckwith introducing a proposal to lower property tax cuts for seniors and veterans and cap property taxes from the time of purchase.
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This is, to put it mildly, a really bad idea. Many people have commented on this costing local communities millions in revenue that lead to critical services. It is also a bad idea because it shifts the responsibility for providing services onto the community instead of the individual homeowner.
It is the antithesis of the protestant work ethic and would turn Indiana into modern-day California. It’s important to show why cutting property taxes is wrong.
Why do we have a property tax?
The property tax is almost universally a local tax that provides local services.
Public schools, police and fire services, park funding, infrastructure funding, trash service and water and sewage maintenance. All of these things provide value to your home. Part of the inherent value in homeownership is that, if you have an emergency, you can call a single number and someone will quickly come to your home for free, driving on roads that are also free.
You also will be able to drive roads that connect directly to your home, which are maintained throughout the year.
Why should your property tax rise?
These services are labor intensive. A police officer, fireman, snowplow driver and teacher require pay that commensurate with the communities’ costs.
As home values go up, people who work in those professions require more money to live there. If a property tax is capped, those revenues would have to come from elsewhere — paid not by the homeowner, but by the community at large through a sales or income tax hike.
Is it really the community’s responsibility to cover the services required to respond to your home? Does the community owe you services, or do you have personal responsibility to ensure those services stay at your home?
The answer is clearly the latter. You made a choice to live where you live and the responsibility to ensure services are yours and yours alone.
Don’t senior citizens and veterans deserve a break?
Not on property tax cuts.
For one, not all senior citizens and veterans are homeowners. Are renting veterans not deserving of a break?
Like all homeowners, veterans and seniors made a choice to own their homes. They have the same responsibilities as any other homeowner. This is not to say that we could not provide seniors and veterans with other benefits. There’s nothing stopping Indiana from proposing an additional social security payment to Hoosier seniors or a veteran pension on top of the already tax-free pension the state provides.
If you truly believe they need a break, this is the way to provide it. Not by singling out those who chose to take on the responsibility of homeownership.
Personal responsibility is not fun. The idea of getting the benefits for less than the cost of the services is fun, but it’s not right.
Indiana is a state that has always valued taking responsibility and living by the protestant work ethic. A property tax cut moves Indiana further from that value and is the antithesis of what this state was built on.
Greg Bright lives in Marion County, where he owns a home and pays property taxes.
