WAVE 3 News - Louisville, KentuckyHoosier property tax repeal unlikely

Hoosier property tax repeal unlikely

Updated:

By Mark Schnyder

JEFFERSONVILLE, Ind. (WAVE) -- Indiana governor Mitch Daniels says a repeal of the property tax is a possibility -- just not right now. He took questions from a room full of southern Indiana business leaders hell-bent on doing away with property taxes, who all but begged him to reconsider. WAVE 3's Mark Schnyder reports on Daniels' visit to Jeffersonville.

Not much is blooming this time of year, but the "Let Us Vote" signs are popping out of the ground all over Indiana. There appears to be growing support for eliminating property taxes, something no state has ever done.

"I'm drawn to it because nobody else has found a way to do it, but I finally concluded we could not do it all in one leap from where we are," Gov. Daniels told about 200 realtors, business owners and Jeffersonville civic leaders.

Daniels spent more than an hour defending his stance that local governments must get their spending under control first. He says eliminating property taxes now would mean raising income and sales taxes so high it wouldn't be worth it.

"If there was a way to do it, I'd be for it right now," said Daniels.

Not what this audience wanted to hear.

"We have a lot of elderly people living in their homes getting tax bills that are 20, 40 in some cases 100-percent more and it makes the difference on whether they're going to keep their home or not and we're in the business of keeping people in their homes," says Suzann Slayton, the President /CEO of the Southern Indiana Realtors Association.

"He didn't say no," says anti-property tax activist Kim Matthews. "I think he's going to need some more encouragement from the people. The people are requesting this to happen."

The governor says he's not going to stand by watch people lose their homes.

What we've done is as big and bold, it is the biggest tax cut in Indiana history by a factor of five or six," says Daniels.

Local realtor Bob Hearn told WAVE 3 in response to that, "The biggest cut in the state's history is great and it sounds really great, but if it's not enough, what's that mean?"

Despite their different opinions, everyone was cordial with the governor. In fact, organizers of this event to everyone to keep their "Let Us Vote" signs away for the day out of respect for Gov. Daniels. But they made it clear to the governor that they are not done fighting for the elimination of property taxes.

Online Reporter:  Mark Schnyder

Online Producer: Charles Gazaway