STATEHOUSE-After a year of delay, Hoosiers are now one step closer to voting for permanent property tax protection. House Joint Resolution 1 (HJR1), which passed out of the House Monday, would cap homeowner's property taxes at one percent, rental and agricultural property at two percent and business property at three percent. House Democrats, to no surprise, tried to amend the resolution in an attempt to delay passage of the caps. However, in spite of their efforts, they failed. A successful attempt to amend HJR1 would have jeopardized the opportunity for Hoosiers to vote on the caps on the 2010 election ballot. In addition to the tax caps, we acted on several other pieces of legislation last week, and committees started meeting right away. One committee, in particular, that met last week was the House Financial Institutions Committee. As Ranking Minority Member of this committee, I am introducing several pieces of legislation this session. For example: # House Bill 1207 would require a landlord to give a tenant a release after the tenant has reimbursed the landlord for certain expenses the landlord was owed in the storage of the tenant's property. The bill would also provide that a landlord may not refuse to give the tenant a release because the landlord has other claims against the tenant under the lease. # House Bill 1208 would modify the penalty from 10 percent to 5 percent for failure to pay state taxes by the due date, if the person pays the full amount of the tax owed no later than 30 days after the due date. Currently, the law required a 10 percent penalty on the amount of tax owed if the payment is not made any time after the due date. # House Bill 1034, a bill I am co-authoring, would allow unused bankruptcy exemption amounts in one category of property to be applied as additional exemption amounts in another category of property. None of the bills I plan to introduce or co-author will cost the state any financial responsibility. In these trying economic times, the last thing any legislator should be doing is making plans for the state to spend more money it doesn't have. As session progresses, I encourage you to keep up on what is happening by visiting the Indiana General Assembly's Web site: www.in.gov/legislative. There you will find calendars, legislation, committee schedules and a wealth of other information. You can watch live video of the House and Senate and some committee meetings and view archived video. As always, please contact me with any questions, comments, or concerns by phone to 1-800-382-9841 or e-mail to h58@in.gov. I always enjoy speaking with constituents to get a better understanding of any concerns you may have. I would also like to encourage you to fill out my legislative survey, which will give me a better idea of how to effectively serve you. You can log onto my Web site at http://www.in.gov/h58/ under 2010 Survey. Don't forget to mark your calendars for my town hall meetings scheduled for Saturday, Jan. 23 at Greenwood City Hall at 10 a.m. and Franklin City Hall at 1 p.m. I look forward to seeing you there. |
