STATEHOUSE - House Democrats ran out on permanent property tax relief today before the Caps Clock did, Rep. Randy Borror (R-Fort Wayne) said. Today was the deadline for the third reading of bills in the House. House Democrats voted to adjourn until Monday. Unfortunately, Tax Day came and went without Hoosier taxpayers getting their wish for permanent constitutional property tax protection. According to a poll taken earlier this month by Public Opinion Strategies, almost three-quarters of Hoosiers support the permanent constitutional property tax caps. Political leanings are irrelevant, the poll showed: 66 percent of Democrats support the caps, 72 percent of independents support them and more than 80 percent of Republicans would like the caps adopted. "We had nothing to lose by passing SJR 1 this year to let voters decide in 2010," Rep. Borror said. "I am horribly disappointed in Speaker Bauer's actions tonight. Denying us the ability to cast our vote on the House floor sounds more like a dictatorship than the government outlined in our state constitution." If the House had passed Senate Joint Resolution 1, already passed by a bipartisan majority of the Senate, Hoosier voters would have had the opportunity in 2010 to vote on whether to permanently include the caps in the Indiana Constitution. The property tax caps would limit bills to 1 percent of the property's assessed value for homesteads, 2 percent for residential rental property and farmland and 3 percent for other business property. The House must complete its work before the April 29 statutory deadline.
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