Shortfall for governments means more for taxpayers

By Rod Rose/The Lebanon Reporter

Lebanon May 08, 2008 12:52 am

— A revenue shortage for local governments also means taxpayers have more money in their pockets, Gov. Mitch Daniels said during a stop at Sigler’s Restaurant Wednesday.
House Bill 1001, the property tax reform measure passed this session by the Indiana General Assembly, is considered a revenue killer for counties, municipalities and schools, among others.
For government officials to say they will have less than expected is another way of saying that taxpayers will have more, Daniels said.
“That’s exactly what we started out to do,” Daniels said.
“Just remember ... the best way to provide government services is not to tax people more; it’s to have more people in business sharing the load,” Daniels said.
“I recognize some (local governments) will have to be very careful, but it was essential to leave more money in the pockets of Hoosiers,” he said.
Some of those pockets belong to businessmen, and tax savings will attract new jobs to improve things for everyone, Daniels said.
He cited Boone County’s Anson development. “Over the years, that’s going to bring in lots of tax dollars,” he said.
Daniels prefers local government “be creative” about spending taxes rather than “how they get their hands on them.”
“We can save millions, tens of millions of dollars, at state government, by buying smarter,” he said.
“We need to look for ways to be a lot smarter” in how the state spends its income.
The state will do what it can to help ease the impact of soaring gasoline prices, but there’s “not too darn much” that can be done, he said.
We can leave more money in people’s pockets,” he said. “That’s what property tax redemption (will do) ... leave more money to help them, I hope, deal with the high prices.”
“We’ll do the little that any state can do,” Daniels said. “But this is a problem Washington has helped create and will have to take the lead in solving.”
On a TV screen in a corner, a cable network showed Sen. Hillary Clinton at a campaign stop.
Daniels pounced.
“I don’t have much patience with these Washington types,” he said, “who have blocked supplies (of oil) on American soil ... and then yell because the price is too high.”
Had President Clinton not vetoed the bill allowing oil exploration in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, Daniels said, “we’d have a million barrels a day coming down that pipeline right now.”
“We don’t have it,” he said, “because they stopped it.”