How can one say this politely? Our property tax system stinks!

It is not unusual to find virtually identical properties, both parcels and improvements, assessed and taxed differently on the same block. Stop in the courthouse and look at the assessments in your neighborhood, or your rural area of the county. Assessments are public information and they will surprise you.

Now, across the state, counties are hiring companies to do the work previously done by township assessors, only now we're calling it "trending" and reassessment. Nearly every county must do this. There cannot be that many qualified companies, (perhaps explaining the lack of bids for the work for Greene County,) so the quality of this work will be suspect from the start.

In the past, assessors, and the rules under which they operated, changed many times, sometimes even in the midst of reassessing individual neighborhoods. This led to more unfairness in the process.

Individuals with knowledge of the system and the courage to take action have always been able to appeal their assessments, but what number have? And is *that* a fair way to do things?

Finally, what does your assessed value really mean? Once a taxing district's total assessed value is set, only then is the district's tax *rate* set to attempt to equal the revenue requirement of the district (county, school, library, sewer, etc). Each district's rates were added together. This total rate was then multiplied by one's assessment to arrive at the tax bill. This is why one's tax bill will change from year to year even without a reassessment of one's property.

Under the new law, the total assessment is capped based on whether a person or a business owns a given property. But the tax *rate* is still determined the same way, by the financial needs of all the districts related to a given property.

By eliminating the property tax altogether, we eliminate all the unfairness.

My "two cents worth:"

Go for it! Increase the expenses that will have a sales tax attached to "pay for" the elimination of property taxes.

Maybe then I'll be able to offer three or even four cents worth of opinion. :)

You say lets tax services? That means you will pay 6 or 7 percent more for medical services as well. Our medical costs are already outragous. That is one of the leading cause of bankruptcy. The people you talk about actually needing that money will be hurt more by sales tax on services. Add 6 to 7 percent to every haircut, every lawyer visit, every doctor bill. It will not help the average person at all.

Less people will be able to afford the services, thats all and therefore more bankruptcy and dependacy on government services.

Answer me this, how are you going to pay less actual tax when they do not cut spending. The money has to come from somewhere. One pocket or the other, they are going to get it. Cut spending, then taxes will come down.

I think inside the walls of the town put it best by saying that the rich use services while the poor cannot afford them, lets tax the rich for their consumption. Also, why can't taxes on medical services be exempted the same way you are not taxed on groceries?

I don't think taxing services are going to make a lick of difference whether someone moves to Indiana or not. A, a business that could move anywhere it wanted in the country probably isn't performing services but more likely manufacturing products.

Businesses that provide services that would be taxes (tire changing, lawn mowing, skating rinks, etc) go where there is a market for their service. They can be like "I won't build in Indiana because they will tax my services" but someone else will be like "Hey, Small Town, Indiana needs a new bowling alley and I may be taxed to provide that service but their is a market to make money so I will do it."

Its all in the entrepreneur/manager mindset. Businesses will go where they can make money, if we keep buying Chinese products which are made for less, companies will keep moving there to make their products...as long as you shop at BigBox-Mart forget having a job except at a service based business...hum maybe thats what the 21st Century will define itself as like the 20th Century defined itself as manufacturing with the Industrial Revolution. Maybe 20 years we will look back and call this the "Services Revolution".

Well let's see what services a manufacturing business uses... equipment repair and maintenance, trucking, independent contractors, engineering services, etc. A manufacturer does not keep employees on the payroll to perform every task needed. It's naive to think taxing services won't have a huge impact on attracting new business.

Service businesses such as trucking, airlines, and air freight will get a double wammy. They will be required to collect taxes from their own customers for the services rendered. And will be required to pay taxes on services just to be in business. These businesses are already running on a low profit margin, now this service tax will consume their profit and will run them out of business. Obviously they will move to another state and avoid the tax altogether.

Have you ever stopped to notice that the rich get richer and the poor are getting poorer? Now the lower middle class is sliding into the poor category too, before long there will not be a middle class, only rich and poor!