School Costs Drive Ever Increasing Property Taxes

Filed Under Indiana legislation, property tax crisis

The educational system’s always increasing desire for money is driving property tax rates.

While education is the cornerstone of a well-informed and able population, throwing large sums of money at the schools doesn’t always produce great results, as can be seen in the Gary Public Schools which spends $14,000+ on its students in 2006.

If spending lots of money was the solution to educational problems, Gary’s schools would be achieving the same results as Valparaiso’s, Munster’s, Lake Central’s, and other high-performing school districts. A free educational solution is to get parents to emphasize the importance of learning by making sure their children are studying and learning at home and encouraging voracious reading.

An Indiana Senate committee passed legislation requiring referendums on new school construction and other local construction projects, reports Patrick Guinane in the Northwest Indiana Times, in an effort to give taxpayers a little more control over local government spending.

One plank of the governor’s multipronged plan cleared an initial hurdle Tuesday, with the Senate Tax and Fiscal Policy voting 9-3 to require referendums on new libraries, schools and other local construction projects.

School debt has been singled out as the biggest driver of rising property taxes, and Daniels argues it’s time to give voters more influence over the fate of capital projects. But school association lobbyists said lawmakers shouldn’t scrap Indiana’s petition and remonstrance system, which pits project supporters and opponents against each other in contests won by whichever side gathers the most signatures.

“It may be working for you,” Sen. Luke Kenley, R-Noblesville, told the school officials. “But I don’t know if the taxpayers feel it’s working for them.”

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