Schellinger calls for immediate tax relief, long-term reform

INDIANAPOLIS – In response to Gov. Mitch Daniels’ insistence that lawmakers not alter the constitutional caps in his property tax relief plan, Democratic gubernatorial candidate Jim Schellinger today outlined how he would address the issue if he were Governor.

House and Senate Republicans joined with Daniels yesterday to deliver an ultimatum to Hoosiers that they refuse to accept any additional compromise on the issue of proposed constitutional caps that will cause local governments to cut back vital services or raise taxes.

Schellinger, who has spent the last year listening to Hoosiers in all 92 counties, said the General Assembly must make immediate relief its top priority this session.

“Hoosier families are hurting and need real relief from rising taxes and high fuel, healthcare, and food costs,” Schellinger said. “Those rising costs and the effects of a serious slump in the housing and real estate sectors have hurt Hoosier families for too long. We must do everything we can to support working men and women struggling to make ends meet.”

Schellinger said Daniels’ proposed sales tax increase, coupled with the unknown effects of constitutional tax caps, will be devastating to both local governments and lower-income Hoosiers.

“Mitch Daniels put the cart before the horse this session,” Schellinger said. “He wants to fiddle with our state’s most sacred legal document without any idea what effect his actions will have. Instead of focusing on actual reform, he’s playing a shell game with Hoosier taxpayers.”

The Fort Wayne Journal Gazette, in a series of editorials this week, points out that Daniels himself, through his 2005 budget, was largely responsible for the current tax crisis. His budget froze the property tax replacement credit and slashed education funding, forcing cash-strapped local governments to shoulder an increased financial burden.

“Not only has Mitch Daniels been absent from the debate for the past three years,” Schellinger said, “but now he’s scrambling to look like he’s part of the solution, not the root of the problem.”

Schellinger said yesterday’s last-minute Republican showmanship proves that Daniels is more interested in making this a partisan issue than solving the problem.

Schellinger urged lawmakers to find a way to compromise on the issue of immediate relief but to wait until next year’s budget session to take up the issue of long-term local government reform. He pointed out that Daniels has given short shrift to the suggestions set forth in last year’s bipartisan Kernan-Shepard Commission report, demanding instead that lawmakers accept his plan without question.

“Mitch Daniels likes to rush things by telling Hoosiers that there’s no other way but his,” Schellinger said. “That attitude got us into our current situation, and we just can’t afford to continue letting his short-term thinking and poor leadership erode our great state.

“Hoosiers deserve leadership that is committed to hard work and consensus-building, so today’s quick fix doesn’t become tomorrow’s tax increase. We have to immediately assist working families hit hard by this crisis while moving forward intelligently and steadily with a plan for long-term reform that will lead to government that is more efficient and accountable.”