The Arizona Supreme Court vacated a portion of a ruling poised to walk back votes cast on the Make Elections Fair ballot measure given a successful signature challenge and volleyed any potential injunction to the trial court. The Arizona Supreme Court previously ordered the trial court to allow alleged duplicate signatures to enter the record in a legal challenge to a ballot measure creating open primaries, despite running past the ballot printing deadline. In the decision, the court held that if the court ultimately “disqualifies the Initiative, the court should issue an injunction precluding any votes for the measure from being counted.” In a motion for reconsideration, the Make Elections Fair PAC argued the order was “at odds with eight decades of the Court’s precedents, the Court’s rules, and the Court’s orders in two prior appeals in this dispute, as well as Arizona Constitution, law, and public policy.” Fontes later joined in to say the remedy, allowing for a signature challenge to proceed past the ballot printing deadline and the potential for nullified votes, ran afoul of state law and constitutional considerations. “No provision in the Arizona Constitution permits a measure to go to the ballot, and allow millions of voters to vote on it, only for those votes to be invalidated,” SoS attorney Kara Karlson wrote. In an order Monday, the court vacated its prior statement allowing for an “injunction precluding any votes for the measure from being counted.” Though Chief Justice Ann Timmer noted the order comes “without prejudice to Petitioners requesting such an injunction or similar remedy in the trial court, in the event the trial court determines that the Initiative does not have sufficient signatures to qualify for the November ballot. Likewise, this order does not preclude Real Party in Interest from arguing in the trial court that Arizona courts lack the authority to grant such a remedy under Arizona law.” She continued, “These issues, if raised, should be decided in the first instance by the trial court and would benefit from full briefing and argument.” An evidentiary hearing at the trial court over the signature challenge is set for 10 a.m. Wednesday.
Ciscomani is calling for a Spanish-language debate to be held in the CD6 race in Tucson and asking that a currently scheduled Citizens Clean Elections debate be rescheduled from Oct. 7 “in respect of the first anniversary of the Hamas attack on Israel.” A spokesperson for the Citizens Clean Elections Commission said the commission is considering rescheduling the debate between Ciscomani and his Democratic challenger, Kirsten Engel. It’s unclear who would host the Spanish-language debate or how it would be organized. Ciscomani and Engel already faced off at an Aug. 29 Arizona PBS debate, but the incumbent has repeatedly called for another debate in the district. In a statement released Monday, Ciscomani said 26% of CD6 residents are Hispanic, creating the need for a debate to be held in Spanish. Ciscomani also took jabs at Engel, repeating claims he’s previously made that she does not live in the district and rarely visits. The two candidates are no strangers to debate drama, after Ciscomani refused to debate Engel in their first matchup for the congressional seat in 2020. Engel’s campaign manager did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Former lawmaker Vince Leach, a Republican, hopes to claim the highly contested LD17 Senate seat, where he plans to introduce and pass conservative policies with a budget-oriented approach, if elected. After losing to Wadsack in the 2022 LD17 Senate GOP primary election, Leach narrowly defeated her in their 2024 rematch for the seat. Now, Leach aims to defeat the highly-funded Democrat candidate, John McLean, who would be a newcomer at the Capitol. If returned to the legislature, Leach said the first bills he would introduce would be ones aimed at “finding tax credits that have been passed by the Legislature but are not being used.” Leach was a leader in the appropriations committees during his prior terms as a lawmaker, and said he would focus on that area again if he is elected. The Empowerment Scholarship Account program “is exactly what Arizona needs,” Leach said, when asked about how much the program has grown since he was at the Legislature. “It’s a good program that needs to be continued,” Leach said. “If somebody wanted to take a look at what we spent and put some guidelines on that, I would be open to that.” He said he supports the GOP-backed HCR2060, now Prop. 314, especially the higher penalties it would create for fentanyl-related deaths. “We have to continue to send a message to Washington, D.C. that Arizonans are fed up with cartels really controlling our border with fentanyl,” Leach said. “When you see Narcan being given away like candy, there’s a problem.” When it comes to housing affordability, Leach said the solution would be to go “back to the basics” by claiming the federal land in Arizona and making room to build more homes. “Cities and towns are concerned, and they want to control those areas, well, areas outside of those cities would welcome expansion,” Leach said. He said an example of conservative policy he supports would be to pass bills that keep “girls playing girls sports and boys playing boys sports.”
The North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services held a virtual town hall Thursday to discuss evolving methods of preventing student vaping and tobacco use.
Raising the age for buying tobacco products to 21 would allow the state to track retailers that sell tobacco products, said Teresa Beardsley of Albemarle Regional Health Services. North Carolina is one of seven states that allow people under 21 to buy tobacco products.
In 2019, Congress passed federal legislation that increased the age of sale for tobacco products to 21.
“It’s very important that North Carolina passes a strong Tobacco 21 law that includes a tobacco retailer permitting system [to mitigate underage tobacco use],” Beardsley said.
A recent initiative from statewide tobacco coordinators works with county and municipal governments to create zoning ordinances to decrease the density of tobacco shops near schools, churches and community centers. Beardsley said three counties and 19 municipalities have adopted ordinances in North Carolina as of last month.
According to data shared at the town hall, more than 12% of high school students use tobacco and more than 9% vape. One in four students vape daily.
Chanda Battle, director of student support services for Edgecombe County Public Schools, said her district is shifting how it handles students who violate school tobacco rules.
“We are now not suspending students with first, second or third offenses of possessing a vape at school,” Battle said. “Our response previously was to confiscate the device and suspend the student.”
Now the district handles a vaping infraction as an addiction issue. School staff notify parents and have conversations with the student about ways to handle vaping. Battle said this change stemmed from schools having to suspend the same students over and over again.
After a second offense, students will be referred to substance abuse counseling or school support resources such as Catch My Breath and QuitlineNC A third offense will result in a disciplinary consequence, such as in-school suspension, that doesn’t completely remove the student from the learning environment.
Nnenne Asi, youth and young adult tobacco cessation coordinator for the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services, recommended as an alternative to suspension that school districts build capacity toward hiring counselors to directly support students or start clubs aimed at vaping prevention. Asi said one common recommendation schools should avoid is purchasing vape detectors, as they “encourage discrimination” and don’t align with a restorative justice model.
Gov. Eric Holcomb’s deputy chief of staff, John Hammond IV, has resigned to work for the Taft law firm’s lobbying division.
Hammond joined Taft as a partner in its Public Affairs Strategies Group on Monday after having been a top aide to Holcomb since he took office as governor in January 2017.
Another Holcomb administration departure announced Monday was the upcoming resignation of Kim Opsahl as deputy secretary of the Family and Social Services Administration to become chief operating officer at the National Association of State Directors of Developmental Disabilities Services.
Hammond joins other top state Republicans at Taft
Hammond told State Affairs he will be based in Indianapolis while also working for Taft’s clients on issues with the federal government and in other states.
Hammond said he worked out a “mutually agreeable” time with Holcomb to leave the governor’s office, where Hammond worked under Chief of Staff Earl Goode.
“These are term-limited positions, in a way, but we were able to get a lot of projects, at least in my shop, set for the governor,” Hammond said. “So I felt confident that I was leaving it in good stead.”
The governor’s office said Holcomb appreciated Hammond’s “dedication and service” to the state.
“John was an adviser who provided advice on many matters, especially legislative issues, and we are grateful for his nearly 8 years of service,” the governor’s office said in a statement emailed to State Affairs. “It’s common for staff in [the] governor’s office to begin to find new roles at this point in the second term. No new staff will be hired until the next administration does so.”
Hammond will work with many familiar faces at Taft, including his father, John Hammond III, who is a partner at the firm and stepped down this summer after 12 years as Indiana’s Republican national committeeman. Kyle Hupfer, who was state Republican Party chair until last year and Holcomb’s 2020 campaign chairman, is co-chair of Taft’s lobbying division.
Hammond faces a one-year cooling-off period during which he won’t be allowed to lobby executive branch agencies.
“I can work with policymakers in the General Assembly,” he said. “I was pretty active with the governor on the National Governors Association and the Republican Governors Association. I traveled with him to all those events, so I got the privilege of getting to know a lot of those staff and also the governors’ office staff around the country. So that was kind of a network that I’m going to still try to stay involved with.”
Hammond’s role with the governor’s office included handling negotiations with the Legislature and coordinating with executive branch agencies and the Indiana Economic Development Corp.
He previously worked as an aide to U.S. Sen. Richard Lugar and U.S. Reps. Steve Buyer and Marlin Stutzman, including several years as Stutzman’s chief of staff.
Family and Social Services Administration leadership turnover
Opsahl announced she will leave the Family and Social Services Administration effective Oct. 11. She has been the agency’s chief of staff and deputy secretary since 2022 under Secretary Daniel Rusyniak.
A new deputy secretary is not being named at this time, the agency said.
Opsahl joined FSSA in 2018 as associate director of the Division of Disability and Rehabilitative Services and became the division’s director in 2021.
Jay Chaudhary previously announced he will step down Oct. 11 as director of FSSA’s Division of Mental Health and Addiction. Becky Buhner, the division’s deputy director and chief of staff, will become interim director.
Update: This story has been updated with comment from the governor’s office.
Tom Davies is a Statehouse reporter for State Affairs Pro Indiana. Reach him at[email protected] or on X at @TomDaviesIND.
However, none of those questions was asked at the hearing, which lasted just a few minutes with only two of the committee’s six members in the building. Others joined via video call, including Senate President Ty Masterson, R-Andover, who moved to approve Kennedy’s confirmation.
Between the Sept. 9 meeting and Monday, Sen. Larry Alley, R-Winfield, sent Kennedy six questions raised by lawmakers and other interested parties.
Kennedy, who previously worked in Missouri’s conservation department as assistant to the director for inclusion and diversity, faced another question about his views on diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI). In response, he said it “is not a factor in our hiring or promotion practices.”
Kennedy was also asked about transgender women using women’s restrooms at Kansas parks. He said his goal is to provide “wholesome, safe and appropriate” park amenities.
Park rangers will investigate any safety issues, Kennedy said, adding that the agency is also working to replace older communal facilities with single-stall restrooms.
Other responses from Kennedy:
On deer hunting and crop damage: Deer are a “valuable public resource” and herd management rules are developed through a complex analysis with many factors. “Should this process result in a determination that certain areas of the state are experiencing an overabundance of deer, I will consider all the tools at KDWP’s disposal to rectify this problem, including but not limited to issuing additional tags or otherwise expanding hunting opportunities.”
On eminent domain authority: “It is not the agency’s practice to utilize eminent domain to obtain property.” He said he has “no intention of utilizing eminent domain during my tenure.”
On morale issues: “Staff are our most important resource.” He said he wants to be “as responsive to staff concerns as possible.”
The committee didn’t discuss Kennedy’s answers before approving his nomination. He will continue serving as acting secretary until the full Senate can vote next year.
Gov. Laura Kelly appointed Kennedy in March to replace retired former Secretary Brad Loveless. Born in Missouri, Kennedy worked for that state’s conservation agency for nearly three decades before being tapped to lead the Kansas department.
The Indiana Career Scholarship Account Program has reached full capacity for the academic year, State Treasurer Daniel Elliott said in a news release.
The state-funded scholarships were created by the Indiana General Assembly to help students in grades 10-12 pay for career preparation opportunities, such as internships and apprenticeships.
“With more students accessing career-specific education and training, we aim to close the skills gap and strengthen our local industries,” Elliott said in the news release. “Whether it’s healthcare, manufacturing, IT, or skilled trades, these students will soon be contributing their talents to keep Indiana’s economy growing strong.”
In 2023, House Enrolled Act 1002 established the scholarship accounts. Last year’s budget bill allocated $5 million in the 2024 fiscal year and $10 million in the 2025 fiscal year for the accounts. State lawmakers earmarked $5,000 per year for each student who participates in the program. (The budget bill tasked the state treasurer with depositing the money into the students’ accounts each fiscal year.)
Maximum funding for the scholarship accounts this school year has been allocated, according to state officials.
This year’s House Enrolled Act 1001 expanded the time frame for parents and emancipated students to apply for the program to 30 days. Because of the initial seven-day application period, fewer students applied to the program in 2023 than were expected, Rep. Bob Behning, R-Indianapolis, said in January.
The new law also allows up to $1,000 of the scholarship amount to be used for obtaining a driver’s license if certain conditions are met, such as demonstrating “proof of hardship.”
In the upcoming budget session, state lawmakers will determine possible continued funding for the program.
“We know there’s more demand out there, and we’re already looking ahead to expanding opportunities in the future,” Elliott said in the release. “We’re committed to continuing this program.”
Leaders of two national groups representing thousands of state and local election workers are imploring the head of the U.S. Postal Service to take “extraordinary measures” to fix the nation’s ongoing mail crisis that has led to lost and delayed election-related mail.
The National Association of Secretaries of State and the National Association of State Election Directors sent a letter last week to U.S. Postmaster General Louis DeJoy criticizing the federal mail service over the past year for failing to deliver election mail in a “timely and accurate manner.”
The letter comes less than a month before Georgians are slated to receive absentee ballots in the mail and just two months before voters head to the polls Nov. 5 for what is expected to be one of the most crucial elections in modern history.
The three-page letter dated Sept. 11 asked DeJoy to use “extraordinary measures at least a month prior to the November election. … Temporary measures will not be sufficient to address the persistent issues highlighted by election officials. Failure to do so will risk limiting voter participation and trust in the election process.”
The letter outlined ongoing problems with lost and delayed mail, operational glitches at mail processing facilities and poor training of mail workers.
“We have not seen improvement or concerted efforts to remediate our concerns,” the letter stated. “In fact, many issues raised by election officials are echoed in the recent findings of the [U.S. Postal Service] Office of Inspector General Audit, Election Mail Readiness for the 2024 General Election.”
The letter was signed by 21 heads of state and local election offices nationwide, including W. Travis Doss Jr., president of the Georgia Association of Voter Registration and Election Officials. Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger did not sign the letter because he is not an officer, only a member of the National Association of Secretaries of State, Mike Hassinger, a spokesperson in Raffensperger’s office, told State Affairs, but Hassinger said Raffensperger endorses the letter. The letter was sent on behalf of election officials in all 50 states, the District of Columbia and the U.S. territories.
“There are a couple of parts of list maintenance and absentee ballots that depend on the mail service getting information to the voters,” Hassinger said. “We want the post office to tighten up before the election.” The urgency is highlighted as absentee ballots are set to be mailed out in Georgia starting Oct.7.
Georgia’s overhauled election law cut the mailing time of ballots by two weeks, Doss said, adding further pressure on election officials to ensure ballots get to voters on time.
“We used to mail everything out [starting] 45 days [before the election],” said Doss, who is also executive director of the Richmond County Board of Elections in Augusta. “And now it’s been shortened.”
Doss expects his office to mail about 5,000 absentee ballots for the general election at a total cost of about $6,000.
DeJoy came under fire in April when U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff from Georgia grilled him during a congressional hearing about problems with the mail. Ossoff’s questioning centered on the new but troubled Regional Processing & Distribution Center in Palmetto.
“I’ve got constituents with prescriptions that aren’t being delivered. I’ve got constituents who can’t pay their rent and their mortgages. I’ve got businesses who aren’t able to ship products or receive supplies,” Sen. Ossoff told DeJoy. “I think postal workers are out there every single day working their hearts out to deliver the mail on time. But if they don’t have the infrastructure and the management competence … to make a transition like this without drastically impairing the core function of the Postal Service, everyone in my state is losing. The amount of distress this is causing my constituents is massive.”
In July, Ossoff met with DeJoy to further discuss continuing issues and improvement plans at the Palmetto facility.
Georgia’s mail problem is part of a larger, system-wide issue.
“You can blame [the Palmetto facility] as far as Georgia is concerned,” Doss said. “But what’s happening in Colorado? What’s happening in Arizona? They’re not coming through the new Palmetto station.”
According to the election officials’ letter:
More mail is being deemed undeliverable. Mail sent to voters is being marked undeliverable at higher rates than usual, even in cases where a voter is known not to have moved. This issue has affected the delivery of information mailers about critical election information and voter address confirmation cards as well as ballots. Election mail deemed undeliverable could ultimately lead to a voter being placed on inactive voter registration lists and “potential disenfranchisement of voters whose ballots are not delivered … and putting eligible voters on the path to having their voter registration record cancelled,” the letter stated.
Mail workers are receiving inconsistent training. Mail staff nationwide are uninformed about policies, which has led to inconsistent guidance given to election workers and ballots being deliberately held to fix erroneous billing issues.
Delivery times are exceptionally long. Election officials in many states report receiving anywhere from dozens to hundreds of ballots 10 or more days after the postmark date.
House Elections Committee Chair Pat Proctor renewed the push to eliminate Kansas’ three-day grace period for mail ballots in light of issues with the Postal Service.
“It is my contention that it is not the U.S. Postal Service, but the state of Kansas, that is lying to Kansas voters when it tells them that we will count their ballots if they arrive within three days after Election Day,” Proctor, R-Leavenworth, said in an email Friday night.
Last week, Secretary of State Scott Schwabsent a letter to the postmaster general demanding answers for Postal Service problems that resulted in about 1,000 votes not being counted during the August primary election. Those ballots, mailed before election day, were received without a postmark or after the three-day grace period.
The Postal Service has been in “close communication” with Schwab’s office, a spokesperson said, and will respond to the secretary directly. According to the federal agency, it delivered 99.89% of ballots nationwide within seven days during the 2020 general election and 99.93% within that time frame in 2022.
But since the passage of a 2017 elections bill, Kansas has offered a three-day window after election day to accept mail ballots.
During the 2023 and 2024 sessions, Republican lawmakers led by Proctor and Sen. Mike Thompson, R-Shawnee, have tried unsuccessfully to eliminate the grace period. Now, Proctor hopes that proposal can finally make it across the finish line.
“We need to eliminate the three-day grace period and join the other 28 states of the Union that require that mail-in ballots be returned to the election office by Election Night,” he said. “This will completely eliminate our need to rely on the U.S. Postal Service to do its job and postmark every ballot.”
3rd round of SEED grants open
A third round of Strategic Economic Expansion and Development grants opened Monday.
Lt. Gov./Commerce Secretary David Toland announced the news Friday. The grants, reserved for rural communities, “are a vital part of our commitment to ensuring every community in Kansas has the opportunity to succeed,” he said in a news release.
The grants, managed by the Department of Commerce, are available to communities with a population of 5,000 or fewer in 78 designated counties. Individual awards can be as large as $25,000, and recipients must provide a minimum 10% match and complete the project within 12 months.
The previous round of awards, announced in December 2023, saw 13 small communities receive a combined $275,000.
Eligible applicants must fall into four categories of quality-of-life initiatives: child care and senior programming, community vibrancy, food retail and libraries. Governments, economic development organizations and other groups may apply.
Funding comes from the Technology-Enabled Fiduciary Financial Institutions Development and Expansion Fund, created by the Legislature in 2021.Grant applications are due Nov. 8 and awardees will be announced in December. The Office of Rural Prosperity will take questions about the application process Friday between 9 and 11 a.m.
But the state’s cities and towns — which derive more than half of their annual budgets from property tax revenue and use it to pay for police officers, firefighters and other key services — are urging lawmakers to be patient.
Matt Greller, CEO of Accelerate Indiana Municipalities (AIM), which represents more than 470 Indiana cities and towns, sat down with State Affairs for an in-depth interview on the property tax issue and other matters facing Indiana’s municipal governments.
This interview has been edited for clarity and brevity.
Q. Explain what AIM does.
A. AIM was founded way back in 1891 when a group of mayors got together to lobby the Indiana General Assembly on an issue about horses, believe it or not, and has grown immensely since then. Although lobbying and representing cities and towns at the Indiana General Assembly is still at the forefront of what we do, we also do a whole lot of education for municipal officials.
We provide a lot of opportunities for municipal officials to network and share best practices, lessons learned, borrow ideas, things like that. Communication sort of goes along with education. We have lots of avenues to communicate with our city and town membership throughout the state.
Since 2010, we have also provided health insurance for cities and towns that choose to opt into our program. We have a large consortium that’s put together out of about 70 cities and towns with multiple thousands of individuals who receive their health insurance through our program.
“The dependence on [property taxes] in Indiana is high, and it’s a very, very important resource.”
AIM CEO Matt Greller
Q. What are some issues that cities and towns are facing?
A. The main driver would be housing. There is a lot of demand in particular areas around the state for new housing, and sometimes it’s difficult to get some developers to come down and do that work in particular areas of the state.
Municipal finance is always important, but in the context of building quality places. We know now, and I think it’s generally accepted, that people are moving to the places they want to live in, not necessarily where they have found a job. That’s something that’s changed over the last 15 or 20 years, and the communities that have responded well to that are doing well now.
If you’re in a community that’s seeing growth, it’s likely because you have the amenities people want these days: quality parks, trails, vibrant downtowns, eateries in your downtowns that are within walking distance. Those kinds of things really seem to drive population growth, and that’s what we’re all after. Making sure that cities and towns have the resources to provide those kinds of amenities has become a huge undertaking for us and drives really everything we talk about within the organization.
Q. What do cities use property taxes for?
A. Property taxes in Indiana are extremely important to local governments — not just cities and towns, but counties, townships, libraries and still schools to some degree. Property taxes are collected at the county level and returned to the local level.
In Indiana, we’re a little bit different from a lot of other states with our dependency on property taxes. Generally, somewhere north of 50% of a municipality’s general fund budget comes from property taxes. Anytime you talk about changing the formula or putting restrictions on property tax — amounts people pay, caps, things of that nature — it becomes a direct impact.
They fund all your basic services. Police and fire in particular take up a tremendous amount of a local government’s budget. Generally, north of 65% of a local government’s budget goes to public safety.
Property taxes really fund the general operations of any city or town. They’re often used to supplement road and street projects. They’re used to pay the salaries and benefits of city and town officials who are working for the community. The dependence on them in Indiana is high, and it’s a very, very important resource.
Q. The amount of property taxes that people pay has jumped in recent years. Why do you think that is, and do you think that’s an anomaly?
A. I do think it’s an anomaly. I think most economists will tell you that a lack of supply and a high-demand post-COVID really pushed the value of homes up, not only in Indiana but across the country.
The way the system works in Indiana is your assessments go up, and every city or town or county has a different property tax rate based on their own individual circumstances. Some people did see an increase in the amount of money they’re paying. A lot of our city and town leadership saw this coming. They kept their rates flat or even lowered them a little bit to account for the anomaly.
The market now is starting to already go back to a normal situation from that pretty significant spike a year or two ago. We want to avoid wholesale change based on a problem that’s already passed.
Q. Sen. Mike Braun [the Republican nominee for governor] has put forward a property tax plan that seeks to roll back property taxes to 2021 levels. He wants a cap. He wants a huge cut that would take away hundreds of millions of dollars in property taxes. What do you think of that plan?
A. I think it was a first step to put some ideas out on the table, and that’s appreciated. I do think the impacts are hard to define, because we don’t know all the specifics of the plan and how it would actually be implemented.
From the 1,000-foot level, it certainly seems that plan would have some significant fiscal impacts on cities and towns that we would have concerns about. On the flip side, there’s a long process to go through, and I think we’re confident that we can work with Sen. Braun’s team, should he be elected governor, to put something together that makes sense and doesn’t hamstring local governments.
Q. To be clear, a cut to property taxes would almost certainly mean a cut to the budget for police and fire in your local government, right?
A. Without question.
Q. How about [Democratic gubernatorial nominee] Jennifer McCormick’s plan? She proposes tackling the issue a bit differently through state income tax. What do you think about her plan?
A. The devil is in the details. We need more detail to fully understand what her plan does. From an outward appearance, it does seem to have a little bit less impact on cities and towns. But it’s still significant.
We’d have to look at that and make sure that no significant harm is done to cities and towns. But again, happy to work with her as well as her team if she’s elected governor.
“Compared to 11 or 12 other benchmark states, we don’t have a high property tax rate in the state of Indiana.”
AIM CEO Matt Greller
Q. Does Indiana have a high property tax rate in general?
A. No. The Indiana Chamber [Foundation] just released its property tax study. It shows that when compared to 11 or 12 other benchmark states, we don’t have a high property tax rate in the state of Indiana.
Q. Both of the property tax plans put forward by the two governor candidates talk about protections for seniors. What do you think about that idea?
A. It depends on which seniors we’re talking about. Certainly, if there are seniors in need, we don’t want anybody to lose their home. No mayor, no city council, no town council in the state of Indiana will want that for anybody living in their community, and we do want to protect those folks. If there’s an issue for those on fixed incomes or incomes controlled by others, we are certainly open to those things.
We’ll have some concepts that we’ll share with the General Assembly or in conversations with them as we get closer to the legislative session.
On the flip side, I look at my own parents as an example. They’re nearing 80, and they’re not rich by any stretch of the imagination, but they’ve been smart with their money over the years. They’re constantly on the [nature] trails in their community. They’re constantly driving around on the roads. They’ve even had to call the fire department one time to put out a brush fire. They are users of property tax-funded services that their community provides.
It’s important that we remember a lot of seniors are in a good spot financially and not at risk of losing their home. They should be able to contribute and pay for the services they’re receiving from their local community.
Q. Are you looking to partner with other organizations like the school districts or the Association of Indiana Counties on property tax lobbying?
A. Yep, we’re in very regular communication with the county association. We just had a meeting with all of the school associations last week, and they will be partners of ours. We’ve worked together many times over the years.
“You’re seeing this number that’s bigger than any other taxes you pay, but you also probably get more bang for your buck than any other tax you pay.”
AIM CEO Matt Greller
Q. Do you think the Statehouse could allow cities to make up money lost through property tax cuts in other ways? Could lawmakers allow cities and counties a little bit more leeway with income taxes and sales taxes?
A. I think there is opportunity on the income tax side. We’re nearing a point where the technology will allow the state to know where you live in order to collect the appropriate income tax for your address. That’s been a hang-up for a long time.
A local option income tax would be something that would be welcomed by the majority of our membership and something that would be put to good use.
There are some drawbacks, too. Income tax is a little more volatile than property taxes. It’s less predictable, so you have to make sure that local governments have the sophistication to model what kind of income tax revenue would be coming in if we move away from such a reliance on property taxes.
Sales tax is going to be a lot harder. The state has for years held that sacred as state revenue. However, it is pretty common in other parts of the country. A lot of jurisdictions outside of Indiana certainly have local option sales tax as a tool to fund local government services. It would certainly be welcomed.
Q. What’s one thing about property taxes that people might not fully understand, or what’s important to know as we get into this long debate that’s likely coming on the issue?
A. When you’re paying your property taxes in May of 2024, you’re actually paying the taxes from 2023. You’re paying for something — an anomaly has happened in the past. When you’re paying that bill, that concern could already be gone.
The other tough thing when you talk about property taxes is it’s not a bill we’re paying incrementally. Every time we go to the grocery store or purchase something or get a paycheck and have our income taxes taken out, it’s little bit by little bit. We’re paying property tax in two chunks a year, right? You’re seeing this number that’s bigger than any other taxes you pay, but you also probably get more bang for your buck than any other tax you pay.
When it comes to property taxes, they make your community something you want to live in.
