Republican tour continues in New Albany

Thu, 10 Apr 2008 13:46:33 -0500

Reps. Brian Bosma and Eric Turner visited New Albany last week to continue to promote the Republican property tax relief program passed this general assembly.

The News and Tribune:

The two were in Evansville on Wednesday before making the drive to New Albany. Their message has been one of support for the property-tax relief package, which will include $620 million in aid for 2008.

“The burden of property taxes was becoming unbearable for homeowners,” Turner said.

Turner said the goal of legislators in favor of the package was to make taxes less formidable for property owners, while at the same time making the levies predictable.

“Over and over, people said to us that they would go to their mailbox with sweaty palms, not knowing how much there property taxes were going to go up,” Turner said.

Bosma called the reform historic, saying there had not been such an effort in Indiana since the 1973 tax freeze.

He said homeowners will save an average of 25 percent this year on property taxes. Floyd County property owners will save nearly 31 percent on average, according to Bosma.

By 2010, the tax circuit breaker will be at 1 percent for residential property owners. The median homeowner’s cap would be $1,207.

The state sales tax will be raised to seven percent to provide funds to replace property-tax dollars. Bosma said residents around Indiana have told him they prefer the sales tax increase in exchange for reductions in property taxes.

Immediate tax relief was one of four goals Bosma said GOP lawmakers had outlined for the latest legislative session. Other aims were to make caps permanent, empower local taxpayers and to place limits on local government spending.

House Republican Property Tax tour continues

Wed, 26 Mar 2008 10:26:15 -0500

We’ve posted a couple articles on our blog about the House Republican town hall meeting tour this week. Bruce Borders, Amos Thomas and Brian Bosma held one of those Town Hall meetings on Tuesday in Terre Haute. The Tribune printed a long article.

“It is the strongest and most historic property tax relief package that has been adopted in my 22 years in the General Assembly and some have said in two generations,” Bosma said. “It was truly a historic event which will significantly benefit taxpayers in western Indiana today and also cap their property taxes in the future.”

Bosma said House Republicans sought to measure the tax relief plan, in part, by an immediate property tax cut of at least 25 percent to homeowners.

“For folks in Vigo County, that property tax cut for homesteads will be 36.2 percent. In Clay [County] it will be nearly 30 percent and Sullivan [County] will hit nearly 25 percent,” Bosma said.

District 88

Republican tour continues in New Albany

House Republican Property Tax tour continues