Property Tax Talks Moved to Statehouse Staircase

House and Senate Republicans gathered in the statehouse for a press conference this morning to outline compromise language for the property tax bill. On the other side of the aisle, the House Democrats showed today why they put forward a plan to caps property taxes on the basis of household income instead of property value -- so they could kill it and say they're negotiating. They did, however, make some progress on Governor Daniels' plan to put tax caps into the constitution by agreeing to move forward with the 1% cap on homeowners.

One of the positive features of the caps is that they lend predictability to property tax bills. That confidence has been lent to homeowners, but businesses should be afforded the same level of security before they invest or make other business decisions. They still have a long way to go. The good news is that, while there was some political posturing in the media today, there are still eight days left for both sides to come to an agreement. If they're holding press conferences at 2pm next Friday, we've got issues people.