Property tax caps are a catch 22

TERRE HAUTE, Ind. (WTHI) - Question #1 on the ballot will ask if you are for or against the Indiana Property Tax Cap Amendment.

Property tax caps prevent local governments from changing the amount you have to pay on your property taxes from year to year.

If a majority of Hoosiers vote for this amendment, property tax caps will be added to the Indiana Constitution, making it difficult to reverse the amendment in the future.

Under the amendment, folks who own homes will pay one percent of their property value. Farm and rental property owners will pay two percent and business owners will pay three percent. Some Hoosiers are in favor of the change.

"If we don't pass these it will be then 20 years from now, 30 years from now. We'll always be promising protection that doesn't exist. And so we have this once in a lifetime opportunity and I absolutely mean that. This one time in a lifetime opportunity for you to have protection," Indiana State Representative Bruce Borders said.

But others argue that property tax caps will hurt more than they will help.

That is because property taxes make up the majority of revenue for local governments. Without the ability to change how much property tax you pay, the budgets of many cities and counties will take a hit.

Take Terre Haute for example. Starting from when the tax cap is in place, Terre Haute will have 7 million dollars less in its budget than it did before the cap. That is a quarter of Terre Haute's general fund.

"The result is less services because you have less people, and you can pave less streets, do less sidewalks, leaf pick-up, all the things I've been talking about," Terre Haute Mayor Duke Bennett said.

The Vigo County League of Women Voters is having a meeting so you can learn more about the property tax caps. It is 6:30 p.m. to 9 p.m. on October 14 at the Vigo County Annex.