By GARRETT BERGQUIST
WISH-TV | wishtv.com
Democratic governor candidate Jennifer McCormick on Thursday said her tax plan would ensure everyone gets some sort of relief without jeopardizing local revenues.
McCormick
McCormick is the last of the three governor candidates whose names appear on November’s ballot to release a property tax plan. It comes nearly three weeks after Republican Mike Braun released his plan and about a month and a half after Libertarian candidate Donald Rainwater released his.
McCormick’s plan would cap annual property tax rate increases at 10 percent, increase the maximum homeowner property tax deduction from $2,500 to $3,500, and expand deductions for seniors and for disabled veterans.
The plan incorporates several unsuccessful proposals filed by both Democratic and Republican lawmakers during the 2024 legislative session. McCormick says she did that on purpose because the nonpartisan Legislative Services Agency has already provided estimates of the cost to state revenues for each, making it easier to judge her plan’s economic impact. She says, based on LSA estimates, her plan would cost the state $600 million in lost revenue. In addition, she said she wanted a plan that would have bipartisan support.
“A lot of times, I think we steer away from giving credit to those folks across the aisle when you’re running a political campaign,” she said. “Anytime you have good ideas, shame on us if we don’t utilize them.”
McCormick says she deliberately structured her tax plan so that most of the $600 million price tag would fall on the state rather than on local governments. Her campaign estimates about $175 million of that loss would be spread out among local governments across the states. She said that’s a contrast with Braun’s plan, which she has characterized as a threat to local services. McCormick says the state could easily recoup the losses by reprioritizing spending elsewhere, including investing public school voucher funding back into traditional public schools.
Justin Ross, a professor of public finance at the Indiana University O’Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs, said it’s certainly within the legislature’s power to do that. He says McCormick’s, Braun’s, and Rainwater’s plans represent three different approaches to the same goal of reducing property tax burdens. Ross says the main difference is Braun’s and Rainwater’s plans focus more on limiting local governments’ property tax authority while McCormick’s turns more of it into a budget line item.
Ross says, no matter who wins the election, it’s up to taxpayers to make sure they claim any new tax breaks that are offered.
Braun’s campaign dismissed McCormick’s proposal as a tax-and-spend plan in a brief statement.
“Democrat Jennifer McCormick is a tax-and-spend liberal, and her plan does nothing to tackle the property tax pain Hoosiers are feeling from the inflation crisis created by Democrats that McCormick endorsed: Joe Biden and Kamala Harris,” Braun said. “My bold property tax plan will give Hoosier homeowners immediate property tax relief by resetting bills to 2021 pre-Biden/Harris inflation levels.”
This story was originally published by WISH-TV at wishtv.com/news/democratic-governor-candidate-jennifer-mccormick-pushes-property-tax-caps-larger-deductions.