Submitted by Mike Corbett
As I’ve been out talking to people over the past few months, they’ve been expressing their concerns over our taxes here in Noblesville. One family in North Harbor who moved here from Illinois was grateful that their taxes are lower than they were there, but wonder why they’ve gone up more than $1,000 in five years. Another family in East Haven who moved here from Carmel likes the neighborhood but were surprised when they got their tax bill and the total was higher than it was in Carmel.
It’s no secret that we pay high residential property taxes here in Noblesville. If you check the tax tables you will find our city tax rate is the third-highest in the county behind Sheridan and Arcadia. Of course, we pay a trash fee on top of it and we’ve passed more school referenda than other district in the state. Most of us just got this year’s tax bills within the past couple of weeks and I haven’t spoken to anyone whose taxes went down. And don’t look now, but they’re going up again. Last year’s school referendum kicks in this year, which we pay next year.
Clearly something is wrong. We’re a growing community with new tax revenue coming every year from new development. We ought to be realizing economies of scale as more people contribute to our tax base, but not only is our assessed value rising, so is our rate.
Graphic provided
The major problem is a shortage of industrial and commercial businesses. If you think of the tax base as a pyramid, businesses should occupy the bottom, form the foundation upon which we then add apartment/rentals and residential. But our pyramid is upside down. Of the property tax revenue in Noblesville, 69 percent comes from homeowners and the rest comes from businesses.
It seems clear we need more businesses to relieve the burden on the residential taxpayer. We have the infrastructure; we built the Corporate Campus for that very reason. But despite investing millions we haven’t been able to raise the business side of the tax ledger enough to provide tax relief for our homeowners. That has to change. Here are my priorities:
We need to get friendlier. Noblesville has a reputation as being a difficult place to conduct business. Everything from sign ordinances to impact fees to building codes need to be examined and revised. If there isn’t a solid reason for a requirement, it should be relaxed or removed. I have heard stories from local business owners who have had to pull out new landscaping because the rose bushes were a few inches too tall. That shouldn’t be happening here.
We need to take a more strategic approach to economic incentives. TIF districts and tax abatements are useful tools as long as they’re used correctly. They have been badly abused here and we need to clean that up.
We need better business recruiting. That doesn’t mean we pay them more to move here. Competing against our neighbors by seeing who can give the largest tax break is a losing game. Instead, it means we build the kind of city that will attract businesses because we have the best infrastructure, work force, transportation, housing, culture, schools, tax structure and city government around. That’s a tall order but we are up to it, and with your help I will make it happen.
I’m running for mayor in the May 7 election and economic development will thrive under my administration. City Hall needs to start working for you.
Much of Noblesville’s failure is Chris Jensen’s friend and mentor John Ditslear running city hall on the spoils system. How can a former stewardess with no training or experiance be chosen as the our Director of Economic Developement? I believe it was because her husband is a friend and supporter of Mayor Ditslear and the Mayor’s third wife’s best friend. Chris Jensen is nothing more than a Ditslear selected and supported crony to extend the incometant status quo. Anyone here from Chris Jensen that Paid city Councilman and husband of City Director of Economic Development actually moved to Arizona after they sold their huge Oak Bay house? Why is our Elected official Roy Johnson living out of state and just travels back for some council meetings and stays in his wifes Harbour town Apartment? Chris Jensen hasn’t pointed any of that out. I have no reason to think Chris isn’t a good family man, but his questionable ethical shortcomings are indeed something to question. I will be voting for a new Mayor, NOT a continued Ditslear regime. I will be voting for Mike Corbett for our next Mayor. I just ask that everyone learn for themselves who to vote for and not falling for another salesman like Ditslear or a high spending Ditslear chosen replacement.
Larry, your candidate of choice hypes Noblesville’s “need to get friendlier” – did you just deliver a little too much New Jerseyness in your “friendly,” partisan trash talk? As a native of Noblesville, an economic developer for more than thirty years and a former candidate for mayor of the city, I am absolutely appalled by your smear of several good people that have spent years dedicated to moving Noblesville forward. If I were a candidate for mayor of Noblesville or any community, I would want neither support from you or your ilk, your vote or your political letters that express your ignorance while attempting to demean the good names and intentions of others. By the way – I’ve never met Chris Jensen, and if I were a resident of my hometown, I would certainly vote for him for mayor – based solely upon the opinion shared with me by my father who taught government to pretty much the whole town for thirty-eight before you and your kind moved in. Being friendlier is a two-way street. You should try to drive it sometime.