Dear editor,

This letter is to all property owners who are unhappy with our current state property tax system here in Indiana.

According to estimates by the Indiana Legislative Services Agency, net property taxes have increased in our state by $700 million dollars or 12.5 percent between 2006 and 2007. This compares with the previous two year's combined increase of $470 million. This alarming increase was the result of Indiana shifting to a market-based assessment system in 2002 called "trending". It replaced our previous tax system that was ruled unconstitutional by court order. Now, all property taxpayers are feeling the pressure of a tax system that appears to be out of control.

Eliminating property taxes completely would be desirable but in reality would be very difficult to accomplish. We at Indiana Farm Bureau prefer a shift away from property taxes by a meaningful reform plan that will provide immediate relief. We desire a plan that would be fair, permanent and substantial.

A fair plan should be one that provides equal treatment to all taxpayers no matter who they are or represent. It should provide an assessment that is solely based on the taxpayer's ability to pay.

The plan should be permanent and not just another quick fix or Band-Aid. And since the property taxes have risen to such high levels, the reform plan should be substantial. Farm Bureau is opposed to any plan that would provide preferential relief to one group of taxpayers by shifting the property tax burden to others.

Property tax growth can be controlled by eliminating levies for the school general fund, welfare and courts. This will prevent them from growing back. Since the state controls these programs, it seems reasonable that they should pay for them.

Assessments should be provided under clear and comprehensive assessing rules and standards, assuring the property tax system to be open and understandable. IT should include a modern, common accounting system that provides online, real-time access to local government financial data for all Indiana taxpayers.

The revenue source displaced by the tax reform plan should b e broad based, reasonable and balanced. A combination of income and sales taxes would be the easiest method to accomplish this goal. Therefore, Farm Bureau has proposed raising the state sales tax from 6 to 7 percent and the personal income tax from 3.4 to 4.4 percent. This would not require a constitutional change and would be easy to implement and collect. Since these taxes would be raised at the state level, it would spread the fiscal responsibility to all citizens and will reduce net property taxes by one-third.

A plan that has been proposed by the Governor is the so-called circuit breaker option. The idea of this option is to protect taxpayers from a property tax overload. It would provide relief when the total property taxes on a property exceed a percentage of that parcels assessed value. This could give the false impression that an individual's property taxes will be permanently capped and never go up. However, this is a misconception because should the property assessments increase, so will the property taxes. This option will require a constitutional change to implement.

Finally, we must continue to stress to our legislators the need to reduce and control the growth of government spending.

Folks, we are now at a crossroad here in Indiana. The current property tax system is broken and beyond repair. Let's call for the rebuilding of the system that will benefit everyone.

Now is the time to contact your legislators by phone, letter or in person. Tell them you are in favor of moving away from property taxes and that you favor a plan that is fair, permanent, easy to understand and substantial. Please don't hesitate - the time for action is now!

Call your legislators at (800) 382-9842 for the House and (800) 382-9467 for the Senate. Write your legislators at the Indiana Statehouse, Indianapolis, IN 46204.

Please do it now!