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Sunday, February 17, 2008
Ind. Gov't. - "State lax in curbing homestead-credit abuse"
Benjamin Lanka of the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette has a long and comprehensive article today on problems with preventing abuse of the homestead exemption. A few quotes:
Indiana’s homestead credit lowers homeowners’ tax bills in an effort to keep them from being taxed out of their homes.The credit already halves many homeowners’ bills, and it would become even more valuable under Gov. Mitch Daniels’ plan to further reduce property taxes.
Yet a steady increase in the tax exemption’s value hasn’t been met with an equal effort to prevent the system from being abused.
The exemption is supposed to apply only on primary residences, but Indiana relies on little more than the honor system to keep people from taking the credit on other property. * * *
Daniels said he hadn’t heard concerns about the exemption system but that people should be kept from violating the rules.
“I would support measures to make certain the law isn’t abused,” the governor said.
But county officials said they have had difficulty working with the state on the problem. Bill Borne, Adams County auditor, said that county enforcement efforts have even been curtailed by the state.
Some auditors asked for Indiana voter identification or driver’s license to grant the exemption, but Borne said some legislators complained about the tactics, saying the exemptions should be easier to get.
“It’s a different philosophy. ‘If you file, you have to just give it to them when they come in,’ ” he said. “That’s not fair.” * * *
Steuben County’s Coleman said that even questions about what constitutes a legitimate homestead credit go unanswered at the state level. For example, some married couples ask whether a husband can claim a property in Allen County and the wife can get another exemption on their lake home in Steuben.
GiaQuinta said married couples shouldn’t get two exemptions, but Coleman said the state department of local government finance simply tells her to ask the county attorney.
Decisions at the county level would create a patchwork of regulations that could pit counties against one another, Coleman said. It would be more appropriate to have statewide guidelines for giving the credits, processes for catching fraud and penalties for those cheating the system.
Posted by Marcia Oddi on February 17, 2008 08:32 AM
Posted to Indiana Government