Continuously serving Kosciusko County since 1854
Republican candidate for Indiana governor and Congressman David McIntosh visited St. Anne's Episcopal Church Sunday.
He took half an hour to talk to the Times-Union about his campaign.
McIntosh is touring Indiana cities to promote his campaign and discuss his proposed 25 percent tax cut.
McIntosh is congressman for the second district of Indiana, which includes Muncie, Anderson, Columbus and Richmond. He was first elected in 1994.
McIntosh said when he talks to people about what they think needs to be changed in Indiana, most of them say that property taxes have gone up. McIntosh has decided to post an ambitious goal of reducing that without raising any other taxes.
McIntosh said the biggest issue with the property tax is that the governor said at first that it can't be done.
"We went through and took the challenge to say here's how we could do it," said McIntosh.
According to McIntosh, the courts have ordered the state to change the way land is assessed to make it more fair and equitable. McIntosh said reassessment will lead to a 30 percent shift of the state's property tax burden to homeowners.
He suggested taking the homestead credit and raising it from 10 percent to 50 percent. The 50 percent homestead credit will allow taxpayers to get a net reduction of 25 percent. That's just an average, however, because not all homeowners pay the same.
The state can reimburse the property tax cut penny for penny, said McIntosh, but it comes out of the state budget. "And the way you put that into the state budget is to hold the line on spending," said McIntosh.
Without the tax cut, the budget surplus would go from $1.3 billion to $4 billion, according to McIntosh. He said, "My view is if you can have that potential 4 billion surplus, use it for the property tax cut."
McIntosh defended himself against Gov. Frank O'Bannon's accusation of McIntosh not being able to guarantee a 25 percent tax cut.
"What we can guarantee is a 25 percent average," said McIntosh.
He said there are some people who don't pay property tax so they can't get a 25 percent reduction. Reassessment means they are going to have to start paying property taxes.
"Most people will get in that average, in the range of 25 percent," said McIntosh. As a matter of fairness the courts have said that everyone has to pay something but McIntosh proposes making it less than it would be because of the 50 percent homestead credit.
Another of McIntosh's proposals is to make Indiana the "high-tech capital of the Midwest," centering on medical technology, communications and computers. Indiana is in the center of the country population-wise and the reason it doesn't get any of that business is because of the inventory tax. McIntosh is proposing eliminating the inventory tax which he said puts Indiana at a disadvantage to Michigan, Illinois and Ohio who don't have inventory tax.
McIntosh also defended himself against O'Bannon's accusations of his missing 50 percent of floor votes in Congress.
"It's probably in that range this year," McIntosh said about the 50 percent missed votes. He said that in the first five years of his being a congressman he attended 96 percent of the votes.
"I had to make a decision this year running for governor and I would rather be in Washington voting if I didn't need to run for governor," he said. " But I realized the property tax issue, education and job creation for the future - I could serve more by leading in that area."
He said he has to make a tough decision but he votes for what he feels are important issues like eliminating the federal income tax marriage penalty.
"I was really frustrated," he said of President Bill Clinton's veto of eliminating the marriage penalty. "I told my colleagues we'll have to make another try next year and we'll have a president who will sign it. And I hope George Bush gets in."
The election is Nov. 7.
