Hear this article

"Indiana House Speaker B. Pat Bauer, D-South Bend, is working overtime. Alongside his career as an Ivy Tech administrator, Bauer has become an undertaker. You can see him at work at the Statehouse.

As the Times of Northwest Indiana has recently (March 27) said, Bauer is "adept at building coffins for good ideas."  He has done his best to bury bipartisan efforts to reform local government and to place caps on property tax assessments. Obviously this is not what the voters want.  However, Bauer doesn't care; it's not his funeral."

 

Kevin Walters
South Bend

Voice of the People, South Bend Tribune, May 2009

 

We confront many issues. But perhaps none is so pervasive in significantly affecting the lives of every Hoosier as that of local property taxation.  If history is any indication of our elected representatives inability to get this one right, we have a 70-year record of interparty bickering and backroom wheeling and dealing that testifies to the elusiveness of attaining the equitable and fair system of taxation required by the Indiana Constitution.  Dr. Bill Styring researched Indiana property tax history and prepared a summary showing a history of attempts to lower property taxes by raising other, non-property taxes.  In every case these have failed miserably. The new taxes, or higher rates on old taxes, remain in place. And, in short order, property taxes rise back to their old levels, poised to roar even higher.

 

After 70 years of futile attempts to fix Indiana’s property tax system, an increasing number of fellow citizens are coming to the realization that this is an issue that defies any satisfactory resolution.  Meanwhile, our bureaucrats have no particular motivation to fix the tax problem.  They have played Indiana citizens for fools for many years and hope to continue the shell game they have created to relieve taxpayers of ever increasing portions of their limited resources.  The three shells in their game are income tax, sales tax, and property tax.  By deftly moving tax levels under the three shells, continuously adding new taxes, and taking advantage of the notorious short memories of taxpayers, our government leaders create a moving target that no taxpayer or taxpayer organization can successfully challenge.

 

Finplaneducation.net defines a POLITICAL HOG as a taxpayer unfriendly state legislator who also voted himself or herself a perpetual pay increase that is 20% more than the typical Hoosier working family earns during an entire year. POLITICAL HOGS care more about feeding at the public trough than they do serving the needs of Hoosier working families....  South Bend’s B. Patrick Bauer is rated a POLITICAL HOG by finplaneducation.net.

 

Patrick Bauer is perhaps the leader of the smoke-filled, backroom politicians, but he is not the only one.  A certain Party Chairman routinely intimidates city board members and county council members before key votes on tax and other matters.  By the time public input meetings are held, “the fix is in”.  Votes are rigged before public meetings and the Chairman of the majority Party carefully choreographs votes to guarantee outcomes.  Allowing each citizen three minutes to provide input prior to county board and city council votes is a complete, unmitigated joke. 

 

Patrick Bauer duplicates St. Joseph County and South Bend’s vote control when he presides over the Indiana House of Representatives. An increasing number of Hoosiers are coming to recognize that property taxes could have been eliminated.  But Indiana bureaucrats knew that reducing their 3-shell game to a 2-shell game would increase the difficulty in hiding tax-raising gymnastics.  Taxpayers could more easily identify taxation railroading with only two primary taxes.  And Patrick Bauer and his ilk could not allow that outcome.  So Bauer proceeded to summarily torpedo the Repeal Property Tax effort, without anything approaching a fair hearing.     

 

South Bend crime is out of control and St. Joseph County taxpayers are forced to shell out almost $26 million every year to fund continuing crime.  Patrick Bauer is Speaker of the Indiana House of Representatives -- the leader of the band in downstate Indianapolis.  To bail out his buddies in crime-ravaged Lake and St. Joseph Counties, Representative Bauer engineered legislation penalizing the citizens of those two counties with a property tax cap higher than in the remaining 90 of Indiana’s counties.  The Indiana Constitution’s requirement for fair and equitable taxation of state citizens was totally ignored..  Indiana politicians know that they can flaunt the law as expressed in the State Constitution and no Hoosier will challenge them.  

 

In a classical case of poetic justice, sloppy South Bend voting returned Patrick Bauer to office and when provided an opportunity to repeal property tax to allow Hoosiers to own their own homes, he killed it.  Mr. Bauer’s realization that his repeated re-election is guaranteed in solidly-Democrat South Bend, has made him indifferent to the best interests of his constituents.  In his role as Speaker of the House of Representatives, his constituency extends to all Hoosiers.  And by precluding property tax elimination from General Assembly discourse, Patrick Bauer sold all Hoosiers down the river and condemned us to continuing a 70-year record of property tax abuse.

 

Attached to this e-mail is a PowerPoint presentation, making the case for repeal of property taxes in Indiana.  The potential economic benefits to both citizens and State financial position are compelling.

 

After decades of failed maneuvering, every Hoosier can contribute to bringing to end a sorry part of Indiana’s history.  You can make a positive difference in the future of your family, friends, and neighbors if you make a little effort.  Please consider taking a few minutes today to:

 

Inform fellow Hoosiers.  Please consider forwarding this e-mail to friends and neighbors using your computer’s “forward” function.  This action will cost you nothing and can be completed in minutes. 

 

E-mail your representatives and governor.  Ask them to repeal property taxes to enable Hoosiers to own their own homes and businesses by eliminating the State’s ultimate claim on your property.  E-mail Governor Daniels at: This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

 

General Assembly and Governor neglect of the ultimate good of all Indiana citizens, demonstrated over three generations of Hoosiers, is a pathetic chapter in our State history.  And it needs to be brought to an end.

 

Get informed.

 

Find your voice..               

 

Get involved !

 

 

 

Stephen Paul Leykauf

 

 

P.S.  While governments are conceived to do what citizens cannot do individually, 70 years of failed attempts to fix a system of taxation which was ill-conceived from its beginning should prove that local and State government cannot -- and do not wish to -- fix the mess represented by Indiana's property tax.   St. Joseph County residents have joined five other Indiana counties in working to restore every Hoosier's right to own their own home, farm, and business without the State's overarching claim on property that supposedly is private.  If you would like to join the St. Joseph County group, or the group of another Indiana county, to take back the basic property rights intended by our founding fathers, please contact This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it