By Scott Smith
Kokomo Mayor Greg Goodnight capped a busy half-week in Indianapolis Wednesday, outlining municipal legislative priorities to Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels.
Expanding home rule, particularly in the ability to raise local tax revenue, will be a top priority for Indiana’s mayors next month when the Indiana General Assembly gets under way.
Goodnight said he spent about 40 minutes with Daniels Wednesday morning, giving the governor an explanation of eight specific legislative initiatives sponsored by the Indiana Association of Cities and Towns.
The meeting came after Goodnight spent Monday morning testifying before the Indiana House Ways and Means Committee on the subject of permanent property tax caps.
Goodnight said IACT, the lobbying group representing Indiana’s municipal governments, “is generally supportive of tax caps.”
At the same time, Goodnight said, IACT is leaning against making the caps a permanent part of the Indiana Constitution next year.
Backers of the caps, including Daniels, want to see a constitutional amendment resolution pass the Legislature next year. If that happens, the caps would go to a November referendum. A majority vote in the referendum would make the caps part of the Indiana Constitution.
Supporters say the caps — which will be set at 1 percent of assessed valuation for residential homeowners next year — are the only way to permanently slow the growth of property taxes.
Monday’s testimony, however, featured many local officials who said they’ve been forced to cut services as the tax caps have cut into local revenue.
Those mayors — along with IACT — are asking legislators to “wait and see” how the caps work, once they take full effect next year, Goodnight said. They are also asking the Indiana General Assembly for additional ways to replace revenues lost to the caps.
“We think we should put it on the ballot at a later time, so the public can get a taste of how [the caps] work, and we can get some other things fixed,” Goodnight said.
“Just like anything else, when you make a change and it’s part of the law; it’s part of the constitution; you should make sure it’s the right thing,” he said.
Among the eight IACT legislative initiatives are measures to change how federal road funds are distributed at the local level, changes in how local income tax revenue is distributed, and proposals to make it easier for cities to levy innkeepers and food-and-beverage taxes, and to expand tax increment financing districts.
IACT is also sponsoring a measure to prohibit municipal employees from serving on their respective city councils, Goodnight said. Although it didn’t pass, Daniels backed the measure in the last legislative session, and it was included in the Kernan-Shepherd report on local government.
Currently, KPD officer Kevin Summers is the only Kokomo Common Council member with a city job. Summers serves as an At-Large Republican councilman.
“It’s just a basic conflict of interest,” Goodnight said Wednesday.
Early this year, the same subject came up after Summers voted in favor of raises for Kokomo firefighters. Goodnight said the city couldn’t afford the raises, and laid off 12 firefighters after the vote. The city is now seeking federal grant funding to rehire those firefighters.
When the issue first surfaced, shortly after the council approved the firefighter raises, Summers defended his position.
Summers said he sees no conflict of interest in voting on pay raises for his fellow city employees, including police officers.
He said legal counsel has advised him there would be no inherent conflict of interest if he voted for police raises, because the raise would also apply to more than 100 other KPD officers.
Finally, Summers noted he received the second-highest vote total of six candidates who ran for at-large seats in the 2007 council elections.
“The people who voted for me, I think knew exactly what I do for a living,” Summers said in January. “I feel concerned [those backing the measure] would want to limit the voters’ choice.”
• Scott Smith is a Kokomo Tribune staff writer. He may be reached at 765-454-8569 or via e-mail at scott.smith@kokomotribune.com
