INDIANAPOLIS–Education, property taxes, and the future for small businesses in Indiana were some of the topics addressed Thursday by the Indiana Chamber of Commerce.
You may have heard that assessed values on homes could translate into as much as a 15% property tax increase on your home. If you are concerned about your property taxes skyrocketing, President and CEO of the Indiana Chamber of Commerce Kevin Brinegar says you may have nothing to worry about.
“In no way do we believe there will be a 15% increase in property tax bills for the vast majority of homeowners. Assessed values don’t necessarily lead to an increase in bills or levies and we don’t believe the General Assembly will allow that to happen. There’s also no justification for the property tax budgets to go up by 15%,” said Brinegar in a Thursday morning Zoom call.
Brinegar would like to see more time spent on education, but he’s pleased to see Governor Holcomb making education more of a priority during this legislative session.
“For the first time ever, the higher education funding formula, as proposed, has a component that gives universities an incentive to keep their graduates in Indiana. We’ve made great strides in our tax climate, our regulatory climate, and our business climate, but we’re not going to hit our full stride if we don’t have the workforce,” said Brinegar.
Brinegar is also happy that the Governor is trying to do more things that involve work-and-learn opportunities for students as well as give students free textbooks.
He also is happy to see a Senate bill being discussed that has the potential to save Hoosier small businesses well over $100 million in federal tax liability without reducing any revenue to the State.
“Essentially this bill creates a workaround that has been adopted in a number of other states and approved by the IRS to let those small business owners take the full deductibility on their federal taxes, but still pay the same amount on their state taxes,” said Brinegar.
Brinegar will host Zoom calls throughout the session to weigh on bills that Indiana lawmakers discuss.
