Rob Kendall's 4-Step Plan to Fix the Property Tax Crisis

Rob Kendall’s 4-Step Plan to Fix the Property Tax Crisis

Hey, it’s Rob Kendall. If you give me the next four minutes, I’ll walk you through my 4-step plan to tackle this property tax crisis.

Look, I came up with this plan in about ten minutes and charged you zero dollars.

Meanwhile, these fine folks are taking $70,000 (or more) of your hard-earned money every year and delivering… nothing. That’s a bad deal for you, but hey, they don’t seem to mind.

Now, it’s time to roll up our sleeves and get down to business. Here’s the plan:

Step 1: Freeze Assessments for Certainty and Sanity

First things first, we need to freeze assessments for all homes built before 2022 that qualify for a homestead credit. For the next three years, these assessments won’t budge.

This move achieves two major things:

It gives you certainty. No more annual surprises when your property tax bill skyrockets for no apparent reason.

It removes the sob story from local government about losing money. Their budgets stay intact because they’ll still receive assessment increases from commercial properties, rentals, and newly built homes.

This isn’t cutting their funding; it simply provides stability—for you and for them.

Step 2: Set an Expiration Date for Property Taxes

Here’s where the fun begins. Legislate that all property tax laws, and the taxes they bring, will flat-out expire in three years.

That means, starting now, the General Assembly has a three-year deadline to create a new system.

No more kicking the can down the road. If they don’t figure this out, local governments get nothing. Zero. Tick tock, my friends.

By putting an expiration date on property taxes, we make sure the pressure is on. No time for laziness, fringe debates, or avoiding the issue.

Step 3: Create a Study Committee and a Real Plan

Next, it’s time for the Governor, the House, and the Senate to actually work together (shocking, I know).

They’ll form a select committee to dig into this property tax thing, figure out where the system is broken, and come up with real solutions to replace it.

Here’s the timeline.

The committee delivers a report to the Governor by the start of session next year.

That leaves the General Assembly two full years to debate, adapt, and act. It’s a tight window, but when you’re incentivized by potential political disaster, you tend to move fast.

Step 4: Taxpayer Refunds – Your Money, Back in Your Pocket

Finally, we couldn’t get through this without some savings for you, the taxpayer.

Here’s the deal. Indiana’s budget is set to grow by $2.7 billion this year, pushing the total budget to nearly $47 billion.

Are you telling me we can’t find 4 percent—that’s $2 billion—in non-essential expenses?

That’s what we’ll return to taxpayers.

Call it DOGE. Call it bananas. It’s your money.

Using last year’s count of 4.3 million taxpayers who received a refund, that’s about $465 per person.

It’s not life-changing, but it’s YOUR cash, and it’s certainly better than watching it vanish into another black hole of government spending.

Quick Recap

Here’s what I’m offering you in just four steps:

No painful property tax increases for three years.
A hard stop for property taxes after three years.
A real plan (finally!) for replacing the system.
Money back in your pocket.

No cuts to local government. No skyrocketing bills. And three years to say goodbye to this broken system. Sometimes, I even amaze myself. And all of this was done in four minutes and at zero cost to you. Maybe someone should send this to the Legislature.