About the Governor's Property tax plan

Here is a partial roundup of what is going on in the Indiana blogosphere on the Governor's property tax plan. No, I still have not had time to read it myself.

Masson’s Blog - A Citizen’s Guide to Indiana:

"I don’t have any strong reaction to the plan, probably because I don’t understand it well enough. A lot of it looks like legislation Sen. Kenley was looking for last year, so it’s probably not all bad. For my part, I’m not so much leery of Republicans trying to screw Democratic constituencies on this one; but I am worried about the State looking to solve its problems by screwing local government (see, e.g. the “balanced” 2005 state budget)."

Masson lead me to Ruth Holladay's blog and her post Say what you will, Daniels is smart.

Overall, Daniels made the point that the problems Indiana is experiencing have a long history, but he said the "root cause" is excessive spending. He cited school construction, libraries and fire-fighting facilities.

Leave it to the true scholars and economic experts to weigh in on this, and even if the plan is picked apart to within an inch of its life, one has to admire the boldness of Daniels' action. Oh, and he also pledged to break into that state surplus, something Dems have been on his case to do.

I must agree with Masson in swallowing the idea of Mitch Daniels as smart, but I think I can agree with Holladay that he was smart about his tactics. Too bad he helped make this mess and did nothing till now.

Taking Down Words makes some quick points in I [Heart] Me: Guv Drinks Own Kool-Aid, Talks Like He Has No Record but do read the comments. TDW does a great job of getting a debate started. More from TDW: Cut And Paste: Lawmakers To Consider Guv's Tax Plan In Pieces, Day Two: Guv's Tax Plan Taking Some Early Heat From Biz Community and Balancing Act: Your Chance To Sound Off On The Guv's Property Tax Plan.

The Indiana Law Blog has How Hoosiers’ sales tax stacks up which provides links to factual information on Indiana's sale tax.