04/24/2026
Free Puppies!
Kevin Keith KNS News
Every few years Indiana politics produces a proposal that sounds amazing at first glance—kind of like a “free puppy” sign on the side of the road. Then you get home and realize the puppy chewed through the drywall, the couch, and possibly the electrical wiring. The latest example is the proposal to eliminate property taxes entirely in Indiana. It’s bold, it’s dramatic, and if you read past the headline, it’s also a spectacular exercise in “what could possibly go wrong?”
The timeline. The plan would stop property tax assessments after December 31, 2026 and eliminate collections after 2027. That’s like saying, “We’re going to stop paying for groceries in two years and see what happens.” Property taxes currently fund schools, police, fire departments, roads, and libraries. Eliminating them without a crystal-clear replacement plan isn’t tax reform—it’s a statewide version of unplugging the refrigerator and hoping the milk stays cold.
Then there’s the replacement revenue idea: a new 7 percent sales tax on services like landscaping, legal work, accounting, and consulting. In other words, the government’s plan to lower taxes is——to invent a whole new tax!Now instead of one tax, you’ve got a tax every time someone trims your hedges, fixes your books, or tells you that your idea to eliminate property taxes might not be great.
The school funding proposal might be the most impressive sleight of hand. Instead of property tax referendums, schools would charge annual fees. So the property tax disappears—but a bill still shows up in your mailbox. That’s not eliminating a tax; that’s giving it a fake mustache and hoping nobody recognizes it. “Don’t worry folks, it’s not a tax anymore. It’s a fee. Completely different. Please ignore the identical amount and due date.”
Next comes the elimination of county and township assessor offices. On paper this sounds efficient. Its more like firing all the referees during the first quarter of a football game and announcing that the players will just “figure it out.” Assessors exist because property values change and governments need some method—however imperfect—to keep track of them. Without that system you don’t eliminate complexity; you just move it somewhere else where it becomes even messier.
The proposal would also limit tools like municipal bonds and tax increment financing districts, which local governments use to pay for infrastructure and development projects. Again, a good comparison is cutting up the town’s credit card and hoping the bridge repairs themselves. Roads, sewer lines, public buildings—those things don’t magically appear because someone had a strong opinion about property taxes being immoral.
And speaking of that argument, supporters say property taxes are “immoral” because they penalize property ownership. That’s catchy but so is herpes. If we’re going to start labeling taxes immoral, we might want to slow down before we realize that every tax in existence annoys someone.
None of this is to say property taxes are perfect. Anyone who has opened that bill in May or November knows they can sting. But eliminating them entirely and replacing them with a patchwork of new taxes, fees, and missing funding streams isn’t reform. This is dangerous and the Libertarian in me says “YES”, but the realist in me is wondering why are we entertaining this proposal in its current form.
Indiana can and should debate property tax reform. But if the plan involves abolishing a major revenue source, inventing a brand-new tax system, renaming taxes as “fees,” and hoping local governments magically adapt—well, that’s less of a reform plan and more of a political version of duct tape and optimism.
