jondi@pdclarion.com

As state legislators prepare to pack up and head back to Indianapolis for the 2008 legislative session beginning Tuesday, Gibson County's legislators are preparing to make big things happen this year.

Rep. Kreg Battles (D-Vincennes) says he is armored up and ready to fight for lower property taxes.

"Property taxes are issue numbers one through ten this year," Battles said. "I am confident that something real and meaningful will come out of this session."

While Battles is positive the General Assembly will produce permanent results in this year's session, he said he knows the road will not be easy.

"There will be a lot of cussing and discussing before this is all over and done with," he said. "But we all have the same goal and the disagreements will be over how to get to that goal."

This year's session is a short session, meaning all the general assembly's work must be completed by mid-March. Battles said the short session was originally created for legislators to handle emergencies.

"I can think of no greater emergency then property taxes," he said. "The property tax woes now facing so many people across this state would certainly seem to meet the definition of an emergency."

During the 2007 regular session, lawmakers laid the groundwork for tax reform in Indiana by passing measures that provided short-term relief in the form of a refund. Long-term relief was also provided for through increased homestead deductions and more local control over property taxes.

Sen. Lindel Hume (D-Princeton) said the people of Indiana demand more than a temporary fix to the problem.

I hope we don't go into this session this year with that kind of attitude," Hume said. "That we'll do something to get us by for one more year, so the people will elect us one more time to deal with the problem next year."

Hume said he has been pushing for property tax relief for many years and he thinks this year may present unique opportunities to address the property tax issue.

"It appears that for the first time in many, many years something constructive is going to happen," he said. "Property taxes are an unfair tax that are not based on people's ability to pay and it is time we do something about that."

Both the Senate and House of Representatives were already hard at work before the holidays on the property tax problem, with both chambers holding public hearings throughout the state on various portions of Gov. Mitch Daniels property tax relief plan - a plan Hume says has some major faults.

"We have to have an honest reform that is not all smoke and mirrors," he said of Daniels' plan to eliminate township assessor/trustees and also remove elected county assessors and replace them with appointed assessors.

"The implications are that we are going to reduce the cost of those offices," he said. "The truth is that someone is going to have to go up and down streets and through alleys to assess property values and right now the elected officials are doing it for very little money, compared to private agencies."

Hume also pointed out flaws with Gov. Daniels' proposed levels of property tax caps. Daniels proposed a 1 percent cap for all homeowner property, a 2 percent cap for rental properties and 3 percent cap for industrial and business properties.

"These artificial caps don't mean you won't still see increases in your property taxes from year to year," Hume said. "They will still go up with the increases in assessed values."

Hume said the only way to lower property taxes is by replacing them with something else, whether it be higher sales taxes or income taxes or other taxes throughout the state. He said he has some ideas that he will offer as amendments to House bills that come over to the Senate, but any measure that would increase taxes must originate in the House of Representatives.

Hume said education is a big part of property taxes, and he is exploring ways to help reduce the budget while not "cheating our students."

"I have introduced a bill that would allow local school corporations the option of 3 full days of professional development instead of six half-days," he said. "It would give them better quality time in the professional development days as well as in the classroom.

He said if the three full days of professional development were to be implemented statewide, it would save around $17 million in the education budget.

"I have talked with officials in the Dept. of Education," he said. "It appears there may be real support for that this year."

Although property taxes are at the forefront of the issues this year, Battles is also looking in the direction of education to make some changes.

He introduced his first two bills for 2008 last week. The first, House Bill 1032, expands the scope and range of child seduction laws in Indiana.

"Child seduction laws were designed to protect minors who technically reached the age of consent at age 16 from entering into an abusive situation with an adult authority figure," Battles said. "Children under 16 are already protected under the state's child molestation laws."

HB 1032 expands the definition of "authority figure" to include anyone that works or volunteers for a cooperative organization that is involved with a public or private school corporation. Current law only allows for an employee of a school corporation to be convicted of child seduction.

His other bill, House Bill 1033, eliminates time restrictions on state-sponsored student aid.

"Many students have the best intentions of earning their degree in a timely fashion can be thrown off course by life's many obstacles," Battles said. "There is no reason why why the state should shun a student who wants to pick up where they left off, even if more than 10 years have passed."

Battles said the change in the time restriction would not cost any additional money.

"The state allows financial aid and scholarships for eight semesters and I don't want to change that. We don't need to finance professional students," he said. "I don't want to change any of the other guidelines for qualification, I just want to make it possible for students to return to school even after 10 years have passed and be able to get some help if they financially qualify."

Both Battles and Hume said they expect the mood and intensity of the General Assembly to be high as they prepare to dig in and strive for major reform. Changes in schedule already indicate that the President Pro Tem of the Senate and the Speaker of the House want to use all the time they have available to them.

In the past, neither chambers are normally in session on Fridays, but this year they are scheduled on Fridays as well as Monday through Thursday.

"We got an e-mail this week that we should pack for a full week because we are going to use a full week," Hume said.