Property Tax Relief Set In Budget Proposal

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(STATEHOUSE) - Senate Republicans’ budget proposal calls for $2.4-billion dollars in property-tax relief. But that relief is intertwined with the fate of two other bills.

The Senate budget calls for the state to take over 93-percent of school funding, picking up the entire operating budget of nearly half Indiana's school districts.

That plan is spelled out in a tax-relief bill unveiled Tuesday, which gets its money from the slot machines proposed for Indiana's racetracks.

Appropriations Chairman Bob Meeks says homeowners' hopes for a tax break don't rest entirely on slots, but long-term relief does. Without the slots bill, he says budgeters would likely allocate a far smaller amount of money for an increased homestead credit this year and leave it at that.

The tax-relief bill includes a $122-million dollars homestead credit increase, which tax and fiscal policy chairman Luke Kenley estimates would cut property tax bills five-percent.

House Democrats passed a slightly larger credit in their version of the budget.

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