Northwest Indiana Discussion

Dave Hamm squatted in for Tom McDermott on the radio today and tried to answer a caller's question about the Lake county income tax for which he, along with Mike Repay take dubious credit. The caller, who said he is from Hammond, said he just paid his income tax and wanted to know what he gets for it. Hamm then explained that 1% of the 1.5% income tax goes to "box #4" on your property tax bill, which he said lowers what you pay in property taxes. But where does it really go? Is someone spending it, and can it legally be called "property tax relief" as the law says it must? Property tax caps came before the county income tax. It provided that property taxes could not be more than the Constitutionally mandated percentage of assessed value. For instance, If Hammond's tax rate had you billed for $2,500 for your home, but tax caps said you would not pay more than $1,500, you paid $1,500 and all of the $1,000 you saved was because of tax caps. Fast forward this example to the fast one pulled by Hamm, Repay, et al. You now must also pay the 1.5% Lake income tax...Hammond's tax rate has your home billed for $2,500...Hamm's "box #4" says that your property tax is reduced by a $300 credit from the income tax...That takes you to $2,200, but the tax caps say you'll only pay $1,500, so caps further reduce it by $700...Before the income tax and after, you still pay the same property tax but now you also pay income tax. So the question is, are you getting property tax relief from your income tax money? You're not. You just got taken again by The Hamm.

I called up county earlier this week, to find out how much mine, and my daughters property taxes will be this year. They have no idea. The lady on the phone at the Assessors office said they did not have the figures yet, and that we will not know until the paper bill comes out.

Property taxes are due in a month and a half, by May 10th. I know they are going up, partially because of the one item on the water bill in Hammond being raised 500% and put on the tax bill. I, as a fixed low income senior citizen, need to know the amount to prepare for.
My daughter and her family, all 6 of them, are low income, and need to know so they can put some money on the side also.

I guess the county thinks people can just pull money out of the thin air, and pay their property tax bill.

Well, guess what? The property tax amounts are online finally. Go to the Assessors site and see what you owe !

I checked some tax bills and I can confirm---TAX CAPS get us down to the maximum that can be charged in property taxes. So, the Lake county income tax DOES NOT get us reduced property taxes, as TAX CAPS had already, and continue to provide us relief from overspending local government. So, I'll pose the question...The money credited with reducing property taxes, that comes from the income tax, where does it go? It DOES NOT go to property tax relief! Will we find that the income tax you now pay, which is earmarked by law to go to your property tax relief, is instead being spent by local government? A question for the HAMMster...

Is this the same Wrong-way Hamm who was in part charged to watch over the Lake County Solid Waste Commission? Someone programmed him to talk like a CPA-in-training when it comes to obfuscating about tax increases but when called upon to account for expenditures all he seems to be able to muster is a "huh?"

NWI has dolts like this calling the shots but the Region intelligentsia is having a Victorian fainting spell over some supposedly discriminatory legislation that will have virtually no effect on the lives of anyone. Mooks who would punch out any flagrant homosexual in a Hammond watering hole are pretending to worry that some high-tech company may hesitate to consider East Chicago and Gary for advanced R&D facilities. Unskilled laborers who never took a science or math course in their lives may not get a say in the iPhone 7 operating system. Single mothers who take six years to earn a certificate for a two-year online degree won't have access to the executive suite at a branch of a Wall Street investment firm. They may have to pay for their multiple mood-altering drugs AND their cigarettes out-of-pocket. How are they to feed their four children by different sperm donors?

What a tragedy.

LU,

Nice topic, back when the lofty thought of applying a .015% income tax for property tax relief was marketed, we all knew this was just some more smoke and mirrors by the 4 Spades or is it now 5 spades?

If you want to know where that money went, well Tom spent it, giving his pal legal fees to line his pockets.