Their party’s national leader, President Trump, has called concerns about affordability a Democratic hoax, but some local Republican candidates on the ballot in November seem to disagree.
Four Republican St. Joseph County Council members, including Amy Drake and Joe Thomas who are seeking re-election, on Monday announced what they called their affordability agenda for this year.
They believe the Indiana General Assembly this session will pass three property tax-related bills that counties can choose to opt into.
One would eliminate the three-year sunset for a new 55-and-older credit. Drake says that saved about 10,000 county homeowners a combined $2.7 million in the first year.
”There’s a lot of talk about how much county governments are losing by putting these tax plans through but for our county it costs us about $280,000 to do this, so considering it’s saving some residents thousands of dollars, it was well worth the cost for the government to do this," Drake said.
They said they also plan to push for county adoption of new state laws, assuming they pass this session, providing tax breaks for first-time home buyersa nd allowing homeowners to pay their property taxes in monthly installments. They also plan to introduce a bill opting into a state law passed last year to let seniors defer some property taxes until their homes are sold later, acting like a lien.
