Keeping Tabs on Spending Through TAB

By C.A. Bouslog

MUNCIE, IN - The public is encouraged to attend a special meeting of the Delaware County Council at 1 p.m. on Tuesday, April 1, 2008.  This meeting has been called for a vote to adopt the ordinance to re-establish the County Board of Tax Adjustment (Tax Adjustment Board or TAB).

Although state government has touted the passage of the most recent property tax bill as a “sweeping change,” property taxes remain, and our esteemed legislators extended the move toward total property tax repeal for at least another two years.  The upshot of this is that the focus now more than ever is on reduction and control of local spending. 

Fortunately, legislation included in the bill allows for the County Board of Tax Adjustment to play a significant role in limiting spending. This is particularly significant in that the Capital Review Board that was supposed to begin 1/1/09 has been abandoned.  In its place, the County Board of Tax Adjustment would be charged with review, possible revision and reduction of the budget, tax rate, and tax levy of each political subdivision filed with the county auditor.  Such entities would include townships, schools, city, county, library, airport authority, etc.  The statutory deadline for reinstatement of the County Board of Tax Adjustment is April 15, 2008.

Seven members will comprise this Board with one member each appointed from the County Council, the City (Mayor McShurley or her designate), and the Muncie Community School system.  The remaining four members—county residents—will be appointed by the County Commissioners.  All appointments must be made by April 15, 2008. 

With foresight, Citizens of Delaware County for Property Tax Repeal (CDCPTR) began requesting the County Council to reinstate the County Board of Tax Adjustment three months ago.  On February 26, the Council rendered a favorable vote of 4:3 to reinstate the County Board of Tax Adjustment.  On March 25th, the ordinance required to reinitiate the County Board of Tax Adjustment was introduced, and that resulted in a favorable 4:3 vote as well.  Following that, however, a motion to suspend the rules to adopt the ordinance failed for lack of unanimous vote. 

The dissenting votes were cast, in ALL instances, by County Council members Ted Bowman, Chris Matchett, and Mary Chambers.  Even the County Council’s own attorney, Don Dunnuck, endeavored to try to ‘make motions’ from his seat to have the ordinance tabled—perhaps in an attempt to become the eighth member of the Council.  Dunnuck, acting far beyond his scope of responsibility and by way of making off-the-cuff remarks, asked questions, proffered observations, and questioned the authority of the County Board of Tax Adjustment to reduce budgets, tax rates, and levies without being an elected body itself. Following the failed vote, and in concert with the law, Brad Bookout called for the special meeting.

It has been rumored that there is, by some elected officials, resistance to the appointment of citizens to the Board.   It is essential to realize that the County Board of Tax Adjustment, once in place, will be in a position to make economic decisions that individual political subdivisions often will not, leading to improved efficiency of the local taxing unit.  After all, such judgments can be made by the Board without undue influence of special interest groups.  In the pursuit of greater transparency and accountability in local government, citizen input might help defuse possible adversarial approaches and allow for greater nonpartisan participation.  The presence of the Board would also serve to lessen finger pointing between state and local governments. 

Effective cuts in and control of spending is the goal of the County Board of Tax Adjustment.  One only has to recall the 20-year Center Township Trustee who managed to hoard in excess of $5 million to understand the necessity of this Board’s function. The discovery of those resources was in fact a revelation of a previous County Board of Tax Adjustment. The Board’s ultimate demise by “political abolishment” could very well have been driven by the fact that certain political entities ultimately grew paranoid of that kind of “oversight” and saw to its elimination when the opportunity presented itself. 

Thus, for the time being, the County Board of Tax Adjustment (or TAB) could be a very meaningful way to help keep a lid on escalating property taxes.