As the clock counts down the final three weeks until the municipal primary election on Tuesday, May 7th, there is a lot being said by candidates in order to convince you to vote for them. While this is certainly not new, some of those things being said lately make for popular talking points but also beg a closer scrutiny.
Talking Point: Carmel’s low residential property taxes (“fifth lowest property tax rate in the state”) are a result of robust growth of Carmel’s commercial sector and businesses lured to Carmel by the city’s “investments” (what city official officials prefer to call their profligate spending on redevelopment projects of dubious public benefit).
As 
Carmel property owners began receiving their 2019 property tax statements from Hamilton County this week, the statements reveal a couple of truths. First, average assessed value of residential properties rose a modest 0.4% from the previous year — an increase nevertheless that local taxing districts can squeeze a few more dollars from. This increase in assessed value wipes out the microscopic 0.01 of a cent decrease in the Carmel city tax rate.
Carmel’s incumbents have looked to rising home values to give them cover to set artificially low city tax rates in the years leading into a municipal election cycle, to give them a talking point about how low tax rates are compared to other jurisdictions. What they are not telling you is that you are paying more in taxes, due to increased valuation. More collected in taxes means more revenue for the city, right?
Not really. As more properties are taken off of the tax rolls in favor of TIF-funded redevelopment, the actual number of properties with full taxable value is shrinking. This is part of the sleight-of-hand that the mayor and council incumbents don’t want to discuss. As more and more properties are taken over for redevelopment and converted to TIF, the property tax burden is gradually shifting to residential and non-TIF commercial properties.
Talking Point: Debt is not deficit.
In
cumbents are now using this statement in an effort to deflect growing community concerns about the level of bonded debt by attempting unsuccessfully to recharacterize those widespread concerns as a false narrative about budget deficits.
In appearing on local radio last week, Carmel’s incumbent mayor Jim Brainard flatly said “we don’t have a debt problem” before accusing his challenger, Hamilton County Councilor Fred Glynn of “confusing debt with deficit”, citing a candidate profile of Glynn in the April 9th edition of the pro-Brainard Current in Carmel publication. Yet, Glynn makes no mention of deficits in that profile. Perhaps it is either that Jim Brainard himself is confused or his campaign hopes to create enough confusion on the issue among voters as to blunt what has become a defining issue of this campaign and a strong liability for Brainard.
Talking Point: Multiple layers of safeguards protect Carmel taxpayers from any failure of a developer to perform on a TIF-backed project.
A simple, yet to-the-point rebuttal of this claim is to ask “why availability of a Special Benefits Tax is even necessary?” to pledge to purchasers of lease-revenue bonds if its true that taxpayers are completely safeguarded from having to pay for TIF projects.
All it takes is an economic downturn or other event in which the amount of TIF revenue being generated by a project during its average 20-25 year life is not sufficient to pay the debt service due on the project. Incumbents like to point out Payments In Addition To Tax (PIATT) as a safeguard, but all that does is allow a developer to commit to making additional payments toward TIF. Should circumstances arise in which developers are not able or willing to make PIATT, there is nothing to prevent taxpayers from ultimately being obligated to pay the balance due on the TIF via a Special Benefits Tax.
Incumbents, perhaps having severely underestimated voter discontent as well as the energy and organization of their challengers, are now finally going door to door to ask for your vote. Whenever a candidate comes to your door to ask for your vote, take a moment to ask him or her the hard questions and don’t settle for a talking point. After all, if elected, they will be making decisions on your behalf for the next four years.
Then, cast an informed vote on May 7th.
brought to you by our friends at Essayists of Carmel, Indiana
