HoosLeft Podcast #147 - LIVE w/ John E. Bartlett for HD33

SUMMARY: Scott welcomes back John E. Bartlett, the Democratic candidate for Indiana State House District 33 (Blackford, Randolph, and parts of Delaware, Henry, and Jay Counties), for a deep dive into the competing visions for property tax policy currently fighting it out in Indianapolis. Bartlett — a 25-year IT veteran who says he’s done more homework on property taxes than almost anyone in the building — walks through where property taxes actually came from (Benjamin Franklin’s 1750s Philadelphia), how the 2008 subprime crisis and a 2013-era Lake County Indiana Supreme Court ruling set the stage for today’s assessment chaos, and how 2025’s SEA1 — Governor Mike Braun’s “signature achievement” — delivered pocket change to most homeowners while blowing a massive hole in local government and school budgets. He contrasts his own proposed fixes (averaging assessed values over multiple years, “like to like” comparable-sales assessments, pre-tax payroll escrow accounts, and ending property confiscation as the penalty for nonpayment) against two competing Republican plans: state Senators Ryan Mishler and Chris Garten’s proposal to eliminate homestead property taxes by shifting the burden to local income tax, and his actual opponent J.D. Prescott’s plan to eliminate property taxes entirely in favor of a 7% sales tax on services — which Bartlett argues is a disguised tax increase that disproportionately benefits large property owners like Prescott’s own 3,000-acre family farm, while threatening to force school consolidations and closures across rural Indiana, including in Prescott’s own backyard. Progressive Indiana Network: https://progressiveindiana.net HoosLeft: https://hoosleft.us John E. Bartlett: https://www.bartlettforindiana.org/ HoosLeft and PIN rely on your support. To receive new posts and support our work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. WHAT’S INSIDE: 00:00:22 — Introduction: Indiana’s Property Tax Fight Scott frames the episode around Indiana’s competing property tax proposals: Governor Mike Braun’s 2025 SB1/SEA1, a new Mishler-Garten Senate plan to eliminate homestead property taxes, and State Representative J.D. Prescott’s House plan to eliminate property taxes entirely in favor of a sales tax on services. Introduces guest John E. Bartlett, who lives on a 40-acre farm in Blackford County, grew up in Randolph County, and has worked in IT for a major Indianapolis security firm for more than 25 years. 00:04:12 — Welcoming John E. Bartlett (Not the Other One) John rejoins the show after roughly two years away; the two catch up and note his prior episode drew unusually strong listener numbers. John clarifies why the “E.” in his name matters: another John Bartlett, who represents District 95 in Indianapolis, already sits in the Indiana House, so the two have agreed to go by “senior” and “junior” to avoid confusion. 00:06:18 — J.D. Prescott’s Property Tax “Scheme” John previews his core argument: he calls Prescott’s property tax proposal a “scheme,” not a plan, crediting former Ball State economist Michael Hicks as a key source of his own deep knowledge of property tax policy. 00:08:00 — Why We Have Property Taxes: Benjamin Franklin’s Philadelphia John traces property taxes back to 1750s Philadelphia, where Benjamin Franklin pushed for them to fund a common fire department, a public library, and paved streets after a devastating fire exposed the risk of tightly packed, unprotected housing. Frames property tax as, in effect, an investment that increases the value and safety of one’s own property — not merely “rent to the government.” 00:10:35 — From the Subprime Crisis to the 2010 Tax Caps John connects the mid-2000s subprime mortgage boom — which artificially inflated property values — to a 2010 constitutional amendment capping property tax at 1% for homesteads, 2% for farm and rental property, and 3% for business property. Says this cap was the “first hurt” on local government funding, pushing cities and counties to chase tax abatements for incoming businesses just to replace lost revenue. 00:12:02 — Tax Abatements, the Lake County Lawsuit, and the COVID Price Spike Traces the roots of today’s data center tax-abatement boom to this same local-government funding squeeze. Describes a Lake County lawsuit that reached the Indiana Supreme Court around 2013, which ruled assessments could no longer be based on a property’s last sale price and had to reflect current market value — leading to a complex new assessment rulebook from the state by 2016. Explains how pandemic-era supply and demand imbalances (2020–2024) caused market values, and therefore assessments, to spike — with this year’s bills reflecting that peak even as prices have since started falling. 00:15:31 — SEA1: Pennies for Homeowners, a Windfall for Business John breaks down SEA1’s actual results: homeowners with half-million-dollar homes saved no more than $300, while the real...