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/
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 savings went to businesses through an increased personal property tax deduction (from $1 million to $2 million), largely eliminating what many businesses pay.
Says local governments are now “starving for cash” as a direct result.
00:17:44 — The Mishler-Garten Plan and the Local Income Tax Squeeze
John discusses the newly unveiled Mishler-Garten plan to shift revenue to local income tax, noting the current 2.9% local income tax cap, with counties like Randolph already at or above that level.
00:18:50 — Reset: Mike Braun’s “Signature Achievement”
Scott recaps SEA1 as Braun’s signature achievement, noting typical homeowner savings of only a few dollars a month while school districts statewide face roughly three-quarters of a billion dollars in lost funding, forcing a record number of local tax referendums this November.
00:21:11 — Can You Even Eliminate Property Taxes? Bond Ratings and $54 Billion in Debt
John explains why eliminating property taxes outright is dangerous: $54 billion in local government bonds are backed by that stable revenue stream, and Michael Hicks has warned Prescott’s plan would threaten Indiana’s bond rating by shifting reliance onto less stable sales and income tax revenue.
00:25:07 — Bartlett’s Own Fixes: Assessments, Escrow Accounts, and Nonpayment Penalties
John lays out his own property tax reform package: first, repealing SEA1 entirely; then averaging assessed property values across multiple points in time (rather than one potentially inflated snapshot) to smooth out artificial spikes; and using “like to like” comparable-sales assessments so a century-old farmhouse in Blackford County isn’t compared to a similar-sized home in Carmel.
Also proposes a pre-tax payroll escrow account so people without mortgages can pay property taxes in small installments rather than two large lump sums, and wants to replace property confiscation with some other penalty for nonpayment.
00:32:22 — The Prescott Plan: A 7% Sales Tax on Services
Scott turns to Prescott’s plan directly, noting Lieutenant Governor Micah Beckwith’s support and its adoption into the state Republican platform at their June convention.
John explains the mechanics: a 7% sales tax on previously untaxed services (medical care excluded), without a tax-on-tax when the cost is passed down a supply chain.
00:35:39 — “You’re Describing a Tax Increase”
Using Legislative Services Agency estimates, John shows the state’s property tax revenue (currently $10.6 billion/year) would jump to roughly $15 billion in year one and $17 billion in year two under Prescott’s plan — a 50% and then 70% net revenue increase — despite Prescott’s public insistence that it isn’t a tax increase.
00:36:47 — Renters Already Pay Property Tax, and Young People Get Hit Hardest
Scott and John note renters already pay property tax indirectly through rent, at the higher 2% rental rate, undercutting the claim that renters currently pay nothing.
John recounts a town-hall exchange where Prescott claimed landlords would competitively lower rents under the new system — which both agree doesn’t match how landlords actually behave — and argues younger, lower-income people who rely most on services would be hit hardest by the new tax.
00:41:49 — Cascading Costs: Bonds, Schools, and Who Really Wins
Scott raises the downstream legal and bond-rating complications of overhauling how schools and local governments are funded.
John walks through how a 7% tax on construction and business services cascades down through rent, medical bills, and delivery fees until it lands on ordinary consumers, while large property owners like Prescott’s family — who own roughly 3,000 acres of farmland in Randolph County worth an estimated $40 million — would save heavily on the property tax side.
00:44:03 — How the Money Would Flow Back to Local Government
John details how new sales tax revenue would be collected by the state and redistributed by formula: roughly 10% to a rainy-day fund, 45% of what remains to schools, 20% each to counties and municipalities, and 15% to townships, libraries, fire protection, and TIF districts (which would be phased out).
Notes county-level distribution would be split 75% by population and 25% by road mileage, but local governments would lose the ability to set their own tax rates to meet unexpected needs, like an aging fire truck in Henry County’s Stony Creek Township.
00:47:12 — Political Shenanigans and “Money Follows the Child”
Scott raises the risk of the state withholding funds from disfavored counties or municipalities for political reasons.
John connects this to how education dollars would be redirected under “money follows the child” policies, diverting funds from public schools to private and charter schools even as districts struggle with rising utility costs tied to nearby data centers.
00:49:42 — Union School Corporation and the Cost of Consolidation
John confirms that Union School Corporation — located in the town J.D. Prescott himself represents — is already facing a possible court-ordered closure, with a ruling expected shortly after the November election.
Lists other small East Central Indiana communities that have already lost their local elementary schools, including Montpelier, Pennville, and a school in DeSoto in Delaware County, describing the toll school closures take on small-town identity.
00:52:28 — JD Prescott’s Lone Vote Against Disabled Veterans’ Tax Relief
John notes disabled veterans are among the groups who benefit most from existing property tax exemptions, and recalls that in 2019, a bill granting disabled veterans an additional property tax exemption passed the Indiana House and Senate by votes of 99-1 and 50-0 — with J.D. Prescott as the lone “no” vote in either chamber.
00:54:19 — Closing: Contact Info and Show Outro
John’s contact info: website bartlettforindiana.org, email BartlettforIN@gmail.com, donations via ActBlue, and Facebook.
Scott closes by comparing Prescott’s scheme to South Park’s “Underpants Gnomes” business plan — a plan with no clear middle step connecting cutting taxes to positive outcomes — and John reiterates his own priorities: stopping rural school closures, protecting rural hospitals from looming Medicaid cuts, and opposing further toll-road giveaways like the one that cost the state 65% of its road maintenance funding.
