Four tax bills Senate Republicans touted on the first day of the session as part of the party’s property tax relief plan were heard — but held — in committee Tuesday.

Sen. Travis Holdman, R-Markle, filed Senate Bill 1, which proposes the property tax relief platform that Gov. Mike Braun campaigned on. When presenting his bill on the first day of the legislative session, Holdman said Senate Bills 6 through 9 were also filed to address property tax relief.

“Our goal is to find the sweet spot,” Holdman said. “It’s a long way until Sein Die in April, but I’m optimistic that we can get something important done for the Hoosier taxpayer this session.”

Senate Bill 6 would authorize a county fiscal body to adopt an ordinance to establish a property tax payment deferral program, which would allow a qualified person to defer between $100 and $500 annually of the property taxes that would otherwise be due on a homestead.

The total amount that could be deferred on a homestead is $10,000, according to the bill, which is also authored by committee chairman Sen. Travis Holdman, R-Markle, and Sen. Brian Buchanan, R-Lebanon.

During the Senate Tax and Fiscal Policy committee Tuesday, bill author and committee member Sen. Linda Rogers, R-Granger, said the county fiscal body could set up its own criteria for the program. Counties could choose to charge interest on the balance owed, but it cannot exceed 4%, she said.

All the deferred property taxes would become a lien on the property and payment is due if and when the property is transferred or is no longer the owner’s principal place of residence, Rogers said.

The total outstanding debt, lien and principal balance cannot exceed the assessed value of the home, Rogers said.

If passed, the bill could help many residents, Rogers said. For example, a senior citizen who has lived in his or her house since childhood and whose area’s assessed value continues to increase, which increases the property taxes, or a homeowner who has experienced financial hardship, she said.

“The program, it’s designed to help owners stay in their home when they’re having difficulty paying property taxes,” Rogers said.

Ambre Marr, a representative with AARP Indiana, said the organization supports Senate Bill 6 because it will help older homeowners, many of whom are on a limited income, to stay in their homes as they age.

Marr, who was one of five people to testify before the committee on Senate Bill 6, said it also offers a middle ground between collecting property taxes, which fund community services, and offering some relief.

“The more targeted the relief, the more cost-effective it will be,” Marr said.

Gina Leckron, the state director for Habitat for Humanity of Indiana, said as a home builder and lender, the organization supports the bill because it would ensure that homeowners can keep their homes affordable.

The organization supports older residents and veterans to have an affordable home, Leckron said, and such a property tax payment deferral program would offer needed relief to those people.

“We don’t want to cause financial strain. We absolutely love the spirit of this bill and the relief and support it provides. Ultimately, we want to keep more people in their homes,” Leckron said.

Senate Bill 7, authored by Buchanan and Rogers, changes from 8% to 9% a capitalization rate of property taxes on agricultural land.

Katrina Hall, a senior director of policy strategy and advocacy with the Indiana Farm Bureau, testified in support of Senate Bill 7 because it would offer relief to farmland owners. Hall, the only person who testified on Senate Bill 7, said farmers have seen an increase in many costs, like grain, so property tax relief would help the business as a whole.

“The agriculture economy in our state really needs some relief, so I can’t stress the urgency of this enough,” Hall said.

Senate Bill 8, authored by Buchanan, Rogers and Sen. Mike Gaskill, R-Pendleton, was amended to allow a school corporation to use property taxes to pay debt service on bonds or lease rentals on a lease for a specific controlled project, operating budget or school safety referendum tax levy, to be placed on the ballot only during the fall election of a general election year.

Holdman offered the amendment to Senate Bill 8, which would also limit a referendum tax levy to eight years and require a one-year “cooling off period” between the extension of debt.

Duneland School Corporation Superintendent Chip Pettit, one of the six people to testify on Senate Bill 8, said the district’s community supported operating referendums in 2012 and in 2019, and district officials will ask the community to support the referendum in 2026.

The Duneland community has told district officials that they feel well informed about the referendum and school finances as it relates to student success, Pettit said. The district has “maximized teacher compensation” through the referendum, he said, adding that the district’s base salary for teachers is $54,000.

“Without the operating referendum that would be a pipe dream,” Pettit said. “Our taxpayers have chosen to do more than the minimum for the benefit of our students. Please don’t disenfranchise that choice.”

Pettit said he would support limiting referendums if it required a special election, “but if the polls are open, why limit the options?”

The legislature should consider allowing referendums to be held during the May elections of a general election year, Pettit said, as well as removing the one-year pause before renewing a referendum.

“Please allow us to trust the local taxpayer to make decisions that impact them most,” Pettit said.

Jerell Blakeley, the director of government, community and racial and social justice for the Indiana State Teachers Association, said the legislature should reconsider language on when the referendums could occur.

Terry Spradlin, executive director of the Indiana School Boards Association, said the organization opposes Senate Bill 8 because “referenda are the only alternative revenue source” for school officials to address “significant needs” as they arise.

“This is a tool used sparingly,” Spardlin said. “In fact, 51% of school board corporations have never proceeded to referendum, leaving 49% that have. Of those 49%, only 30% of school corporations have ever passed a referendum.”

Senate Bill 9, authored by Holdman and Sen. Scott Baldwin, R-Noblesville, would change the calculation to determine the maximum levy growth quotient in determining a civil taxing unit’s maximum permissible ad valorem property tax levy.

Currently, the quotient is based on one variable, non-farm income, and Senate Bill 9 adds three more indexes, Baldwin said. The quotient would be payable beginning in 2027, he said.

The Indiana State Teachers Association would encourage the legislature to come up with replacement revenue if Senate Bill 9 were passed because “this will lead to a reduction that will impact negatively money in the education fund,” Blakeley said.

“I would implore this committee to look at investment for public education as an investment in the future,” Blakeley said.

Baldwin asked Blakeley to elaborate on his statement that the legislature find replacement revenue. Blakeley pointed to the bill’s fiscal impact statement which shows school corporations would lose $22 million in 2027 and $45 million in 2028.

“Is that a loss or is that an unrealized potential gain?” Baldwin said.

“It depends where you sit,” Blakeley said. “Ultimately, districts are not going to have these resources.”

“Should we allow districts to just have unlimited resources? Where do we draw the line?” Baldwin said.

Baldwin said the fiscal impact statement points to unrealized potential gain, and the legislature has the responsibility, on behalf of taxpayers, to “ensure that we are controlling what appears to be some unrealistic growth beyond cost.”

Overall, Blakeley said the Indiana State Teachers Association is concerned that many of the property tax bills, if approved, would be “a death by a thousand cuts when you compound them with other bills” for school corporations.

“We don’t want to support profligate spending either, but we also don’t want to … have dramatic cuts that lead to negative impacts in the classroom,” Blakeley said.

Campbell Ricci, policy director at Accelerate Indiana Municipalities, one of five people who testified on Senate Bill 9, said he calculated the tax levy going back 10 years. Under that calculation, if the state had used the new quotient, property tax levies would, on average, be 6% lower, Ricci said.

“It is definitely a cost control that isn’t, for many counties in the state, more stringent than what they are under now,” Ricci said.

Holdman said the five bills will be heard by the committee again in two weeks.

akukulka@post-trib.com