If you’re mad about your school district asking for a referendum, you... [0:00-2:51]

So Indystar ran an article today about the record number of referendums across the state, asking for either property tax or income tax increases to cover school funding. You know, they interviewed a couple folks who are opposed to it, interviewed a few folks who are in favor of it, but they missed a ton of context. I think that context is very important. So two years ago, the state legislature passed SEA 1, which cut $1.4 billion across the state for municipalities, schools, counties, everything, local, anything local government related. And it was built as a property tax cut. And the average homeowner was supposed to get somewhere around $100 less on their property taxes each year. I don't know about you, but I think just about everybody in the state saw their property taxes go up. And the reality is that $1.4 billion is not actually going to homeowners or working folks, because part of the bill also included a property tax cut for up to $1 million of property for businesses. So now every business in the state got a $1 million property tax cut. That means the small restaurant, maybe the McDonald's or Olive Garden in your city basically doesn't have to pay any property taxes anymore. Walmart pays about a million dollars less of the value of their property tax now. I don't know about you, but I don't think those businesses are providing that much more value to their communities or to their workers. In fact, they benefit from not having potholes, having an educated workforce, from having police department that's able to show up, a fire department that's able to show up, but they're paying less for those services now despite still demanding those services. So, you know, you get mad at those school districts for spending too much money or being wasteful, sure, whatever. But don't get mad at them when the state cuts off their funding and then gives them a single avenue to make it up. They've got teachers to pay, they've got work to do, and businesses are paying less, homeowners are paying more, and that's just how this works for the Indiana State Republicans. They do not give a damn about you. They wanted to give a property tax cut to their friends with multi-million dollar businesses, and they do not care about property taxes for homeowners, and they're more than happy to cut schools and cities and make the rest of us pay more or see decline services. So, if you're mad about a referendum, blame the Indiana State legislature, blame your Republican representatives in Indianapolis. They're the ones who did this. They're the ones who made this mess.