According to the lede by Rick Yencer of the Muncie Star Press, at a local House forum:
Indiana House Democrats and their party’s candidates generally support property tax caps, local rules for CAFOs and a living wage, while House Republicans are advocates for privatization of state government, right to work and making those tax caps permanent.
I threw in a link on the “right to work” position because it’s one of those pieces of jargon that sounds good on its face but is problematic in practice. Basically it creates free rider problems wherein a person can work at a place where a union has created better conditions without having to pay dues to that union.
Making tax caps permanent refers to putting property tax caps in the Constitution. Personally, I oppose such a move since we don’t know what tax policy is going to be most prudent in the future. Currently those caps have been legislated, and that legislation is being implemented and it will probably be awhile before we can tell whether this policy works well. And, even if it ends up working well now, putting it in the Constitution ignores the possibility that property tax caps might not be the best policy in the future when conditions change. Nobody likes taxes, and all taxes have their pros and cons. I don’t think there is anything peculiarly pernicious about property taxes that warrant special Constitutional treatment as compared to income taxes, sales taxes, estate taxes, excise taxes, or whatever.
Privatization can work in some situations, but it’s not automatically better than having government perform a function. At times, it feels like privatizing a particular government function or asset is selling our seed corn and, too often, simply enriching well connected bidders.