INDIANAPOLIS | Lake County legislators last spring embraced a complex property tax overhaul that promises to cut the average homeowner's bill by roughly a third.
But that isn't enough for a slate of Republican challengers seeking to oust incumbents from Hammond to Merrillville Nov. 4.
"What drove me to run is the property taxes," said Fernando Urzua, a retired steelworker from Munster. "My opponent, I think she's lost touch."
Urzua is up against state Rep. Linda Lawson, a five-term Democrat from Hammond. She defends her vote for the spring property tax legislation, which included a provision that exempts existing government debt in Lake and St. Joseph counties from new tax caps.
"It would have decimated those counties," Lawson said. "I heard from constituents for years that property tax was the No. 1 issue and think what I did was the right thing."
Local government and schools in Lake County still face combined spending cuts of $150 million by 2010. For homeowners, the debt carve-out means their tax bills will be capped somewhere between 1.2 percent and 2 percent of their homes' value, instead of 1 percent. That means the owner of a $100,000 home in Munster, for instance, might pay a few hundred dollars more a year in taxes than someone in Valparaiso.
Rep. Mara Candelaria Reardon, a Munster Democrat seeking a second term, also voted for the legislative tax cuts. But she's under fire from her GOP opponent for not supporting an accompanying measure to write the tax caps into the Indiana Constitution.
"She voted against Senate Joint Resolution 1, which is going to make the property tax relief permanent," complained George Janiec, the Hammond Republican opposing her at the polls. "She gets a big failure for that."
Candelaria Reardon said she doesn't "understand what the urge is to change the Constitution." She touts her work last legislative session with Whiting Mayor Joe Stahura to ensure the tiny lakefront town, which heavily relies on taxes from the local BP refinery, would not be devastated by a new cap on business property taxes.
"I'm pretty proud of my record," Candelaria Reardon said. "I think we've done a lot for the taxpayers in Lake County."
St. John Republican Joe Hero, who is challenging 38-year incumbent Rep. Chet Dobis, D-Merrillville, said his top priority is putting the tax caps in the Constitution so the measures cannot be overturned via lawsuit or tinkered with by future legislatures.
Dobis, who voted for the constitutional amendment in March, said legislators need to wait a few years to see the full impact of the caps on local government before adding the caps to the state charter. The proposed amendment, which passed this spring, must be approved again next year or in 2010 before it can go before voters for final approval.
In Highland, Democratic Rep. Dan Stevenson, a legislator since 1995, faces Republican Cy Huerter. In Gary, political newcomer Catherine Campbell, a Republican, is challenging Democratic Rep. Vernon Smith.
And in East Chicago, Lonnie Randolph, who is attempting a return to the state Senate a decade after leaving to become a city judge, is up against Republican Carl Dahlin Jr.
