INDIANAPOLIS | A quartet of Lake County Council members visited the Statehouse on Tuesday to talk taxes and other topics with state lawmakers.

Council President Larry Blanchard, R-Crown Point, met privately with Senate Appropriations Chairman Luke Kenley, R-Noblesville.

Kenley co-authored a 2007 law preventing nonschool governmental units in Lake County from raising property taxes until the council adopts a 1 percent personal income tax and dedicates the $92 million in proceeds to property tax relief.

Blanchard said the meeting provided an opportunity to share the "trials and tribulations the county is dealing with." He briefed Kenley on how tax changes the General Assembly began implementing in 2002 have depressed industrial property values in Lake County.

Kenley has said he is willing to revisit the 2007 law if some legislative tweaks could entice Lake County to end its status as the only Indiana county without an income tax.

House Bill 1058, which cleared the House Tuesday on a 94-0 vote, would add a municipal designation to state income tax forms. Highland Clerk-Treasurer Michael Griffin suggested the idea last year, saying it would allow for a distribution formula through which local income tax dollars could stay within the community in which the funds are raised.

Kenley wants counties to move from property tax to income tax as a local funding source, arguing it would bring increased equity to the financing of local government. But Lake County Councilman Ted Bilski, D-Hobart, countered that he would have a hard time convincing a cash-strapped $9-an-hour retail worker that imposing an income tax would foster some measure of fairness.

Lake County Councilman Ernie Dillon, D-Hammond, said he met with Rep. Linda Lawson, D-Hammond, who is sponsoring legislation to impose a $10 Lake County courts filing fee and use the roughly $800,000 a year to consolidate East Chicago, Gary and Hammond courthouses into one facility in Crown Point. Dillon said Hammond could save $2 million a year if the legislation made possible the closing of its city court.

Lake County Councilwoman Christine Cid, D-East Chicago, also was among the traveling group, which was in town to attend the Association of Indiana Counties' annual Legislative Conference.