Indianapolis, Indiana, August 30, 2023 - Donald Rainwater is challenging one of the Republican candidates seeking the nomination for Governor. Recently, that candidate stated, if elected, they would work to abolish the Indiana state income tax. Rainwater, however, was the only candidate to propose this plan during his campaign for Governor in 2020 and he continues to propose that he will work with the General Assembly to abolish the state income tax if elected Governor in 2024.
“There seem to be a lot of questions regarding how the state government would survive if we abolished the state income tax,” says Rainwater. He offers some commonsense observations to answer these concerns:
If income is adjusted for inflation, Hoosier households are spending more to purchase the necessities of life than they were four years ago. In contrast, the Indiana General Assembly just passed, and the Governor signed, a biennial budget which increased the state budget to approximately $45 billion in spending over the next two years. If Hoosiers are being forced by big government policies to do more with less, then why shouldn’t the state government be doing the same? Rainwater says he would propose a four-year freeze on the state budget requiring the General Assembly to not add any new spending or taxation to the budget from January 1, 2025, through December 31, 2028.
If Indiana abolished the state income tax, enacted a true cap on property taxes of one percent of the purchase price of a residential property, eliminated the annual vehicle excise taxes, and rolled back the gasoline excise tax to the pre-2017 level and rolled back the indexing of that tax for inflation, the results would not only put more money in Hoosiers’ pockets, but also generate a significant positive shift in population growth. More college graduates would stay in Indiana for the positive financial benefits. People from more tax-burdensome states would move here to enjoy the positive financial benefits as well.
If more businesses and people are contributing to the economy in Indiana, tax revenues will increase without increasing tax rates or creating new taxes. This is an economic fact.
Provided these considerations, Rainwater believes we don’t need to replace tax revenue from the state income tax, property taxes, vehicle excise taxes, or gasoline taxes. He says, “We simply need to hold our state government accountable for the out-of-control spending, eliminate excessive taxation and encourage population growth by financially incentivizing more people to move to Indiana.” In his closing statement, Rainwater says, “As I have consistently said over the past four years, Hoosiers need Better Government, Not Bigger Government and abolishing the state income tax is the first step in the right direction.” More detailed plan information can be found online at: https://www.rainwaterforindiana.com/issues
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