No time to take a hike: anger over legislature's adjournment without a tax fix.

• Author: Kaelble, Steve
• Position: Opener - Brief Article

Joe Gomeztagle was hiking mad.

The Lake County resident was mad that the Indiana General Assembly adjourned this spring without reforming the state's tax system, which nearly everyone seems to agree is broken. So Gomeztagle, the guy who spearheaded a lawsuit that eventually struck down Indiana's property-tax system, left home and walked to the Statehouse.

Yes, he's from northwest Indiana, and yes, he walked all the way to the capital city. He walked for two weeks and about 150 miles, demanding that any lawmakers serious about showing some leadership meet him on the Statehouse steps April 19.

It was a very small meeting.

As it happened, only a couple of state lawmakers answered the tax activist's roll call that morning, one by proxy. But the weary and sunburned Gomeztagle, project manager for Operation Tax Education Now, wasn't discouraged. His stunt, he explains, was designed to give voters proof that state leaders aren't leading. "It's to hold them accountable," he says. "I think the party's over."

Gomeztagle isn't the only one mad. Gov. Frank O'Bannon pounded his fist on a table when legislators left town without coming up with a way to plug a $1.3 billion hole in the state's budget. Many lawmakers are mad that the governor's plan asks them to increase taxes with an election on the horizon. So will the players be able to move past their anger and find a solution during this month's special session of the General Assembly?

Lt. Gov. Joe Kernan hopes so. "I felt much more confident when Sen. Borst brought forth a proposal that was a real attempt at compromise," he says, referring to state Sen. Larry Borst, head of the Senate Finance Committee. In late April, Borst unveiled a plan that would raise sales, income and corporate taxes along with cigarette and riverboat taxes. His goal is to balance the budget and provide relief to property-tax payers, many of whom will be steamed by how much they owe after reassessment under the new market-value assessment rules forced by Gomeztagle's lawsuit.

Kernan and O'Bannon last fall put forth proposals that were in many ways similar to Borst's and had broad support from a wide spectrum of lobbyists, from business to labor. But lawmakers couldn't agree on the details. Among those arguing against the administration's ideas was Indiana Rep. Brian Bosma, the House Republican leader.

Bosma insists that making the state's tax structure more business-friendly is the biggest need, and points out that House...