Spare us the victory lap.

Indiana lawmakers have been busy congratulating themselves for making the state more attractive to industry by reducing the business personal property tax.

Trouble is, they didn’t do that.

Instead, as is the trend these days by the Indiana General Assembly, they pushed the hard decisions downward onto local government, creating a local option for counties to cut the business personal property tax.

Doing so will soon result in a patchwork quilt of tax policies county-by-county across the state.

And when it came to figuring out how to replace the revenues that would be lost by cutting the tax burden for businesses, the legislature punted.

Yet another “blue ribbon commission” was established to try to figure out how to support local government and schools without those tax revenues.

Rather than bold, clear action, legislative leaders dodged all of the tough decisions involved.

Cutting the business personal property tax was a key item on Gov. Mike Pence’s agenda. And you can make a case — as the governor has — that doing so would make Indiana more attractive to new business investment.

But the central issue from the very beginning has been how such a tax cut would be paid for, and that issue remains unaddressed.

What should have happened instead?

Lawmakers should have taken up the governor’s proposal on a statewide basis, coming up with one set of rules for the entire state rather than dumping the problem into the laps of county councils. And they should have solved the revenue side of the equation first, rather than kicking the can down the road.

That course of action, however, would have required some tough decisions during an election year, not something the Indiana General Assembly is known for.

In an election year, it was much easier to pretend that bold action has been taken.

Politically that makes sense, but it falls far short as public policy.
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