By Juliann Ventura
The Indiana Citizen
March 18, 2025
Roughly 250 rallygoers sporting green gathered at the Statehouse on Monday, urging Indiana’s lawmakers to cut property taxes.
Attendees chanted, “Where’s my money?” as nearly all of them wore green shirts and held signs emblazoned with the demands “Eliminate property taxes NOW!” or “Stop stealing our money.” Prior to the rally, which coincided with St. Patrick’s Day, Indiana Lt. Gov. Micah Beckwith, a speaker at Monday’s event and vocal critic of property taxes, had encouraged attendees on the social platform X to “wear green to let lawmakers know they can’t use our homes as an endless money printing machine.”
The rally comes as the Indiana General Assembly has been locked in debate trying to craft a property tax bill that provides relief to Hoosiers who have been hit with steep hikes in property taxes as the assessed values of their homes have skyrocketed. Separate proposals from Republican Gov. Mike Braun, Senate Republicans and, most recently, Rep. Jeff Thompson, the top Republican on the House Ways and Means Committee, are all in competition.
The crowd cheered as Braun, who was one of the final speakers to take the stage, made his way to the front of the group. The crowd started chanting “fight, fight, fight!” early in the governor’s speech after he called himself a fighter and vowed to be a leader that follows through on his promises.
“All that you’re asking is that you want to keep more of your own money,” said Braun, who campaigned on making property taxes more affordable. The crowd erupted with loud cheering and clapping.
Along with Beckwith and Braun, WIBC’s Rob Kendall, Casey Daniels and Jason Hammer attended the rally. Republican State Reps. Andrew Ireland of Indianapolis, J.D. Prescott of Union City and Craig Haggard of Mooresville also appeared alongside Jesse Bohannon, a Marshall County commissioner, and Glenn Adams, a Brownsburg town councilman.
Beckwith’s entrance to the rally, which was located almost directly outside of his office door, was met with raucous yelling by the crowd that roared over the music played by a bagpiper, who walked ahead of Beckwith as the Republican made his way to the front of the crowd. The bagpiper, who wore a plaid kilt, continued playing music as Beckwith got settled onstage and the crowd quieted down.
“Is it really your property if you have to pay the government rent to stay there?” Beckwith asked, which caused the group to boo in agreement.
On the stairs, Jeff Wolfert, a Hamilton County resident, stood out from the crowd with two hand-made signs, one urging local governments to support constituents rather than donors and another calling on the state’s lawmakers to approve a bill that provides Hoosiers with property tax relief.
“We can’t sustain the high property tax rates that we’ve got,” said Wolfert, who’s lived in Indiana since the 1970s.
“We’ve got to rein in our local government to do more with less, provide basic services – safety, security, whatever – but they’ve got to cut all of their budgets and just figure it out with a lot less money from our taxpayers,” he added.
From the top floor of the statehouse, loud orchestral music intermittently echoed down above the rally as a handful of Hoosiers demonstrated in opposition to a property tax cut. A few of the people within the group sang loudly and played instruments as others held signs that said they were Indianapolis Public School (IPS) music teachers.
Angela Lee, 39, a mom with two kids who attend public schools, expressed her worry over certain bills that would cut money for IPS.
“I am really concerned about the bills that are being considered,” Lee said, specifically calling out Senate Bill 518, which would require all school districts to share more revenue from their property taxes with certain charter schools and other school corporations.
If the bill becomes law, more than $124 million in revenue would be shifted to charter schools and roughly $436 million would go to qualifying school corporations, a fiscal impact analysis by the Legislative Services Agency found. Senate Bill 518 narrowly passed out of the Senate on a 28 to 21 vote and was referred to the House Ways and Means Committee earlier this month. A vote for the legislation has not been scheduled.
“It’s gonna take away money from IPS that we in Marion County, we voted to increase our property taxes specifically to support IPS,” Lee said.
In 2023, Marion County voters approved a $410 million capital referendum which allowed for building renovations at more than 20 IPS elementary and middle schools. It amounted to a $3 monthly increase on property tax rates, according to the plan’s IPS website.
Lee added: “I want IPS to still be able to serve the students that it’s serving.”
Juliann Ventura is a political reporter who grew up in Indianapolis. Prior to joining The Citizen, Juliann reported in Washington, D.C., chasing down federal lawmakers on Capitol Hill, and was most recently on The Hill’s breaking news team covering all things politics and policy. She earned her master’s in journalism from Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism and her bachelor’s in international studies and criminology from Butler University (Go Dawgs!). Juliann’s reporting has been featured in The Washington Post, ProPublica and numerous state and local publications.
The Indiana Citizen is a nonpartisan, nonprofit platform dedicated to increasing the number of informed and engaged Hoosier citizens. We are operated by the Indiana Citizen Education Foundation, Inc., a 501(c)(3) public charity. For questions about the story, contact Marilyn Odendahl at marilyn.odendahl@indianacitizen.org.
