The chairman of the Marion County Board of Supervisors says a bill heading to the Governor’s desk is touted as property tax reform, but will instead hurt local taxing bodies and their efforts to provide services to their constituents.

Mark Raymie says the bill passed on Wednesday night will serve to restrict the amount of revenue which can be collected by the county and other local taxing bodies, while doing little to reduce overall taxes.

He tells KNIA/KRLS News he believes the state is complicating matters for local governments when it could be reducing its own budget and expenses.

“And I feel that the state has been a little paternalistic here, to say ‘you guys, we need to instruct you a little bit more on how to take care of that.’ In the meantime, they don’t take care of their own stuff; they continue to grow the state budget, they continue to use income tax dollars I think very unwisely,” Raymie says.

“(I’m a) little bit upset by what they did to local government under the guise of being for lower taxes. This will not lower taxes.”

He also expresses frustration in the VA property acquisition process, saying the main hurdle right now is the State Historic Preservation Office holding up the proceedings in spite of the fact the state doesn’t own the property.