Tax Day-and the Governor is hot-ain't no waiting till 2008

The resident are slow to response to the shaky business of local official in assessing their property, but the Governor Mitch Daniels knows what's up.

While Daniels chastised lawmakers -- particularly House Speaker B. Patrick Bauer, D-South Bend, and Rep. Win Moses, D-Fort Wayne -- for suggesting that the state's surpluses could be tapped to provide some property tax relief, the governor said he is open to using the surplus temporarily, while the state awaits the $300 million in licensing fees being paid by the two horse-racing tracks in order to install slot machines. The legislature has earmarked those fees for property tax relief.

"I'm open to using part of our hard-won state surplus at least in a temporary way if need be," he said. "But the first thing we should do is use the money already provided by the General Assembly in a more targeted way."