In politics, there are few temptations stronger than the temptation to rename something. A cap becomes a “tax cut.” A tax deferral becomes “tax relief.” And rising tax bills are marketed as “affordability”. That is Amy Drake’s idea of tax relief: rename it and campaign on it.
The problem for Drake is not that critics misunderstood her policy. The problem is that Drake herself explained it.
In her Drake Report newsletter on February 15th, 2026, Drake wrote that Republicans had found a provision in state law that “allowed us to limit property taxes for seniors to no more than a 2 percent increase from the previous year.” In the same newsletter, she called that program a “tax cut.”
She made the same claim again in another Drake Report entry, writing that the council had passed a “property tax cut” in 2023, then defining it as a program “that limits property tax increases to no more than 2 percent over the previous year’s taxes for those 55 and older.”
That is not a tax cut. It is a cap on tax increases.
If a homeowner paid $1,000 one year and $1,020 the next (accounting for the 2% increase), that homeowner did not get a tax cut. The bill still went up by 2%. It may have gone up less than it otherwise would have. But less of a tax increase is not the same thing as a tax cut.
That point becomes even clearer with a simple example. If a senior homeowner’s taxes would have risen only 1 percent in a given year, then Drake’s 2 percent tax cap would have done nothing at all. It would not have lowered the tax bill by a penny. Nothing would have been cut, because nothing would have been reduced. The policy only mattered if taxes otherwise would have risen by more than 2 percent. Even then, taxes still rose.
And what happens when assessments fall, not rise? ABC57 reported on March 12th that St. Joseph County would see a countywide 4 percent decrease in property assessments this year, with the assessor saying most townships would see reductions instead of increases. If taxes were already headed down because assessments were falling, then what exactly did Amy Drake’s so-called “tax cut” cut?
That is why Drake’s own language matters. She did not describe a program that lowered taxes. She described a program that limited how fast taxes could rise. Then she marketed that tax cap as a tax cut.
This was repeated political messaging. In that same February 15th Drake Report, Drake wrote that Republicans wanted to make as many people as possible eligible for “the tax cut.” That was the sales pitch. Even though this “tax cut” was only available for less than 10% of homesteads in St. Joseph County.
The same pattern appears in her later affordability messaging. Drake wrote that one goal was to extend the “55 and older tax cut into perpetuity.” In that same piece, Drake discussed a separate proposal for seniors: a tax deferral program. She said it would allow seniors to defer up to $500 a year in property taxes, with the money paid back later, likely through the estate.
That matters because the deferral bill was something different from the 55+ tax-cap program, but it reveals the same rhetorical habit. The deferral ordinance is exactly what it says it is: a property-tax deferral program. It allows qualified homeowners 55 and older to defer between $100 and $500 of tax liability in a year, with deferred balances accumulating and later becoming due.
A deferral is not a cut either. It is delayed taxation.
Then there is the broader record Drake wants voters to ignore. During Drake’s four years in office, the county’s adopted all-funds budget has increased by $56,763,472, or about 29.7 percent.
That is the contradiction.
Drake wants credit for affordability, for helping seniors, for tax cutting. But the policy she described was not a tax cut. It was a 2 percent cap on annual increases for a limited group of homeowners. In some cases, it may have softened the blow of a larger increase. In other cases, it may have done nothing at all. What it did not do was cut taxes.
Taxes that still rise have not been cut. A cap is not a cut. A deferral is not a cut. And Amy Drake is taking credit for a tax cut that never cut taxes.
Logan Foster
Logan Foster founded Redress South Bend and reports on local government and public records in South Bend and St. Joseph County. He is 31 years old and is majoring in finance. He is a Cleveland sports fan and a longtime season ticket holder of the Cleveland Cavaliers.
