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Feb
4
Don’t Cut Spending - Raise Taxes?
Filed Under East Chicago Indiana, Gary Indiana, Hammond Indiana, Income Tax, Lake County Council, Miller Beach Indiana, budget cut, local government reform, property tax crisis, property tax reform, quality of life, tax revolt, tax sale, taxes
A newspaper column explains why Northwest Indiana will never pare back government spending and will always look to raising taxes until the pain causes people to revolt a la Gary’s Miller residents and the anti- Lake Co. income tax rebellion.
Writes those rebellious folks at MCC Legal Defense fund set up by Gary’s Miller Citizens Corp.:
It has been said that if you want something to disappear, tax it. The MCC Legal Defense Fund certainly does not want homeowners to disappear …
Northwest Indiana Times columnist Janet Moran suggests cutting Lake County spending could result in dire effects — cuts in police and fire response — and suggests that the solution might be to raise taxes on property owners who are perceived to have more than others.
Writes Janet Moran:
Cutting local spending as the entire panacea to this whole property tax mess is a stick-your-head-in-the-sand, simplistic approach to Lake County’s predicament. Absolutely, there’s a critical need to comb unnecessary spending. But predicted revenue shortages go deeper than that. There’s no quick, one-size-fits-all utopian fix.
An appraiser in LaPorte County recently made an apt observation that to provide $58,000 in property taxes for local schools it took 140 average homes in Michigan City, but only five homes in the city’s upscale Sheridan Beach.
Janet Moran seems to suggest raising taxes on all of Lake County more to raise funds for Hammond, East Chicago and Gary.
Does is this the start of an opinion offensive to gather support for higher property taxes aimed at Gary’s lake front Miller Beach neighborhood and other places perceived to have wealth?
Could this be an effort to soften up voters as the proponents of higher taxes try to resuscitate the loathed Lake County income tax?
- The Legislative Services Agency reports that 66 of Indiana's 92 counties have to cut back or they'll have to raise...
- Opposition to the Lake County income tax is faltering in the Lake County Council, reports the Northwest Indiana Times. Councilman...
- The Miller Beach district of Gary, Indiana wants to disannex from the city, reports Marisa Kwiatkowski in the Northwest Indiana...
- Higher fees might be the result of mismanagement of funds at the Gary Sanitary District and the Lake County Council...
- Indiana Barrister reports that the Indiana House Ways and Means committee voted to cap property taxes at 1% of income,...
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2 Responses to “Don’t Cut Spending - Raise Taxes?”
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Yeah, I was scratching my head after reading that column.
Why must government lovers like her resort to the “what do you want to cut first, police or firemen?” tactic? Why can’t we cut EVERYTHING ELSE before we get to police and fire service?
My property taxes are already in the 5 figures, before the 2% cap. My Indiana income taxes are 4 figures. How much more blood should I be expected to bleed so that Van Til and his corhort can have take home cars and free gas?
Hi Buzz,
The scary thing is that when the guys were stealing money wholesale during the sidewalks for votes scandal, they took $20 million or so and nobody noticed.
It is only when there are suggestions that government units tighten the belts, consolidate, and stop paying too much to cronies and friends for goods and services that suddenly not getting $20 million or so is a crisis.
Why do East Chicago, Gary or other Lake Co. cities need their own library system when there’s a great one at the county level?
Why does East Chicago have to run buses for free?
There are a lot of places where cuts could be made without impacting the ability for first responders to get to an incident scene.
When the money is being stolen in the millions, nobody feels a pinch. It is only when that money isn’t being converted into political power that the howls of budget cuts killing people are heard.