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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 | 2 Comments
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?
Jan
7
CP Mayor Proposes Budget Streamlining
Filed Under Crown Point, David Uran, Income Tax, budget cut, taxes | 4 Comments
Newly elected Crown Point Mayor David Uran — preparing for a reduction in funding because of frozen budget levies — proposes streamlining Crown Point’s budget at tonight’s City Council meeting, reports the Northwest Indiana Times‘ Marisa Kwiatkowski.
Mayor David Uran said Crown Point was warned it might need to grapple with the budget freeze. With less than a week in office, he said he has come up with several initiatives to streamline efficiency and spending.
The mayor’s office will be restructured and city positions eliminated to a savings of about $65,000, under four ordinances Uran will present to the City Council tonight.
While I’d like to see more police and firefighters protecting the community — you can never have too many police officers around when you need them and my cousin is a lieutenant with a fire department in another state — I’m willing to sacrifice by sticking with 2007’s budget levels while the city looks over its budget and finds ways to hold the line on spending.
I’m sure Crown Point will figure out a way to make the budget work by cutting back in other areas where they may be room to cut. It’s good to see that the new mayor is taking steps to prepare for solutions to the budget freeze before the predict crunch becomes reality.
It’s a tough deal, but households all over Northwest Indiana have to routinely make tough budget decisions to keep from busting the family budget, so government officials should feel a little better know they aren’t alone in sometimes having to wait a while before purchasing something.
(H/T to BCBS).
