The New York Times’ Monica Davey reports:

For the first time since 1968, all eyes have turned to Indiana’s Democratic presidential primary on Tuesday. About 200,000 new voters have registered, and the presidential candidates seem to turn up on every corner.

But eclipsed by all the excitement over The Race are the many others across the state: for county treasurers, coroners, surveyors, school board members, judges, state senators, members of Congress and, in Ms. Long Thompson’s case, governor.

While the presidency is an important race, we must not forget that the outcomes of several local elections could determine whether Lake County ends up with an income tax or not.  Also, there is an election to decide who will be judge in County Division, Room Three.

Link:  Post-Tribune’s local election coverage

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Technorati Tags: Indiana primary

This is important to bear in mind as we move forward to the general election. We don’t have a deficit because of Iraq, or the tax cuts, or the drug benefit. We have a deficit because the government grew fat. We can’t fix that with tax increases. Uncle Sam must go on a diet.

A simple way to start would be this: Whoever is elected president this November should pledge that he or she won’t spend $1 more than we currently plan to. If Bush had done that seven years ago, we would be in a different world.

Anyone listening in Lake County?

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Technorati Tags: government spending, property tax crisis, tax revolt

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?

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Technorati Tags: Janet Moran, Lake County income taxes, Miller Beach Indiana, property taxes crisis

Under Sen. Sue Landske’s amendment to Senate Bill 20, Lake County will have the option to distribute money raised through an income tax in three ways: to keep the money in the municipality where it is raised, to apply all funds to the county property tax levy, or to distribute 60 percent of funds where they are raised and the other 40 percent based on municipalities’ populations.

It’s great to see the Post-Tribune has embraced blogging in 2008!

See more great Northwest Indiana blogs at nwiblogs.com.

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Technorati Tags: COIT, Lake County income tax, Sen. Sue Landske