Christopher Hedges » Lake County Council

Lake Co. Unigov?

Christopher C. Hedges — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 22:43:54 +0000

Steve Dalton at Porter County Politics looks at a John Byrne post that asks if HEA 1001 was an attempt to create a Lake County unigov like Marion County’s by requiring the county council to review budgets for Lake County’s municipalities and other taxing units.

I can see unigov as being one way to solve problems with the budgets in Lake County by taking advantages of economies of scale.

But, will people in south and north counties be willing to let go of local control in favor a county-wide control for schools — which are exempt from HEA 1001 — and other government offices?

What governmental units would be at their best if they were county-wide?

Would a Marion County style unigov system work in Lake County?

Would a unigov system concentrate power in the hands of too few elected officials — namely the Lake County Council?

Technorati Tags: Lake County, Lake County Council, unigov

Don’t Cut Spending – Raise Taxes?

Christopher C. Hedges — Mon, 04 Feb 2008 12:45:04 +0000

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?

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

Will Lake Co. Income Tax Arise From Death?

Christopher C. Hedges — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 17:25:19 +0000

Just when it seemed that the proposed Lake County income tax was dead and buried after angry villagers with torches and pitch forks vanquished it, the second act of the play begins.

Like an evil creature from a Stephen King novel, the proposed Lake County income tax is slowing coming back to life.

Only time will tell if the evil creation will be powerful enough to defeat the good guys and destroy the local economy by rearing its ugly head just as economists are predicting a recession.

Disturbing Ethical Precedent

Christopher C. Hedges — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 15:20:04 +0000

The Northwest Indiana Times calls the selection of Lake County Councilwoman Christine Cid as president a “disturbing ethical precedent” because she is a county employee and will now have inordinate power to protect jobs in her department from cutbacks at a time the Good Government Initiative suggests cutting back local government and an Indiana government reform report states that elected officials should not also be allowed to serve as government employees.

This brings us to the main reason Cid should not have been named council president: She is a county employee and, therefore, cannot help but make decisions that affect her own department.

That is a major ethical no-no, and the rest of the council didn’t prevent it.

Cid is a supervisor in the county clerk’s office, overseeing operations in the East Chicago branch. It is difficult to imagine her being able to recommend eliminating her employees’ jobs — and possibly her own — as part of a reasonable decision to consolidate operations in Crown Point.

Technorati Tags: Christine Cid, Good Government Initiative, local government reform