A spineless committee of the City-County Council, in the face of mounting public opposition to the increasingly heavy tax burden in Marion County, assumed the sit-on-your-hands position and froze there, not taking a vote on Mayor Peterson's ill-advised tax hike for public safety. From the Indy Star:
"Now you stand up and ask for an income tax increase," said Jack Borgerding, who said the taxes on his Downtown home rose from $2,200 to $15,000. "Enough is enough."
In delaying a vote that would send a recommendation to the full council, Vice President Joanne Sanders said she wanted to see whether any of a half-dozen tax-relief proposals takes hold this week.
"This isn't happening in a vacuum," Sanders said. "There are other options being thrown out daily, and the situation is changing every day."
At stake is a plan to increase the county option income to pay for Mayor Bart Peterson's $90 million plan to improve public safety.
Here's an idea: CUT SPENDING ELSEWHERE! There is plenty of money to be found, simply in scaling back departments that are less important than public safety... which is to say, all of them.
And there are a lot of them. Take a look at all of the departments the City-County government funds, per the City's website:
Mayor
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The best tax relief to the people is the slashing of a budget. Or three. Or 30. Think Marion County has enough government yet?
Anyone who says they can't find anything to cut isn't trying. As you review the list, ask yourself, "Is this a proper function of government?"
There are so many that aren't, but let's go with the truly obvious: golf and cable TV. Lose these immediately. Sell the golf course land today. A pretty penny will be reaped. Get out of the business of micromanaging cable tv. Let any operator do business in the County. The people will have more choices and lower prives through competition, and an entire bureaucracy will be gone.
That's a lot of savings, right off the top. Might even be able to put enough police on the ground to prevent the south side garage fires, or at least enough firefighters to put them out.
The City-County Council needs to find the spine necessary to cut spending. The Mayor needs to find the spine necessary to tax back his request for higher taxes and replace it with a call to eliminate unnecessary government so that the proper government- public safety- can be fully funded.
10 comments:
Mike...I only have one word regarding that list...
WOW! ! !
(somehwere between "OUCH" & "BOING")
Kind of makes the (mere) 30+ "entities" that levy property tax increases in Fort Wayne pale by comparison.
B.G.
But what about the children if we get rid of all this government! Heaven forbid they have the ability to make their own decisions and set their own course when they are adults.
And if we get rid of all of this government, what will the politicians use for spoils and patronage?
Cut spending? It must be too simple to do so or politicians would have done so already - or the politicians can't buy favors if they do so. I have my opinion on which of those reasons it is.
I find myself often thinking I got out of Central Indiana in the nick of time...
Hope you guys are doing well!
Well, Andrew- bad policy is good radio, and good business for Libertarians who have been saying all along that a tax crisis was coming.
Lemons, lemonade, I'm afraid.
Wish you were here, but wouldn't wish here upon you!
Outstanding information!
This is the tax & spend detail that you won't hear or read in the old media news.
Why? I think the Federal, State,
City, County and Townships
don't want us thinkers to demand accountability.
Guess what... with wealth of information available now...
the old Government's ways are
numbered.
Times are changing slowly,
I believe in people. Things will
change...it's imperative.
Wow. I knew it was bad, but had no idea. I had a long talk about 6 weeks ago with Jackie Nytes. She swore up and down there was no waste in city government. I think she actually believes it herself.
It will be interesting to see how she votes on the COIT now that the matter is getting so much public scrutiny and tax revolters are taking to the streets.
Jackie Nytes strikes me as being the kind of person who genuinely believes all government is benevolent. She was recently on Abdul in the Morning, and she had a rare agreement with him that more school choices are needed, but she lost enthusiasm immediately when he pushed the idea of having the public schools run by a private contractor. To her, it was unassailable that a government administrator is preferable to a private one. She apparently has very little faith in the profit motive, and very great faith that if you are in government, you are not only efficacious, but efficient.
But I have to believe that if you asked her if she thought it was the proper role of government to operate a golf course, she would have no choice but to agree that it should fall by the wayside when public safety is underfunded.
Mr. Kole, I expected this list, which is being waved around on the Indy Star Forums as a comprehensive list of government spending that could be cut, to be more than just a cut-and-paste of the Indygov.org sitemap. This isn't a list of departments, or even divisions, that are funded independently. It's just a list of information topics from the web.
I continue to wait for anyone to come up with real ideas for cutting spending that are specific and detailed. Instead, you simply list the website and say "look at all we're paying for!" It's inaccurate, and doesn't help much. I'll give you credit for the golf course suggestion--even though I disagree with you on it. Would we then sell off our city parks as well?
The point is, it's really easy to say the city should cut its budget, but few people follow up with the hard work of showing exactly what should be cut so the citizens can see the results. The city is pretty lean now, and drastic cuts are really going to result in reduction of services. Perhaps as a Libertarian, that's OK with you, but it's something we need to discuss in specifics, not slogans.
Please stop lying. All you've done is copy and paste some web pages describing programs, many of which don't even have a budget and are driven by volunteers and private sponsorships. You have nothing to offer but hate and fear mongering.
Actually, the list gets bigger when you click on the various departments and see the sub-departments.
But, yes- as a Libertarian, I would prefer to see most of them go away. There's nothing hateful or fear-mongering in saying that Indy government should prioritize public safety first and sacrifice lower priorities like golf, or even public housing for those who are able-bodied & able-minded.
Today, Indy sacrifices public safety for the others. It proposes to raise a tax while not scaling back ANYTHING.
Glad I left Marion County. Yes, I am.
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