Posted by
Rich from NW Indiana on Sunday, January 18, 2009 3:06:09 AM
The elected governmental officals of Gary, Indiana are crying poor. They claim that basic services like public safety are threatened. Why is that happening now, you may ask?
The state of Indiana has recently instituted property tax caps. It is a significant reform that nobody really seems to understand. It was in order to prevent large increases in property taxes from happening. This is the way all taxes should be. It protects taxpayers from government intent on spending too much of the taxpayers money.
The caps are lower then almost every communities current spending. So cuts are in order. Most towns are coping by cutting back in some area. But Gary has other ideas. it has appealed to the distressed area board to raise the cap in Gary. It proposes to raise the property tax on the few businesses left in Gary.
Gary is the poster child of a failed urban area. The rest of Indiana's economy is far better then the surrounding states like Illinois, Ohio and Michigan. Except for Gary. It has a intrenched Democrat city government (also unlike the rest of mostly Republican Indiana). Plenty of reform is needed in Gary. It isn't going to come from the current leadership.
The current mayor doesn't seem to get the idea that he needs to cut the budget. The city just leased a new HUMMER for the mayor to drive. The city has a official full time photographer! They just don't get it! Or they don't want to.
To top it off, they go to the few businesses that have stuck it out in Gary with their hands out for MORE! What business would even consider locating in Gary with leadership like that. Businesses are not governments piggy bank. The tax cap finally placed Gary on a level tax rate of property taxes (they are currently higher then all the other Lake county towns) with the rest of the county , but they want to put them back up high. There is no reason anyone would want to pay more for Gary, it has nothing to offer that would warrant a higher cost. If anything it should be lower to attract new business to the city.
What is so hard to understand about basic economics?
If the state lets Gary out of the cap, what good is it? Cities like Gary are the reason tax caps are needed by the taxpayer. When city leadership refuses to live within its means, what other option does the taxpayer have? There is plenty to cut before getting to important things like fire and police. Its the city government that is holding the city hostage. It cannot move forward, its been stuck in a rut for almost forty years now. Gary will never improve if the current leadership continues to not use common sense and not think outside the usual Democrat way of mismanaging a city.
I call on the state to make the tax caps stay in place (not that its there yet), forcing Gary to do the right thing and spend less. Why can't Gary live with basic city services like the rest of the county? Its time to give the taxpayers and business a break for once. It is not a easy place to live and work, don't let the city leadership continue to ruin the future of the city.
Tax caps could help Gary more then anything tried for long time. But only if the politicians are made to go along with it.
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