Democratic candidate for Governor, Jim Schellinger had a couple of thoughts on government reform reported in the Courier Journal. Schellinger was speaking of the Kernan-Shepard report on consolidating local government which they speculate will result in savings:
But Schellinger said the plan needs to go farther by also incorporating ideas for state government reform. And he’s concerned about imposing one local government system on all communities.
“The issues are a lot different down here than they are in Marion County or in Lake County,” Schellinger said by phone while traveling through Southern Indiana.
He’s critical of Daniels for moving ahead this year with changes to the property tax system while postponing local government restructuring. The tax plan increased the state sales tax while cutting property taxes and putting new limits on property owners’ bills, which could significantly reduce revenue to some local governments.
“Until we look at local government reform and state government reform, we’re not going to solve this tax situation,” Schellinger said. “It’s only a tax shift or it will take us from a tax crisis to a local government crisis.”
In my mind, too much state wide policy is driven by Marion and Lake counties. For most things, I think the other 91 counties have more in common with each other than they do with Marion or Lake Counties; problems in those counties shouldn’t be addressed through statewide solutions.
The other thing that Schellinger gets right is the idea that it shouldn’t just be local government that comes under the microscope. State lawmakers seem more eager to look for problems in local government than they do state government.
On the upside, however, Thomas reports that the Governor stands to save $50,000 from the property tax cuts he helped pass.
I couldn’t agree more. The state is ripe for cuts and consolidation. And Marion and Lake counties f it up for everyone else.
OTOH, it isn’t like this current round of tax reform didn’t screw Lake County specifically. Our levy was frozen because we didn’t pass a county income tax. And our municipal debt is outside the 1/2/3% caps.
Seeing as how HB 1001 calls out Lake County by name, it seems to me that this could be taken to tax court and thrown our as unconstitutional.
If only someone from Lake County had the cahonnes to do that. I can’t think of ANYONE like that. Not one.