The Evansville Courier Press has an opinion encouraging voters to eliminate the township assessor position. The General Assembly already eliminated the smaller township assessors but put the position up to a vote for those townships with a large number of properties. If the township assessor is eliminated, those duties shift to the county assessor.
I don’t have strong opinions on the township assessor position, but I’d like to sound a note of caution as to the Courier Press’s rationale. They point out that consolidating the duties has the benefit of more uniformity and fewer costs related to more levels of government. These are probably accurate, but there are competing considerations in a democracy involving proximity to one’s elected officials and the desirability of limiting the power of any one government official.
Now, I’m not saying that the township assessor position is necessarily the place to draw the line, but democracy is messy and inefficient. Mussolini, the saying goes, made the trains run on time. Dictatorships are probably cheaper and more uniform than a patchwork of democratic institutions all jealously guarding their turf and vying against one another.
Township government, how’s that workin’ for you? Other than aggravate the hell out of us with inconsistent, late and incompetent property tax assessments, what does the township do that is relevant or couldn’t be more efficiently accomplished county-wide? Collect dog taxes, take care of the township cemetery (wherever that is), run competing instead of cooperating fire stations and “oversee the poor”? We don’t need to get to the office and back by horseback before sundown anymore. The county seat is close enough. We need to be rid of the whole unnecessary township government structure.
Tom’s comments are about the job of township trustee (and, FYI, the dog tax went away a couple years ago — who knew to miss it?), not the assessor. Doug’s concerns may be valid to the trustees, who actually do some “governing.” But ALL the assessors do is assess property values. That’s inefficiency without any corresponding benefit of an elected official who can respond to the locals’ concerns. There’s no power there whose concentration we should fear.
And in the case of Griffith-which has the unfortunate distiction of being in the same township as Gary-it leads to disproportunately higher taxes. I have a church full of people who would love the send Booker Bloomingburg packing!
When Griffith was flooded horrifically two years ago-the township offered little to no help. Yet they get the bulk of their money from Griffith. Townships up here are just another layer of government we don’t need.