I ran across a couple of items that, in juxtaposition, highlighted the difficulties of local government officials nicely.
Justice & Fortitude has a post that suggests runaway local government spending as the cause of our property tax woes:
“If we don’t do something about local government, putting caps on property taxes will be like slapping a Band-Aid on a more serious wound–or rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic.â€
(There is additional language in the post speaking of the need to engage repeal property taxes entirely to prevent the “enslavement” of Hoosiers through property taxes.)
Meanwhile, back at the ranch, the Indiana Court of Appeals rejected a claim by local government that the State ought to have to pay for detention expenses of the juvenile offenders sentenced by State judges. The General Assembly has since taken action to relieve local government of those expenses. But, as a general proposition, it isn’t really appropriate to criticize those expenditures of local government where local government is simply mandated to pay the bill without being given control of the amount of the expenditure.
The Governor, in particular, has let loose a drum beat of rhetoric criticizing local government officials for out of control spending without acknowledging the significant role played by the State in the matter or the fact that he “balanced” the State’s budget on the backs of local government.
This is a GREAT point, Doug, thanks for bringing it up.
I beat up on local government a lot, since I tend to blame the spenders more than the supervisors.
HOWEVER, I do give local government a pass on issues like this, where they have no control over the spending and are simply required to pay for it.
Again, it gets back to blaming the spenders, not necessarily the taxers, and in the case of juvenile detentions, I consider the state to be the spender.