Anyone for Unigov in Lake County?

Republican Lake County Councilman Larry Blanchard says that Unigov is the answer to the lack of revenue in Lake County.

Lake County Council President Larry Blanchard said he is so upset regarding the continued push by some mayors for a local income tax that he is prepared to think of the unthinkable -- merging all 19 of its cities and towns into one governmental unit.

He said replacing the county's crazy quilt of political subdivisions with a single municipal group between Lake Michigan and the Kankakee River would save taxpayers tens of millions of dollars by eliminating needless government duplication and still provide essential services. Such plans often are dubbed unigov by proponents of the consolidation.

"If we are becoming that desperate -- and I understand some of these municipalities are -- then we need to see if there is support for some sort of consolidation in order to avoid passage of an income tax," Blanchard said.

If what County Councilman Tom O'Donnel says is true, and Lake County employees barely make minimum wage, it would make a lot of sense to replace high cost Town employees with low paid county ones.

I noticed from the tax tables that everyone pays the same rate for their county taxes, even though people who live in towns and cities get almost no services from the county, and unincorporated areas get most of their services from the county, like the sherrif. So those who live in incorporated areas are subsidizing the unincorporated areas. Unigov would stop that.

I love this quote:

Merrillville Town Councilman Richard Hardaway said, "I think (County Council members) are looking to pass the buck. If they would do what they are supposed to do, which is be concerned about the citizens of Lake County and less concerned about being re-elected, then we could get out of this."

That guy must be a Democrat to say something so stupid. Uh... aren't citizens the ones who vote? What he really means is that he wants his ass bailed out by someone else. He wants Larry Blanchard to risk his job voting for an income tax so that Hardaway and his ilk don't have to make the hard choices that come with cutting budgets.

Stay strong, Larry. We're with you.

2009 Lake County Property Tax Increases

My letter to the Times today

Lake County Auditor Peggy Katona published the 2008 pay 2009 property tax rates, and I am shocked by how much they've increased. Gary's rate increased 113%! Lake Station's increased 118%! Even Munster's increased by 60%. The average increase is 32%.

So much for the state taking over school funding. So much for the state limiting how much budgets can rise every year. So much for the state freezing the property tax levy. So much for rising assessments.

What's crazy is that these municipalities are not going to charge anyone these rates, now that all property classes enjoy a tax cap. So why even publish these rates?

Because the tax caps may be unconstitutional, and Democrats like Mara Candelaria-Reardon are blocking the caps from becoming an ammendment to our constituion. We're all one court case away from paying these outrageous, confiscatory tax rates.

Kudos to Winfield, Center Township, and a couple of others for actually LOWERING their tax rates.

2008 pay 2009 Lake County Property tax rates are OUTRAGEOUS!!!

Lake County Auditor Peggy Katona published the 2008 pay 2009 property tax rates in the Times today, and they are just outrageous.

I'll have an analysis later as to the increases vs. last year, but first glance shows that they're upwards of 40% higher than last year.

These are the rates per $100 assessed:

Gary: 16.279
East Chicago: 13.2135
Hammond: 6.2878
Whitting: 7.5502
Munster: 5.2169
Highland: 2.9509
St. John: 2.6806
Winfield: 2.1459
Center: 2.0273

Kudos to Center township, I think that their rate actually went down. I'll check that as well.

So much for the state taking over school funding. So much for the frozen property tax rate. So much for the tax caps.

I know that nobody pays these rates, with the tax caps in place, but why even publish such high rates then? Makes no sense.

Amazon closes its Munster distribution center

It's a sad day for me. Amazon is closing its distribution center in Munster. It only opening it last year, its kind of strange that its closing it so soon after opening it.

I was getting stuff from Amazon delivered the next day, despite chosing supersaver shipping, which goes through the post office.

On the positive side, now that Amazon doesn't have a presence in Indiana, there's no reason for them to charge me sales tax. Somehow they didn't charge the tax before, despite the presence.

Backdooring a Lake County Income Tax

Since the Lake County Council won't pass one, the powers that be are looking for other ways to get an income tax passed.

Interestingly, the law in Indiana is such that, if enough municipalities pass a local ordinance asking that there be an income tax, the tax gets implemented. This is totally a backdoor way to get an income tax, and I'm sure that this is how we'll get one in Lake County. If you've got Gary, East Chicago, Whiting, and Merrilville on board, you're halfway there. You need to get enough municipalities that you're representing half the population of the county.

On the positive side, it doesn't look like Indy will impose a Lake County income tax on their own. That's another big fear of mine.

Larry Blanchard, as usual, is talking sense by saying that we should be looking at consolidation so we don't need an income tax.

Why Republicans are in decline

One of my ideas is that Republicans are in decline because they were so successful at fixing the problems that they were elected to fix. Whether it be taxes, crime, or terrorism, the problems have been largely fixed. Call it "Churchill Syndrome" (Winston Churchill lost the election after WWII, despite his winning it).

Here's what I'm talking about on taxes:



When Reagan won, the average American was in a very high tax bracket. A large number of people were in the 40% bracket.

Now, most people don't even pay federal taxes, and very few people are or will be in the 40% bracket when Obama lets the Bush tax cuts expire in 2010.

This is why rich people can feel free to be Democrats.

But with the size of Obama's coming defecits, as well as the fact that they are structural defecits that will be growing with time, one wonders how long it will be before even the middle class are required to pay confiscatory tax rates.

Update: Let me expand my idea.

In many ways, the Republican Party is a product of the ’70s. Prop 13 and the tax revolt certainly fueled Republicanism, as did the blowback from the cultural revolution. Law and order and fighting crime were also big. And, of course, the cold war.

But, over time, Republicans have been extremely successful on these issues. Taxes were drastically lowered (see above). Crime has been brought under control. The cold war is over. Welfare got reformed. The cultural revolution is not an issue anymore (although I wouldn’t say that it was turned back in any way, shape, or form, we’ve just gotten used to a certain level of degradation).

Democrats have one governing philosophy: “got a problem, get a program”. The government is the answer to everything. This is actually a huge advantage in terms of evolving as a party. You can reinvent yourself to address new “problems”, even when the problems are of your own making. And you can appeal to new groups as well. Hell, that’s how Democrats “stole” African-Americans from Republicans back in the ’30s. They just became another cog in the Roosevelt New Deal machine, even though half of Democrats were segregationists of the worst sort.

That broke down in the ’70s, when it was quite clear that government did not solve problems. But we’ve seem to have forgotten that lesson, especially among the younger generation.

I just hope that it doesn’t take another “lost decade” like the 1970’s were to relearn that valuable lesson.

There’s a t-shirt you can buy on the ‘net that has a picture of Obama in a leasure suit with the phrase “Welcome Back Carter” on it. That’s going to seem very prophetic in a few years.

Democrat State Rep. Mara Candelaria-Reardon supports a Lake County Income Tax

What a surprise!

"People don't know that Gary is the first community -- but certainly not the last -- that's facing that kind of (financial) pressure," said Rep. Mara Candelaria Reardon, D-Munster. "I think it's important to get that message out, that the worst is yet to come."

While the council cut $15 million to balance this year's county budget, officials in Gary, Merrillville, Whiting and other municipalities worry they can't make it another year under the frozen property tax levy. And new tax caps threaten to sap $200 million from government budgets in Lake County by the end of 2010.

Uh... hey Dingbat. It's a recession. It's the worst economy since '82. EVERYBODY is feeling the pain, not just these municipalities. An income tax is just going to make things worse.

How about these municipalities do what every citizen is doing: cutting back and living within their means.

Lake County is actually in the best position of any county in Indiana to weather this recession. Because our levy is frozen, our taxes are not going up as fast as elsewhere. And we don't have that income tax. If the Democrats in Illinois are successful in jacking up that state's income tax to 4.5% from the current 3%, we'll be in even better shape, competitively speaking. That will further fuel the exodus of white folks from the south suburbs of Chicago, and to Lake County, which has been the principal driver of growth in the county for at least the last decade, since Chicago started demolishing its public housing and "Section 8 people" started streaming into the 'burbs.

Once again, if only the sales tax were still at 6%, or even better 5%, Lake County would be in a really good competitive position relative to Illinois.

More tax shifting because of tax caps

What's the easiest way to address the tax caps? Shift services from being paid for with property taxes to user fees.

That is exactly what is happening in Gary, where the Gary Sanitation District is looking to completely eliminate their tax levy, and pay for all their services with user fees.

It was only a few years ago when the GSD didn't impose any fees whatsoever. Everything was paid for by property taxes, and trash was picked up by municipal workers.

Now everything will be paid for by fees, not subject to any caps, and trash collection was privatized.

Seeing as how the treatment plant us run by a private business, I wonder why they don't privatize the entire operations of the GSD. Sever the connection to government completely.

In any case, eliminating the GSD portion of the property tax allows the other taxing entitites to take more of the pie under the tax cap. Expect to see this more and more as the realities of the tax cap becomes more clear to municipalities.

Could fire and police services be paid for by fees instead of property taxes? Griffith tried to impose fees on any non-resident making a police call for an accident, but the state made that illegal. I thought that that was a brilliant policy, and should have been expanded to cover residents as well, as well as fire calls and really any other police call, not just accidents.

Levy chatter increases

Chatter about the impact of the frozen levy is in the Times today.

Communites in Lake County have had their property tax levy frozen because of an unconstitutional state law that says that it's frozen unless we implement a county option income tax.

So far, the only communities asking for the income tax have been Gary and Whiting. This article mentions Merrilville and New Chicago.

My fear is that if enough communities say that they need the increased levy, Larry Blanchard's opposition will fall and the Lake County Council will pass the tax.

Why government reform is going nowhere.

There was a poll in yesterday's Times asking people if they supported Mitch's government reform proposal (eliminate townships, establish a single county executive, etc.)

It was 85% against, 15% for.

I'm shocked. I didn't realize that townships have that level of support, or that people like electing treasurers, assessors, etc. plus three county commisioners.

I think that I need to run the numbers and project exactly what the savings of consolidation will be. It's not huge, but it isn't insignificant.

Munster is the best. ;)

We beat you at spelling and b-ball.

Munster's top Democrat fundraiser speaks on bailouts

Look what I found in the paper today:

Myths abound regarding the economic crisis and the role banks played in creating it, local banker David Bochnowski told members of the Lake County Advancement Committee on Friday.

Bochnowski, chairman and chief executive officer of Munster-based Northwest Indiana Bancorp, the parent company of Peoples Bank, sought to debunk what he deemed a number of misconceptions during his presentation, "Banking 101: Changing Realities in the Financial Landscape," at Teibel's Restaurant in Schererville.

One of the most prevalent myths is that banks are failing all over the country, Bochnowski said.

During last year and to date in 2009, 43 U.S. banks closed or merged. By comparison, 1,368 banks closed or merged from 1987 through 1992, he said.

"We were coming out of a terrible economy then. More than 100,000 jobs were lost in this community alone during that time," Bochnowski said.

In 1991, more than 1,500 banks were on the FDIC's "problem list," he said. By the end of 2008, 252 banks were considered to have problems by the FDIC, which insures individual bank accounts up to $250,000, Bochnowski added.

Another common misconception is that banks are being bailed out by taxpayers, Bochnowski said. There are 8,300 banks in the United States. Of those, 472 banks, or almost 6 percent, have taken federal bailout money, and 15 of those have indicated they will withdraw from the assistance program, he said.

"The number of banks withdrawing from the program is exponentially rising," Bochnowski said. "No bank headquartered in Lake County has taken federal assistance."

In addition, he said, banks that have taken bailout funds must pay back the loans with interest.

Bochonowski is the guy in my neighborhood with the second biggest house in Indiana, and who gave Democrats $40,000 last year.

I wonder if he has buyers remorse. Maybe I'll find his e-mail address and ask him.

Update: His profile in Forbes. He makes more than $250k per year.

McDermott supports government reform

Straight off of ousting a black man from the Lake County Democrat Chairmanship, former Republican and Mayor of Hammond, Tom McDermott has come out in support of the Kernan-Shephard reforms of local government. He supports ALL of the reforms, and actually is more articulate as to why they're needed than almost anyone else:

"I like a lot of the synergies they are trying to create to consolidate power. I have three commissioners in Lake County, and I don't want to talk in a negative light about these county commissioners. But I look at county government and I look at city government, and to me it doesn't make sense."

McDermott explained, "In a city, you have a mayor who appoints department heads. My police chief is an excellent cop. He does a great job because he is a cop. At the county, I see people who are running for sheriff and they're not cops. They are politicians. That's not just in Lake County, that's across the state. I wonder why we don't have an executive of the county instead of three different people with three different agendas."

That's some good stuff there.

It's interesting that Democrats have entrusted their party to McDermott. He admits that he has statewide ambitions. He need to move to the right to run statewide, which is why he's saying these things, things that are anathema to many in his party (like the 3 Democrat County Commisioners!).

I just don't get it.

Obama and stocks

You know, Obama won higher income people 52-48. I wonder how they feel about the stock swoon since Obama was elected?

If you take the chart back to the point where Obama won the nomination, it's down over 50% (from 13.5k to 6.5k).

Circuit City, RIP

I never liked Circuit City. I've always liked Best Buy much more. But I've gone to Circuit City almost every weekend since the bankruptcy was announced, just looking at what they have and what they're selling it for. I picked up a new XM radio receiver last weekend, it was 70% off. I went yesterday, and I could have gotten the same receiver for 90% off, but they had just about sold out of everything else. The pickings were slim.

So now on Indianapolis Blvd. in Schereville, there's quite a lot of vacant space from bankrupt companies. Krispy Creme, Linens and Things, and now Circuit City are all within a few hundred feet of one another. Mattress City is also going out of business.

I wonder if the land that used to be the Schereville Fun Center is ever going to be developed. Can't see why any company considering building there wouldn't just go across the street and grab a vacant storefront for a fraction of the cost of building new.

The Gary Genesis Center is 10% of the budget

There was a stunning article about the Gary Genesis Center that pretty much sums up everything you need to know about Gary municipal finances.

That's some saving grace for an enterprise that made no money last year and zapped $2.23 million from the city to operate and pay staff, city records show. Nearly $385,000 of those expenses were for NIPSCO bills.

According to Gary Controller Celita Green, total Genesis revenue in 2008 was $2.28 million. But despite acknowledgements from city officials that the center made no money, officials were not available to explain the lack of profit with the $47,350 difference in expenses versus revenue.

That the center made little or no profit last year is not new.

The center relies heavily on taxpayer funds to keep it running, with city officials counting the $1.45 million in taxes the center received in 2008 as 64 percent of its "revenue."

The hulking city-owned building is tax-exempt and, as such, the city currently does not collect taxes on the property, which is assessed at $9.85 million.

That's roughly $541,000 worth of tax dollars that could fill city coffers each year were the building to be privately owned, Lake County Council President Larry Blanchard said.

So the center cost the city $2.23 million to operate last year, and they forgoed about half a million in taxes. Let's just round that up to $3 million.

That is 5% of the City's current budget, and is 10% of their budget under the tax caps! That is a stunning amount of money for something as trivial as a convention center (or, as the Times rightly pointed out, a sports arena, not a convention center).

At least it appears that Gary realizes that it cannot keep the center afloat, and seems to be trying to move it off their books before the tax caps kick in.

Pete Thayer loses

Well, Pete Thayer didn't win the Lake County Republican chairmanship. I'm not surprised.

On the other hand, the clown Rudy Clay lost the Democrat chair to Tom McDermott. That's an incredible outcome, seeing as how the deck is stacked so much in favor of the current chairman.

This is also amazing because McDermott is white and Clay is black. So a white man took the chair away from a black man.

McDermott is also a former Republican. They only reason he's a Democrat is because he couldn't beat Dedelow in the Hammond Republican primary for Mayor.

So Democrats picked a white ex-Republican for their chairmanship

I'm telling you, this is an opportunity for Republicans.

If you're African American, I have to ask, what exactly are the Democrats doing for you? Where is the respect, where is the loyalty? Was Clay doing a bad job? Didn't seem like it to me. I call him a clown because of how he dresses, straight out of a blacksploitation film from the '70s, but in terms of what he's done for Democrats, how did he deserve this?

I sit behind Cal Belamy in church

Times Editorial Advisor Cal Belamny, who is also the former CEO of Calumet Bank and currently a lawyer at Krieg Devault, and who gives big bucks to Visclosky, Clinton, and Obama, sits in front of me in church.

I suspected that it was him, and his picture was in the paper today. It's definitely him.

I would introduce myself to him, but the kids are sick and I'm probably not going today.

Gary's image is holding us all back

The Times Editorial Advisory Board had a brainstorming session as to how to "bring Gary back".

This is what they came up with:

* Regional transportation.

* Education and job training.

* Government reform.

* Improvement of the region's image among its residents and to the outside world.

The first 2 are the same tired libeal claptrap that's always trotted out as a solution to everything. Throw money at the problem.

Government reform is all well and good, but all the Democrats in Gary are against it. Presumably, that means that Gary voters are against it too.

The last one is like wishing for world peace. Yeah it would be nice, but how do you do it?

The bottom line is that outsiders can't fix what is wrong with Gary. The people of Gary need to fix what's wrong. It can start with people taking responsibility for their own situation and stop trying to blame it on racism or whatnot. Next, take responsibility for their families, and make sure their kids attend and do well in school, because ultimately educationd determines where you end up in life. Finally, kick out the criminals and cooperate with the police to clean out the city of bad elements.

Mitch gets angry

Mitch didn't call Lake County voters f-ing bastards... but he came close:

Gov. Mitch Daniels is fed up with Lake County government and he's tired of pretending he isn't.

During a wide-ranging question-and-answer period with locals at Griffith High School on Friday, Daniels returned time and again to one point: Lake County will remain alienated from the rest of the state until voters here hold public officials to a higher standard.

"You are entitled to all the lousy, crummy, graft-ridden government you want and are willing to pay for," Daniels told a crowd of about 450 people, one of the largest turnouts he said he's seen at such a forum.

...

"I guess after five years of trying to speak always to the positive and encourage people to move in a positive direction, that I'm trying to express candidly my thought that I'm a little tired of waiting," he said.

Man, more red meat talk like that from Daniels, and he could become one of my favorite politicians. He generally leaves me cold... but not this time!

He had some excellent exchanges with the audience, once with North Township Trustee Frank Mrvan, and once with a lady that wants the state to pay for police. He told the lady straight up that that's not going to happen.

Refreshing, isn't it? Just tell people how it is. Don't sugarcoat it.

Visclosky's letter

Near riot at Nipsco rate case meeting

NIPSCO came to Gary for a public meeting to discuss their petition to increase their electric rates 15%, and the ACORN rent a mob showed up in full force.

The comments to the story are great.

The pictures are also great. In the paper, they had a picture of one 91 year old granny with a $1440 bill. Of course, you could make out that it said "past due" and a 4 figure number. She's a deadbeat who doesn't pay her bills!

A lot of people are angry about their gas bills this winter. I myself had a $300+ gas bill. But that has more to do with Mother Nature than NIPSCO, and the rate increase is for electric, not gas. A lot of people have crappy little houses with no insulation and bad windows, which wastes a lot of energy in cold weather. That's on those people to fix their houses, not NIPSCO. They're a business, not a charity.

Despite ACORN being involved, I do think that NIPSCO is way over the line asking to raise rates in this environment. Their explanation, that fuel prices have increased, is not true currently, and may not be true in the near and medium terms.

If they wanted to put a separate line item for fuel in the bills, as they currently do for gas, that would make more sense. Then, when fuel prices decrease (as they have been for the last 6 months), perhaps electic rates would DECREASE.

I also dislike NIPSCO because they closed their coal fired plant in Gary in '02, and refuse to reopen it. If they truly are constrained in how much power they can make, why don't they reopen the plant?

Finally, NISPCO could do a better job of pushing energy saving technology. I'd like to get one of those smart meters, where you get charged varying rates based on the time of day. Running the washer, A/C, etc. at night rather than during the day could result in huge savings, but you need the meter, which NIPSCO doesn't offer.

All in all, I don't think NIPSCO is the worst utility I've ever had, but they're far from the best. Com Ed was a lot better. Their rates were just stupid cheap (thanks to all the nuclear plants they have).

Obama's popularity increasing, Republicans decreasing

I found the poll reference by one of our semi-anonymous commenters:

President Barack Obama enjoys widespread backing from a frightened American public for his ambitious, front-loaded agenda, a new poll indicates.

He is more popular than ever, Americans are hopeful about his leadership, and opposition Republicans are getting drubbed in public opinion, the new Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll suggests.

What can I say? Obama is a good politician, there's no doubt about it. But the bottom line is that people are results oriented, and what Obama is peddling has been tried before in the '60s and '70s and found not to work.

We may very well be going into another '70s style Carteresque economic funk thanks to all the spending and tax increases (if they're all passed, of course). If that happens... Obama's popularity will suffer, eventually.

In the meantime, enjoy the ride, and fight the good fight. What more can you do? Invest in gold bullion? Retire early to Bollivia or some other third world country with low costs (I hear good things about India!)?

Actually, I'm real positive about Maricopa, Arizona. You can get a brand new 4 br house there for $80k. You'd have to be retired, though, there are no jobs there.

Update:

Barack Obama’s approval rating in the Gallup Poll today is 61 percent, with 28 percent disapproving (the Real Clear Politics aggregate of polls has his overall job approval rating at 59.8 percent). A March 5-7, 2001 Gallup poll found President Bush's job approval at 63 percent as well, with only 22 percent disapproving. So George W. Bush, at a comparable time in his presidency, was in marginally better shape than Barack Obama is right now, at least based on the Gallup Poll survey.

This runs counter to conventional wisdom that Obama is tremendously popular, and that Bush (based on the divisive nature of the 2000 election) was not. In fact, according to the Gallup Poll data, what President Bush did was rise in the esteem of the public during the first five weeks of his presidency, while Obama has lost a bit of altitude.

It’s worth adding that there was a lot of chatter yesterday about the NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll which showed Barack Obama's numbers at an all-time high. But that was based on people’s “feelings toward” Obama (68 percent very or somewhat positive), rather than the more traditional job approval question (which showed Obama at 60 percent approval).

Public Employee Unions are ripping us all off...

I think public employees should not be allowed to unionize. Here's why:

So what happens in bad times? First, no public employee loses either a job or a dollar in pension benefits. Ordinary citizens lose two ways: jobs are cut--unemployment in California just hit 10%--and taxes are raised. What makes this pill all the more bitter is that unions happily wave the libertarian banner of freedom of contract to lock in the status quo. Public unions point to court cases that require the state to honor its employment contracts just like other agreements. Translation: The downturn is everyone else's problem.

This seductive plea of contractual probity ignores the dubious mechanisms that put these obligations into place. State collective bargaining agreements give unions monopoly power; state legislative maneuvers, often backed by pro-union legislators, sweeten the deals already made. These pension deals are never negotiated at arm's length in competitive markets between parties who are free to go elsewhere. Instead, a monopoly union extracts its compensation packages from government officials, many of whom depend on union support to hold public office. These contracts are the kind of self-dealing arrangements that would never be tolerated between a corporation and its key officials. And the subsequent sweeteners simply take property from the majority of citizens who can neither block the transaction nor withhold their tax dollars.

Public employee and teacher unions are the biggest conspiracy to steal taxpayer money out there today. We could have massive tax cuts if we banned them completely and tied pay and benefits to those in the private sector. Pensions would be eliminated, or vastly cut back, freeing up funds to cut taxes.

Buzzcut replies to Kenley...

My laterst e-mail to State Senator Luke Kenley:

Senator, I do appreciate you at least taking my call. You certainly put more effort into speaking to me than 99.999% of politicians would, and I appreciate that. With that said, all the information I have, other than your sayso, says that you are the author of that bill:

http://nwi.com/articles/2009/02/25/news/lake/docc617a99de1c91ba986257568000dd932.txt

"Council President Larry Blanchard, R-Crown Point, met privately with Senate Appropriations Chairman Luke Kenley, R-Noblesville.

Kenley co-authored a 2007 law preventing nonschool governmental units in Lake County from raising property taxes until the council adopts a 1 percent personal income tax and dedicates the $92 million in proceeds to property tax relief."

That's the article that got me seeing red, and prompted the rude e-mail (but not threatening, I don't know where you get that from). I spoke to Patrick Guillane, the Hammond Times reporter, and told him that you disputed that you were the author of that bill, and he referred me to:

http://www.nwi.com/articles/2007/04/30/news/top_news/doc73ddb4f27a716f7c862572cd0015da39.txt

"Sen. Luke Kenley, R-Noblesville, said negotiators from both parties agreed it was time to give Lake County a final shove to join Porter and 89 other counties that have some form of income tax.

"We're gonna try to push them to get them in the right position. I think they know that," Kenley said. "There will be political fallout. When you change your tax system, some people are going to be mad.""

Ha! So you yourself predicted people were going to be mad! Well, Senator, I'm one of those people! Why are you so surprised? What should an angry e-mail read like?

http://www.nwi.com/articles/2007/05/01/news/lake_county/doc067007fbe3fd2409862572ce00097f6f.txt

""If the Lake County people want to come talk to us about that, our doors will be open," said Senate Tax Chairman Luke Kenley, R-Noblesville. "Rep. (Bob) Kuzman and I will take responsibility for that (income tax) appearing in the bill. The reason why we put that in there is we're very concerned that Lake County ... is not taking advantage of its opportunities there. And secondly, it's not serving its citizens well by developing Lake County in ways that they can benefit from new jobs and good schools and all the things that come with prosperity."

Kuzman, a Crown Point Democrat and vice chairman of the powerful Ways & Means Committee, said, "Both Sen. Kenley and I are committed to do what we can to stop property tax increases. And I think this is one way we can look at it.""

Once again, there's your own words, claiming authorship of this bill. Are you being misquoted? I seriously doubt it, and Patrick Guillane says that you are not.

How free is Indiana?

Generally upper-mid pack.

Better than most of the midwest, but not even in the top 10, nationally.

Senator Kenley confronts Buzzcut on the phone

So I finally was able to talk to State Senator Luke Kenley. He is still wicked pissed off at me, and it was all he could do to keep his composure to even talk to me.

He's a good Southern Hoosier, drawl and all, and they're just so much more polite down there. I'm sure no constituent of his ever called him a f-ing bastard because he raised their taxes. Nor would they.

He was kind of a whiner about that. Like he's so special because he "serves the public", that he shouldn't get called out for raising taxes. You know, if you can't take the heat, get out of the kitchen, Senator.

Anyway, he says that he's not the author of that bill, Senator Kuzman is. Based on what Patrick Guillane of the Times posted, that's not entirely true.

Kinley also says that income taxes broaden the tax base well beyond that of property taxes, and that they are based on an "ability to pay", which is not so with property taxes. He cited senior citizens who got property tax bills that they simply could not afford.

Now, my contention is that property values and incomes are highly correlated. This is so even for retirees. And retirees with Social Security COLAs may have more "ability to pay" than poor working fools like me. I'm not getting a raise this year. Social Security recipients are.

People in retirement also have much lower costs than working people. Whether it be the cost of commuting, keeping up a work wardrobe, or keeping my kids fed, housed, and clothed, I'll put my costs up against that of a retiree any day of the week.

Other things I hate about the income tax:

1) By taxing work, you discourage it. We should be encouraging people to work.

2) Property taxes are local taxes. They're collected locally, based on locally determined tax rates, based on locally assessed property. The money is kept locally. The income tax is imposed and collected by Indianapolis, and dolled out as they see fit. If it is collected from Munster, there is no reason for it to come back to Munster. In all likelihood, it will go elsewhere, probably to places that "need it more" like Gary, Hammond, and East Chicago.

3) Property taxes are paid in one or two lump sums. They're very visible. You know exactly what you pay. Income taxes are collected via payroll deduction. Most people have no idea what they exactly pay in taxes.

4) I actually respect the property tax system in Indiana, because it is based on a market assessment. You have some idea what houses are selling for in your neighborhood, and can use Zillow.com or something like it to gauge if your assessment is fair. In some ways, property taxes are simpler than income taxes (although all the exemptions and credits in our property tax system do make it more complex than it needs to be, especially now that the tax caps are in place).

If it were not for Turbotax, I would have a hell of a time doing my income taxes. They're way too complex.

I was talking to him on my cell on the way home from work, and we got cut off before we were done talking, so I don't know how it would have ended. I wasn't going to appologize for saying that he blackmailed us... and he's pissed off because I said that he's blackmailing us. Not sure where there's common ground there.

But I do respect him for even giving me the time of day. He spent more effort dealing with me than I would expect of anyone.

Stimulus funds spent in Gary will be wasted

Proof here.

GARY -- Millions of tax dollars and more than a decade after talk of restoring the dormant downtown structure began, little information seems to be available about the status of repairs at the Dalton Apartments building.
Shawn Loyden, managing member of Florida-based Gary Progress Development LP, hasn't returned several phone calls about his work at the building in the 100 block of East 5th Avenue, despite signs of new construction.

Mayor?Rudy Clay referred questions about the project to Gary-East Chicago-Hammond Empowerment Zone Director Scott Upshaw.

"The project was moving along as far as I knew," Upshaw said.

Upshaw and Jacquelyn Drago-Hunter, director of Gary's Community Development department, said their offices have invested a combined $5.4 million in federal funds into the project.

The developers are expected to pay back the $2.5 million Empowerment Zone loan in July, Upshaw said. Drago-Hunter, however, said payments on her office's $2.9 million loan will be made secondary to a private bank's investment.

Payment will also depend, Drago-Hunter said, on completion of construction. Viewings of the building's units were supposed to begin as early as this month, Upshaw said. He and Drago-Hunter estimated work there to be 50 percent to 65 percent complete.

No definite completion date was given, though.

Millions spent with no accountability. Those who fail to learn from the past are doomed to repeat it.

State Senator Luke Kenley leaves a message

Kenley called me back and left a message on my machine. He's really pissed that I said that he blackmailed Lake County.

I think that that is an accurate description of his legislation. Our property tax levy is frozen unless and until we implement a 1% income tax that all goes to reducing property taxes.

What would you describe that as? What is an accurate description, if not blackmail?

Things are getting better

Lake County is under EPA limits for ozone in '08, the first time that's happened in 30 years.

With any luck, the trend will continue. The EPA lowered the limits in '09, so it will be tougher to hit the number this year.

However, the pollution control technology on new cars is so good that, as people replace their older cars with newer ones, NOx and ozone will continue to decrease.

Actually, the best thing for the air would be for people to replace their older cars with new ones. On that front, with new car sales down so much in '08 and so far in '09... that's not so encouraging.

Luckily, cars are so advanced these days, they'll give you a check engine light if they're emitting more than they're supposed to. So I'm confident that the trend will continue.