LaPorte County is Thanking Its Lucky Stars!!!

Now that they have fully appreciated what the NWI Regional Development Authority (RDA) is all about, the NWI County of LaPorte is counting its blessings for having said "NO!" to that useless, self-serving organization.  Citizens of LaPorte County consider themselves lucky; they dodged a bullet aimed at their heart from Governor Mitch Daniels trying to get them to join a sinking ship.

Not only where they being pressured to join a sinking ship, they would have been forced to pay for the privilege with $3.5 million, yearly, from local county income taxes.  This very blog was one of the places that forewarned them of the useless pit that the RDA had become and the destruction that would befall them if they joined. 

And what is LaPorte County's prize for not joining?  LaPorte citizens will miss out on the chance to pay for Lake County's flood control to the tune of over $6 million so that Governor Daniels can be assured of re-election.  They will not get a chance to pay for the new train station in Gary to replace the Miller and Gary stations.  They will miss out on the chance to build a bus system that will keep on coming back and back to the bank for more money just like the CTA and METRA in Chicago.  They will also miss out on paying for a train to Valparaiso from Chicago that already has a price tag of over a billion dollars and will rise to over ten billion when and if it is ever built.

Porter County is already crying the blues, as well it should be, as it passed a County option income tax to pay for their ticket-to-joint.  It has put in millions of dollars into the RDA and will put in millions more in the future with no end in sight.  It will never get anything back close to what it contributes nor what it could have done with the money if they kept it themselves.  No, now Porter County is committed to giving the money to northern Lake County and their political cronies forever.  Remember, the RDA has the power to bond, which essentially means they can put you in the poor house forever. 

What is it about the history of the failures, the crime, the corruption, etc. of northern Lake County politicians, that Porter County did not get?  The RDA is there to support Lake County and a few politician's political ambitions; nothing more and nothing less.  This has been well established by the RDA's lackluster performance over the past two years. (I know it's a shocker, but not all philosopher king's actually know anything about economic development -- can you say "destination retail?"). 

The late lawyer for East Chicago's Mayor George Pabey, Ned Ruff, and I had a number of conversations about the RDA after he was nominated to represent East Chicago on the Board (note, East Chicago was not given a serious choice about being in the RDA; a choice in the way that Porter and LaPore counties were given a choice).  So we shouldn't be surprised that Mr. Ruff believed that the RDA was the biggest waste of the northern city's money because its sole intent was to further the career of a select group of people in NWI and the current Governor.  He never believed it would be of any help to East Chicago or Gary; nor was it ever meant to.  But it was meant to get a hold of their funds. 

Ned Ruff, who was by far one of the brightest people I have ever met, used to laugh at the incompetency of the people serving on the board.  To paraphrase him, he used to say "just look at who we are?  And they gave us the authority to decide on economic development?  What anesthetic where they under when they came up with this?  Unless their plan was to shift more gaming money from Gary and East Chicago, south and east." 

LaPorte County made the right decision to stay away from these RDA charlatans, who have established their inability to aid development; but they will help their friends and acquaintances for future rewards (in this life).  LaPorte thank your lucky stars you remained independent; Porter get out as soon as you can.