State takeover recommended for some local governments

July 18, 2005

By Maurice Eisenstein
Post-Tribune columnist

In a recent discussion with a Lake County politician, I was presented with the argument that there was no way out of our current property tax quagmire without the property tax cut being reinstated on businesses, because the property tax problem cannot be addressed by various governmental units cutting expenditures.

The usual argument is that even if the expenditures of Lake County government were cut in half, irrespective of the loss of service, each property owner would save about 3 percent of his or her tax bill. Therefore, the argument goes, although there is waste in local government that should be removed, that, in itself, won’t make a dent in the property tax problem.

I beg to differ. The singular problem in Lake County lies north of the Borman and includes county government. There is no significant property tax problem south of the Borman or in Porter County.

For decades, politicians in Hammond, Gary, East Chicago and Whiting have been misusing public money indiscriminately because they could leverage it away from industry and, except for a few conscientious exceptions, generally, the taxpayers did not care. They continuously re-elected the bums. The bums were led by the Pastrick family and included Tom “The Midnight Mayor” Cappas, Mike “Democratic Party Chairman” Pannos and Bobby “The Fixer” Cantrell.

To remind us of the bad shape these cities are in, most of these people — Cappas, Pannos and Cantrell — still have political control. Even as these northern cities are screaming for help from the south, they cannot get rid of the basic cancer that is represented by these people.

Having worked directly for and as a consultant to the federal government on government service delivery cost saving issues for more than 10 years, I can expertly tell all the citizens of south county that until the north cuts its budget by 30 percent, no help should be given to them. This can be done with both eyes closed, with no reduction in service to the citizens.

If the government efficiency study initiated by U.S. Rep. Pete Visclosky does not recommend at least that level of savings, it is a scam to justify further thievery from industry and the citizens of Lake County.

Truthfully, no one really believes that the northern cities and county government can achieve meaningful expenditure reduction. This is especially true when one includes school and township governments.

The reality is, there is only one honest response that is currently available to save Lake County — besides dividing it into a north and south county — state receivership.

The state of Indiana should declare East Chicago municipal and school governments insolvent, which they are. It should further include Gary city and school government and Calumet Township government in the state receivership. Included in this mix should be North Township, with its generally incompetent trustee.

Hammond should be left out for the time being because, with the other entities under state control, there is a slight chance Hammond’s municipal and school governments can get their acts together and move forward — at least they are less likely to slip further back.

This would reduce the overwhelming burden on the citizens imposed by runaway government entities north of the Borman Expressway, which is the cause of the property tax problem.

Maurice Eisenstein is a professor at Purdue University Calumet. Contact him at [email protected]. His opinions do not reflect those of Purdue University.