Hammond Budget Another Big Lie

The recently released budget of the City of Hammond constitutes what is classically referred to as the "Big Lie."  The traditional "Big Lie" says one thing but does another.  It is a classic game played by tribal politicians with their "tribe" to achieve one set of goals while seeming to be forward looking.

The City's budget big lie is that somehow this budget helps the home-owning tax payers, the citizens, and everyone else in the City of Hammond by reducing their financial burden, while being creative and innovative in how the "new" budget is structured to not be so biased against property owners.

It does quite the opposite.  That is why it is called the "Big Lie." 

• It immediately increases the tax costs to homeowners and all property owners in the City.
• It increases unemployment in the City.
• It reduces the services to the citizens of the City of Hammond.
• It expands the property tax growth for the citizens of Hammond over the next four years.

Since every piece of property in Hammond, just like other cities, partakes of sanitation and garbage services, shifting the service to the Hammond Sanitation District and having them increase their "service fee" (read tax) only expands the cost to each property owner in Hammond.  Keep in mind that this new cost has no cap and exemptions to it like property taxes do.  The City's cost right now is $5.  Under the Sanitary District it will be $15 a month; but why not $35 a month next year?

Part of this shell game is to reduce the number of employees by over sixty.  Those people will be unemployed.  Are they all going to be non Hammond residents?  What is to prevent the Sanitary District from expanding the layoffs over time?

With less employees and no accountability through election for the sanitation, garbage, etc. services, by definition this will result in reduced service.  Certainly there is no incentive, such as competition, to improve City services.

The shift of sanitation and other services from being paid directly through property taxes by the property owners to being paid directly by the property owners as a "fee" to the Sanitation District allows for the illusion that if your property taxes stay the same they are not being increased.  In reality they are.  As a property owner (homeowner, landlord, or business owner), your cost of owning property in Hammond will substantially increase without one iota of improvement in the City. 

By the way, let us not forget that there is also a shift of cost to the Lake County tax payers for things like health services.  The property owners of Hammond will still pay for the health department services but they will pay for it through the Lake County Health Service.  The service legally must continue so everyone in Lake County, including the citizens of Hammond, will have to share the cost.

Since the City must spend their "new found" money somehow, the result will undoubtedly be an increase in the hiring of lawyers and consultants.  I can assure all of you citizens of Hammond that I will not be offered one of those cushy assignments.

Comments

[Glad you are back]

I am glad you are back sharing your message. It is important to continue the dialog. Keep up the voice. We are fortunate to live in a time where we have access to so many points of view!