Marisa Kwiatkowski, Times of Northwest Indiana
Region officials continued to make the most of a shrinking pool of tax dollars last year.
A 2008 law -- which will cap property tax bills at 1 percent of assessed value for homeowners, 2 percent for rental properties and 3 percent for businesses when it is fully imposed -- limited local governments' budgets.
Recent estimates by the Legislative Services Agency, a nonpartisan forecasting arm, project local Lake County governments will lose a combined $125.5 million this year alone. But schools will receive about $11.3 million in replacement grant money to offset the tax caps.
Porter County is projected to lose an additional $3.5 million this year, data shows. Porter County schools will receive about $212,700 in additional funds to offset the caps.
Karen Lauerman, director of marketing and communications for the Northwest Indiana Forum, said it is more important than ever for local governments push economic development. The NWI Forum is a nonprofit regional and economic development membership organization serving Lake, Porter, LaPorte and Starke counties.
Lauerman said a bill passed in 2009 that lets communities make their own decisions about providing tax exemptions for technology-based businesses will help Northwest Indiana compete with Illinois for those lucrative jobs. She urged public officials to take advantage of the new law.
"A little give in the front of a project to entice businesses does pay off in the long run with investment, revenues for state and local government and jobs," Lauerman said.
Public officials are also becoming even more creative with the funds they have.
Kenneth Murray, of Management Partners Inc., said consolidating or sharing services -- including police, fire or public works -- is part of a nationwide trend.
"If you have a good procedure and good working relationship you can, in fact, save a lot of money and maintain a high level of services or even increase the level of services," Murray said.
Northwest Indiana municipalities already have joined to reduce certain expenses.
Some buy water, salt, asphalt and concrete together. Others share park programs and emergency resources.
For several years, municipalities have been working together on the Marquette Plan. The plan seeks to recapture at least 75 percent of the Lake Michigan shoreline, from Whiting to Portage, to create an area for public use similar to the one adjacent to Chicago's Lake Shore Drive.
Crown Point and Merrillville officials are negotiating an agreement in which Merrillville will plow and pave 93rd Avenue and Crown Point will maintain the median.
Crown Point also has agreed to pay to keep 93rd Avenue's streetlights on to help alleviate Merrillville's financial situation and to benefit the Crown Point residents who live along 93rd Avenue. The agreement is waiting on the addition of a time limit for how long Crown Point will pay for the lights.
Both Portage and Hebron axed their local 911 dispatch centers in 2009, opting to let the Porter County Sheriff's Department handle call dispatching.
Hebron Clerk-Treasurer Terri Waywood said the town will save about $60,000 by consolidating its dispatch services.
Portage Mayor Olga Velazquez estimated the city would save around $500,000 by eliminating eight positions. Cost savings could be even greater, depending on employee medical claims in that year, she added.
In Hammond, the city's own court increased fees and decreased personnel in September to stay afloat for at least one more year.
Hammond also relinquished its bus operations to the Northwest Indiana Regional Bus Authority as of Jan. 1.
Tim Brown, executive director of the RBA, said he'd like to combine Hammond's operations with those of East Chicago and Gary into one bus system -- regardless if it is run by his agency. He said consolidating the bus agencies could eliminate municipal boundaries and standardize fare structures.
But there are some glitches.
East Chicago's service is municipally run and free. Gary's bus service is run by the Gary Public Transportation Corp. with a mix of property tax dollars, and state and federal funds, Brown said.
He said he'd like to focus on northern Lake County consolidation before, ultimately, combining the systems in Lake and Porter counties.
"When your tax revenues are being squeezed and you need to decide between a police officer and a bus driver, which one do you think is going to take precedence?" Brown asked. "... We need to stop the drain on resources and leverage what we can to get the federal and state dollars to keep transit running.
"I'm hopeful in 2010 we can continue discussions," he added.
Management Partners' Murray cautioned officials against consolidating all services.
"While, on the surface, regional service sharing makes a lot of sense, there are certain times when it really doesn't," Murray said. "Figure out which ones work and which ones don't."
The Indiana Association of Cities and Towns is not pushing consolidation and service sharing for municipalities, but will assist any officials who are interested in it, IACT Communications Director Jennifer Simmons said.
"We make it a decision by local units of government, not by us," she said. "Each municipality is different. It may work for some, it may not work for others.