EDITORIAL: Time for tax relief

Times of Northwest Indiana

In the wake of protests over property tax increases, the message in Lake County and Indianapolis is the same. People are desperate for effective solutions to financing government as a way of bringing property taxes under control.

Almost unbelievably, Griffith Town Council members are leading the charge to form a new township, thus removing the town's taxpayers from Calumet Township's heavy tax burden.

While the council's motives are not in question, the road it's headed down does not adequately address the problem of providing a cost-efficient government as a more permanent solution to the property tax crisis.

What's needed are new ways to finance essential government services, not merely different styles of buggy whips.

Pare back government

Rather than create a new township to help Griffith taxpayers, abolish townships statewide. Simply put, there is just too much too-costly government.

In the meantime, Gov. Mitch Daniels has sent legislative leaders short-term approaches worth consideration. For sure, action is urgently needed, but well thought out, lasting solutions must result.

Giving immediate tax relief instead of rebates down the road sounds promising. Why prolong the agony? And mailing rebates, remember, is a costly process. Why make taxpayers pay extra for their relief?

Daniels also proposes shifting the child welfare levy to state government. But do that for all welfare programs, including hospital care for the indigent, and we'll be highly attentive.

These and other forms of short-term relief are needed soon enough to call a special session of the General Assembly, rather than waiting until the January 2008 mandated session.

Force spending cuts

Most of all, legislators must find a way to curtail unnecessary spending by bloated local governments. They should start with Lake County where a consultant's recommendations for cutting costs have been mostly ignored.

Unfortunately, political patronage and pork barreling continues unabated there.

That means radical change to government in Indiana will be required to bring taxes under control, starting with state-mandated cost restraints where officials won't do so on their own.

Gov. Mitch Daniels' proposals to bring property tax relief are a start, but more radical measures are needed as well.

Peel back some of government's layers, streamline operations and deliver necessary services in a more cost-effective way. The new Commission on Local Government Reform headed by Chief Justice Randall Shepard and former Gov. Joe Kernan must recommend sweeping changes, not small swipes.

Create a government operating for the 21st century, not tied to the inefficient, costly ways of the 19th century. It's time to give taxpayers a break.