VALPARAISO | Efforts to form yet another economic development group in the county is raising red flags among members of the County Council, who question the need and whether the group will be targeting a new tax or the proceeds from the sale of the county hospital.
"What are they trying to do exactly?" asked Council Member Laura Blaney, D-at large, who will attempt to answer that question as part of a study committee established during Tuesday night's meeting.
The committee of council members and a county commissioner will look into rumored plans for a government-based, private or nonprofit entity, potentially with appointments from the county and the county's largest city, Portage.
Blaney, who questioned whether government should even be involved in economic development, voiced concern that a new group would be duplicating services already provided by such entities as the county's economic development alliance and redevelopment commission, or the Northwest Indiana Regional Development Authority.
She favors a role, much like that of a recently expired county economic development commission, which served as a conduit for federal funds.
"I absolutely do not want to form anything that has taxing authority," Blaney said.
Fellow council member Jim Polarek, R-4th, who also is serving on the study committee, said he too is opposed to granting taxing powers to the group.
"That would never happen," he said.
Part of what he would like to see a new group do is coordinate economic development efforts among the county, cities and towns.
Council Vice President Jim Biggs, R-1st, voiced many of the same concerns, as well as wondering whether the group would end up eyeing the proceeds from the sale of the county hospital as a source of income.
The $161 million in principal and $10 million in interest has become a hot commodity now that the construction of the new hospital is under way at Ind. 49 and U.S. 6, which was the goal the county was waiting for before touching the money.
Biggs said he has serious reservations about providing a new group with the ability to incur debt that could come back on the county.