Now This Is a Good Idea
Everyone who knows me knows I have no use for township government, however today the Marion County Township Trustees get a major thumbs up from me.
I hear there’s a plan being circulated amongst the Trustees that would put people who repeatedly get poor relief to do mandatory work for either the township or the County government.
I’m all for it. There is no reason why someone who is able-bodied who is on the public dole shouldn’t do a little work to earn their keep. They can sweep streets, pick up trash, plant flowers in urban greenways, the list just goes on and one.
I personally would like to expand it so they would also work for individuals who had jobs that needed done, but this is a nice start.
July 2nd, 2008 at 8:59 am
Center Township has been doing this since forever. It’s good to see the other 8 joining in at last!
July 2nd, 2008 at 9:41 am
And in Washington Township, they own an office building, but to churn deals, the trustee is selling it, and wants to lease a newer building for all trustee functions and perhaps the small claims court.
It requires a 10-year lease. Their financial “savings” estimates are suspect because they pay only upkeep and insurance on the building they now own. A little remodelign would make it work just fine. It’s on a bus line, on 86th St., sop poor relief customers could easily get there.
It’s insane.
July 2nd, 2008 at 9:52 am
When I was township attorney in early 80′s our township did that and never had a person return for aid. They had to ghive them aid first time but to get second had to work. That was Decatur.
July 2nd, 2008 at 10:24 am
Are they doing this in such a way so as not to take jobs away from those who weren’t seeking poor relief?
I recall a bill in the General Assembly back in the 90s that would require inmates to do some kind of work in the community. One of the major sticking points was how to get the inmates to work without taking jobs away from law abiding citizens.
(Not saying that those seeking poor relief are equivalent to those who have been convicted of crimes, but the unintended consequences are similar.)
July 2nd, 2008 at 10:32 am
Apparently it’s not WORKING in Center Twp. Or it’s excluded some areas like the area of 11th and Tecumseh, for example.
Oh, but there were those photos on some of the blogs last year, where the CT Constable Duncan and a young city worker named Carson were doing yardwork around the elder Carson’s homestead. Maybe that’s what wilsonart is referring to.
July 2nd, 2008 at 10:35 am
What a boon. Give them weedwhackers and clear the overgrowth from all the alleys. That’s one of the biggest complaints I hear. Or give them trashbags…
July 2nd, 2008 at 11:11 am
I’ve got work for them to do over at my house. The $2000 I earmarked for home maintenance projects has to be sent in to pay my make up property tax bill.
With the increased taxation AFTER the reassessment in Meridian Kessler, you are going to start seeing a lot of those beautiful old homes start to be let go due to the burden the taxes are placing on the homeowners’ budgets.
I think it is only fair, since it is my money being forced from me (by threat of force) to handover to these so-called unfortunates. I’m sorry, but I prefer to choose to whom I give charity. I prefer the handup to the handout.
July 2nd, 2008 at 11:15 am
Maybe now Drummer can get some bartenders, food servers, and floor moppers for his Julia Carson tavern.
July 2nd, 2008 at 11:20 am
…watch for the Liberal Left to sue under the guise that freeloaders have a ‘constitutional right’ to be on the public dole forever if they choose to, with taxpayers picking up the bill. The Liberal Left will also claim it is ‘cruel and unusual’ to force freeloaders to work for a living.
July 2nd, 2008 at 12:16 pm
Hey Abdul, it was funny when you pretended to be begging for change downtown.
When Gary Welsh seriously begs for change on the front page of his blog, it’s just sad.
July 2nd, 2008 at 12:40 pm
I watched a middle income family nearly lose their home and have their utilities shut off after an unexpected job loss that resulted in a 3 month search for suitable employment that matched prior income. During those 3 months they sold several of their possessions, worked numerous jobs, and struggled just to put low-end foods on the table, while hoping that they could scrape together enough money to keep the heat on. They were on the verge of losing everything and could hardly feed themselves, yet they were told by their township trustee that they wouldn’t qualify for aid, so don’t bother.
.
So here’s my question: When a legitimate, hard working family is doing everything within their means to compensate for an unexpected loss, and they ask for temporary help in order to keep their kids housed and fed, how is it that they get turned away from township assistance when people who won’t lift a finger to help themselves are constantly provided for?
.
My advice is to reject the “make work” program and eliminate the township relief programs altogether. They don’t provide service to legitimate need, yet they enable those who only need because they won’t work. Remove the crutch and those who have the ability to walk will do so. Those who legitimately can’t work are already part of federal or state assistance programs anyways, so township aid shouldn’t be a factor.
July 2nd, 2008 at 1:46 pm
Aye, Shorebreak. Similar situation in medical care. Woe be to you who wants to pay, but will have to as income permits. Why pay if you can get it for free? Citizen or not.
July 2nd, 2008 at 2:06 pm
No, I strngly disagee. Many of the democrat trustees have used the system to create a political power base. The state guidelines are clear. Many of the career politicians have used our tax dollars in the trustee system for political gain. It is obvious that comments regarding poor relief have been misinterpreted here. The system was never designed to pay the expenses for anyone for the long-term.
Fact: Laws governing the Township Trustee system came over on the Mayflower from England. Indiana was considered a farming state in early times. The system was initially designed to give some temporary financial relief to farmers who had a bad harvest. The system provided for their living expenses, food, utilities, school clothes and books for their children, etc. until spring.
Presently, Marion and Lake County are considered urban areas and not rural. Many of the 92 counties in Indiana are considered rural or have farms. Reason why the system has not been abolished.
Read Indiana’s history.
Long term financial assistance is the federal welfare program.
July 2nd, 2008 at 2:20 pm
OWK,
.
I disagree with only one of your points: “Long term financial assistance is the federal welfare program”.
.
In reality, federal “welfare” is NOT financial assistance, it’s financial depletion. It’s designed to keep recipients on the program, rather than to help them improve their circumstance. That design is intentional because federal welfare programs were created as tools to leverage tax dollars from you and I, in order to pay the interest on the private loans that are used to finance the welfare system.
.
You can rest assured that if the US government were funded by tax dollars rather than by Federal Reserve loans, there would be no abuses of the welfare system because there would be no profit motive to keep the system growing.
.
In other words, federal welfare (and medicare/healthcare etc) is nothing more than a tool to take your money and consolidate it into the hands of those banks who are financing the US budget.
July 2nd, 2008 at 3:16 pm
As much as Abdul is going to give credit here, I see this as even more evidence that, given that this idea has been bandied about by common citizens (and certain local talk show hosts), the township trustees are more disposable than ever.
To simplify a rather long sentence, it took these trustees HOW LONG to figure this out? Actual intelligent people had this figured out all along – so we can still ditch the trustees. It would speed along the (slow) process of government reform.
July 2nd, 2008 at 3:40 pm
Able-bodied individuals who are on long-term public assistance should have their voting rights suspended, also. I realize that this would be opposed by liberals who fear their political base would be weakened, but it would be better for the country.
July 2nd, 2008 at 4:26 pm
I’d love to say get rid of welfare for everyone without a recent doctors notice, but then we’d be faced with another problem. We’ve legislated and ordinance ourselves into a corner, where those are are removed from welfare would probably be cited for trespassing if they set up camp somewhere, and there kids would probably be taken from them for being in unsuitable living conditions.
.
It’s amazing what kind of mess smart people can make when they’ve been handed a little too much authority.
July 2nd, 2008 at 5:14 pm
Seeing how badly ‘handicap stickers’ work for cars at the shopping centers, I feel like ‘welfare for doctor’s orders’ would be similarly abused by the abled bodied.
July 2nd, 2008 at 6:51 pm
“Whatever you do for the least of these my brothers, you do it to me.” ~~ Matthew 25:40
July 2nd, 2008 at 7:28 pm
Wilson, since when is there any virtue in a forced virtue? You can’t legislate the gospel, brother. There is zero virtue in a welfare system that takes money by decree, under threat of property lien and imprisonment for those who don’t pay. I recommend that you research a word called “pharisee” before you justify legislated activity with a biblical standard.
July 2nd, 2008 at 8:17 pm
So now we’re legislating the bible? Are we really going to get started on that one, or are we just going to pick and choose specific verses to suit our arguments?
July 2nd, 2008 at 9:47 pm
Democracy not theocracy. Leave theocracy to Bosma and Noe.
July 5th, 2008 at 1:36 pm
I might believe lack of support for the middle class based on typical American instant gratification: short-term focus on mining money and votes- from the rich and poor, respectively. But, large banks, typically with generations of experience, don’t care about decimating the middle class for short-term returns? How does it to serve the future of banking to not having middle class prey to (if I understand this theory or conspiracy correctly), serve as collateral for goverment loans to keep goverment services afloat? Middle class dissolution sounds like a way for bankers to cut their own throats.
July 5th, 2008 at 4:39 pm
Taxpayer,
.
You need to study up on marxism if you don’t understand the motivations.