Once again we start the week with little things (or not so little in some cases) that are worth paying attention to…

Township Tales

• In it’s never-ending to quest to justify consolidation, the Washington Township Board voted itself a 69-percent pay raise. Their salary went from $2200 annually to $3800.   The nice thing about that is that the township’s budget went from $20 million to $1.6 million after consolidating the fire department with IFD.  So since they have less work to do, they felt a pay raise was in order. The Board meets later this week.

Both friend and foe alike are talking about Mayor Greg Ballard’s proposed reduction in the County Option Income Tax from 1.65 to 1.62 percent; an $18 million savings for the taxpayers over the next three years.

Friends say it is a misguided public relations stunt.  Foes are taking credit for something they had nothing to do with nor fully understand.

What it is, is giving people back their hard-earned money.

If friends want to complain about something, I suggest they direct their attention towards the Marion County Courts and how they took their portion of the public safety/COIT increase and instead of creating an additional criminal court to alleviate jail overcrowding, the Courts instead created an additional family court. The Courts tackled the jail overcrowding issue through better case management and moving defendants through the chute quicker.

Before foes take credit for something, they should try to understand how the process works.  The city could not have adjusted the COIT rate understate law once it was set.  However, this is about the levy.  When the tax increase originally passed, the legislature had not yet picked up the pre-1977 pensions and child welfare levies.  Now they have.  With a smaller levy, there can be a smaller rate.  In addition, as reported this morning, the state gave counties the authority to reduce their tax rates by 0.03.

Now is a $12 savings per taxpayer a lot?  Not really, eventhough I argue the number is bigger because not every person in Marion County pays income taxes.  But that small number sends a big message.  The message that the Ballard administration is going to be fiscally responsible and return to the taxpayers (the people who pay the bills) as much of their money as possible.

And if my Democratic friends in 2011 are going to run on a platform of more taxes so there can be more spending all I can wonder is what will be Ballard’s big achievements during his second term? 

Indianapolis Mayor Greg Ballard is calling for a nearly $18 million cut in the County Option Income Tax over the next three years.

Accodring to a city spokesman the city no longer has to pay for police pensions and child welfare so it no longer has to levy taxes for those costs, thus the COIT reduction.

The Mayor will hold a news conference on Monday to discuss the rest of the details.

1. Maverick
2. Main Street
3. Wall Street
4. Change
5. Hope
6. Socialism
7. My Friends
8. Farm
9. MBA and/or Ph D
10. Joe the Plumber
11. Joe Six-pack
12. First Dude
13. You Betcha’
14. Lipstick on Pig
15. Throw ______ under the bus.
16. Hockey Mom
17. Real American
18. ACORN
19. Country First
20. Four more years
21. The Bradley Effect
22. Rallying the Base
23. Indiana’s Election Headquarters
24. October Surprise
25. Pallin’ around with Terrorists
26. Swing State

U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson says because the banks aren’t lending he want to take your $700 billion bailout money and give it to credit card and other loan companies.   Regardless of the fact that this is totally messed up on so many levels, think about this.

The government is taking your money to loan to the banks so the banks can loan you money.

Wouldn’t it make more sense for the government to just not take your money in the first place?

It looks like that $700 billion federal bailout that was supposed to buy troubled assets and bailout the banks and financial institutions won’t get used for its original purpose.

Now it’s being used to bailout credit card companies because people ran up too much debt.

Feel free to gather your torches and pitchforks and go bend your plowshares back into swords!

I knew this day would come.

Wellpoint is joining the list of health insurance providers who are encouraging patients to go overseas in search of cheaper medical care.

According to published reports, Wellpoint is providing coverage for patients to travel overseas for non-medical emergency procedures.  The goal is to save money.  For example a $70,000 procedure here would cost about $8,000 in New Delhi.  This is causing some friction between American doctors and insurance companies.

Medical outsourcing doesn’t bother me.  I’ve always been a firm believer if I can get the same quality for a cheaper price and keep my legal rights in the event something goes south, I say go for it.  We’re in a global economy.

By the way, I hear Hyderabad is lovely this time of year.

Indianapolis Mayor Greg Ballard and 7th District Congressman Andre Carson tomorrow are announcing preliminary plans to spend a $29 million HUD grant to deal with the city’s abandoned housing and foreclosure problem.

Might this be a new coalition between the Mayor and the Congressman?

Maybe.

At the very least it undermines upcoming plans by Marion County Democrats to go after the Mayor on foreclosed homes and abandoned housing.  And it’s been whispered that Carson is looking to establish his own political identity.

Stay tuned to this one folks, it could get interesting.

Here are a few things to ponder this Tuesday.

Indianapolis Mayor Greg Ballard met yesterday with the Marion County Republican members of the General Assembly.  No word yet on the topic of discussion, but odds are it had something to do with the Mayor’s objectives for the upcoming Legislative session.

Speaking of Mayors, Marion County Democrats are so excited about their 2008 local victories, they are looking past 2010 to 2011.  Word is Melina Kennedy is going to make a run for the job.  Sources say she is trying to cut a deal with the Andre Carson camp.  Stay tuned.

Former Deputy Secretary of State Matt Tusing says contrary to a story in today’s Indianapolis Star, his leaving the office had nothing to do with an e-mail exchange with Barack Obama campaign coordinator Kip Tew.  Tusing told me he was leaving the office to finish law school which he is attending part-time.  He says he was planning  to change his work load once the election passed.  And He says he leaves the office after one of Indiana’s most successful elections.

And if you get a chance today, thank a Veteran for their service.  Today is Veteran’s Day.   It’s because of Veterans I can write about these things, many of you can read about them, and some of you can mindlessly bicker about them.

Editor’s Note: I apologize for the title of this post, but I relaxed this weekend by watching a lot of Star Trek.

In the wake of the consolidation vote this past week in Marion County regarding the township assessors, I have some news for the rest of township government,  you will be assimilated. 

I hate to be the bearer of bad news for the people who still love township government, but your days are numbered in more ways than one.   The assessors were just the lucky ones.

On the heels of an 18-point victory, Governor Mitch Daniels has a mandate to move full speed ahead on government reform.  Now while some members of the legislature may try to block consolidation, the Governor has a number of tools in his belt.  Here’s three of them…

1. Property tax caps.  With the tax caps in place many local governments will find there isn’t as much cash running around.  So they’ll be forced to start doing without.
2. The Department of Local Government and Finance.  Any local government official expecting to get a break from these guys can forget about it.  Some townships already experienced this with looking for emergency loans for their fire departments.  They got nowhere real fast. The agency has the power to make local government’s lives a living administrative nightmare.
3.  The Mood of the Electorate.  The voters have made it clear they want smaller, smarter government.  Township government is neither.
4. The facts! Indiana has two percent of the nation’s population, but 8 percent of the local government.