From the Northwest Indiana Times:
Lake County public safety officials are proposing a new county taxing district to pay for the infrastructure of consolidating 911 police dispatchers.
Hammond Police Chief Brian Miller, chairman of a panel of police, fire and civilian officials recommending communications reforms, said Thursday they will ask the Lake County Council for authority to form a taxing district to raise local money for the project.
The panel already has recommended replacing the current network of 18 municipal police and fire dispatch locations with two proposed centers in East Chicago and Hobart at a cost of more than $10 million.
Lake County commissioners said last month the county cannot finance building and operating two centers with current revenue. They have hired a fiscal consultant to work out a solution.
Miller said Thursday public safety officials strongly believe two centers are needed in case a natural disaster wiped out any single center. "With no radio communications, we're done," he told the Lakeshore Chamber of Commerce.
Lake officials recently declared their opposition to a local income tax on county residents and workers to save public transportation provided by the Regional Busing Authority.
Earlier taxing proposals to repair county roads or replace property taxes lost to state-mandated government reforms also have failed to gain enough votes in the County Council to overcome tax vetoes by county commissioners.
http://www.nwitimes.com/news/local/lake/lake-panel-to-ask-for-taxing-district-to-pay-for/article_12606a38-cbcf-56de-8b5a-20a95d135fac.html
