Sunday, March 17, 2013

NWI Reports "Taxpayer Resistance Drives Debate on Township Assistance Spending"

From the Northwest Indiana Times:

The ignored but essential service of feeding, sheltering and burying Northwest Indiana's neediest township residents is being thrust into public over its cost to region taxpayers.

The General Assembly is expected to mull a proposal this week to rein in the more than $13 million in public money earmarked by 23 township trustees across Lake and Porter County to annual payments to the tens of thousands living below the poverty level. For these residents, federal welfare is either temporarily unattainable or not enough.

Calumet Township alone requested $8.9 million in property taxes last year to deal with the entrenched poverty and unemployment of Gary's city residents – 220 times the state average.

Griffith residents who must supply $2 million of that amount renewed their request to secede from Calumet Township and join another to avoid the burden which has most of them paying the maximum amount of property taxes allowed under law.

Legislation to give Griffith permission to leave was amended this week to turn the legislature's focus on any township with an assistance levy 10 times the state average.

That amendment would ultimately impose state-directed restrictions on not only Calumet, but also North Township – which consists of East Chicago, Hammond, Whiting, Munster and Highland – in Lake County and Portage Township in Porter County.

...

There is no dispute township trustees have wide latitude under state law to determine who is eligible for assistance and how much assistance each individual or family can receive.

Township Assistance reports released by the Indiana State Board of Accounts between 2008 and 2012 indicate 37,026 Calumet Township recipients received benefits valued at $21,439,100 for an average of $579 per recipient.

North Township provided $4,159,408 to 63,347 over the same five year period for an average of $66 per recipient.
...

See the full article here:

http://www.nwitimes.com/news/local/lake/gary/taxpayer-resistance-drives-debate-on-costs-of-township-assistance-spending/article_ebf256c1-845b-575a-a782-b7811469e9ec.html