The fray over how to fund government in Lake County has taken a definite political plunge.
State Rep. Hal Slager, a Republican from Schererville, argues his House amendment to Senate Bill 585 to thaw the Lake County tax freeze of 2007 is good public policy. It will, he reasons, allow Lake governments to bring in more revenue without Lake County adopting an income tax.
Well, Mr. Slager has not done his math very well. A thaw of the 2007 tax freeze will not create enough new revenue to meet the necessary expenses faced by Lake County. This includes such costs as a federal mandate to improve the county jail, a state mandate to establish a countywide 911 system and improving transit services.
The answer, though unpopular and painful to the pocketbook, remains adoption of an income tax, something Lake will be the last of Indiana’s 92 counties to do.
This necessary step is clear to all those looking at the hard facts.
What Slager has done, though, is create a political cloud. As one GOP stalwart wrote, “Slager has the Democrats in a bad spot.”
He’s done so, I believe, to make gain for the Republican Party in the county, but he’s doing so at the expense of good government.
Heavens knows The Times has often been critical of Democrats who hold control at the county government complex in Crown Point. We have called for a viable two-party political system in the county.
But the majority of the members of the Lake County Council – all Democrats – have done the statesman-like thing and adopted on first reading an income tax. It’s not something they wanted to do, but an action they found necessary to carry out their responsibility to meet the financial demands of running county government.
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