Citizens for
Common Sense July 2008
Seeking government that is
responsible and responsive to taxpayers in St. Joseph County, IN
Beware the Option Taxes
Citizens forBeware the Option Taxes
(See
“Property Tax Debacle” article)
Why?
Because our county and cities had so badly overspent they couldn’t
afford to pay existing debt without the higher property taxes.
(See “The Truth about
So what are our county and cities going
to do next?
· Spend more
(See “New Spending Projects”)
· Divert
future tax dollars
(See “New Airport TIF Expansion”)
· Raise our
INCOME taxes!
(See “New Option Taxes Considered”)
What’s a citizen to do?
·
Start contacting
current elected officials to say NO to overpriced projects and NO to new option
taxes.
(See Contact Info inside)
·
Elect new people
who are NOT part of the entrenched political machine.
(See “Are There Any Real Dems Left?”)
·
Go to work for
one or more candidates who will actually be working for us.
(See “Candidate Bios”)
·
Be vigilant for
fellow citizens needing our help when the political system targets them. (See “Ozzie’s Story”)
·
Meet with other
concerned citizens about what else we can do (See
below)
Property Tax Debacle
As you may recall, Citizens for Common Sense joined a
statewide Taxpayers Alliance last fall to push for the repeal of property
taxes. We met to review the numbers, we
traveled downstate, and we spoke before the
Our state legislators then did a whirlwind session,
enacting a huge bill (1001) which had provisions in it they never even had a
chance to read. The good news is that it
had provisions like moving school general funding off local taxes and capping
individual property taxes. The bad news
is that there were provisions chiseling away at township government and other
pieces whose effects are not even known yet.
But the really bad news is that out of 92 counties
in the state, TWO were singled out as NOT getting the full protection of the
caps. Whereas homeowners in the other 90
counties will not see their property taxes exceed 1% of their home’s assessed
value, we in
It is really not surprising that our county has
overspent its budgets (city, county, airport, etc.). We, and
The Truth about
Did you notice that right after the new stories
appeared explaining how
Within a day of South
Bend Tribune articles clearly stating, ”The intention is to give Counties
with a lot of debt the ability to pay down the debt, said Bauer” (Mar 14, SBT)
and “…you couldn’t do it in those two counties because the debt was so high,
Bauer said.” (Mar 14, SBT), we got a statement from Deputy Auditor Cindy Bodle that “the debt load in
Huh? Which is
it? We think we have the answer. First of all, there is the total county which
includes the budgets of the cities, schools, etc, then there is county
government itself, which Bodle claims has a bond debt
of only about $5 million. Say what? We’re not even halfway through paying for a
$55 million jail and an over $20 million juvenile center!
Ah, but wait!
Technically, those two aren’t bonds, we are leasing them from dummy corporations (set up so the county could
get past its constitutionally-imposed bond limits). We don’t have the option of NOT leasing them,
of course, but Bodle can still claim they are not
part of our (bond) debt. Don’t you love
it?
Did You Know? Rep. B. Patrick Bauer (D-South Bend)
has a Republican challenger in November? It is businessman Kevin Mitschelen
from
New
Spending Projects
To the astonishment of
taxpayers across the county, as gas prices rise dramatically and food prices
climb due to ethanol production, our county is proposing new projects! Not just one but several
“million-dollar-plus” projects:
* New
*
Renovate old jail into courtrooms -- $3.5M
* New
morgue of 7,000 sq ft to be a regional facility even tho
we only see one body every three days --
$750,000 already set aside
* New Emergency Services
Center –proposed in ‘07 as a communications center to handle police & fire
dispatch for $16M ($12M = new radio equipment); Jan ‘08 added a public safety
training center raising the price to $20 million; Mar ’08 proposed that it be
“scaled down,” but new size not specified. Note: Fire dispatch for the entire
county is currently being handled by a single room in a
New
Airport TIF Expansion
A TIF District is an area
set aside by a local government, in this case
TIF is Tax Incremental
Financing. It means that whatever new
businesses locate in that area, their property taxes will NOT go to the city,
county, or schools, but instead will go into a special fund to build “infrastructure”
(roads, bridges, lights, landscaping) within
the District,
To avoid start-up costs,
The problem with TIFs is that none of their
property taxes go to the police, fire,
_ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
New Option Taxes Being Considered
The new property tax caps hadn’t even passed into
law before our local mayors and county officials were talking about adding
option income taxes! There are three
possibilities:
1. One option tax that is available is the 1%
income tax option which came with Governor Daniel’s Circuit Breaker program a
year ago. Funds from this tax can only
be used to replace lost revenue from LOWERED property taxes. But will our county claim that the new caps
have lowered it for them, so they now have a right to implement this new option
tax?
2. Our existing option income taxes, COIT and
CEDIT have not been taken to the maximum allowed by law. COIT was voted in under an automatic program
that took it to .6%. CEDIT started at
.1% and was moved to .2%.
Together they add up to .8%. But state law allows them to add up to a full
1%. Our county and cities could still go
for the additional .2%.
3. There is also a new provision under state law
for a public safety income tax which tops out at .25%. This money is to be used for police, fire and
So, Which of these options
will
CONTACT INFO
To contact the county’s lawmakers about
county projects, operating budgets or taxes, contact:
(Send one e-mail to all
nine at cocouncil@co.st-joseph.in.us)
Randall Przybysz Kevin
Kubsch Dale
DeVon
S.B.,
IN 46628 S.B., IN
46635 Granger, IN
46530
282-1000 235-9658 271-0686
Rafael Morton Michael Kruk Dennis
Schafer
325
N Studebaker
S.B.,
IN 46628 S.B., IN
46619
232-7190 288-7504 784-8285 (local call)
Mark Catanzarite Heath Weaver Mark Root
S.B.,
IN 46617 S.B., IN
46615
232-9112 233-9323 674-9125
You might also want to contact your
ST. JOSEPH COUNTY COMMISSIONERS
227 W.
Jefferson 235-9534
To comment on City of
Derek Dieter Henry Davis, Jr. Thomas LaFountain
4903 Starboard Dr. 5117
Idlewood Dr. 1224
Longfellow
S.B.,
IN 46628 S.B., IN
46619 S.B., IN
46615
243-5657 235-5983 289-9862
ddieter@southbendin.gov hdavis@southbendin.gov tlafount@southbendin.gov
Ann Puzzello David Varner Oliver Davis
1247
S.B.,
IN 46617 S.B., IN
46614 S.B., IN
46613
234-1834 291-1798 288-4523
apuzzell@southbendin.gov dvarner@southbendin.gov odavis@southbendin.gov
Timothy Rouse Al “Buddy” Kirsits Karen
White
S.B.,
IN 46617 S.B., IN
46617 S.B., IN
46614
233-4049 287-6529 289-5765
trouse@southbendin.gov akirsits@southbendin.gov kwhite@southbendin.gov
Or write a letter to the editor at the Tribune so fellow citizens can
hear your concerns:
Voice of the People /
Or send by e-mail to vop@sbtinfo.com
Local Elections 2008
Editorial:
Kelly Havens
Are There Any Real Democrats Left in the
As I watched the primary elections here in
Lest we forget, Democrats are supposed to be the party of the people,
the representatives of the little guys, the common folk. That’s you and me TAXPAYER, right? So why is it that when an elected Democrat,
County Commissioner Steve Ross repeatedly went after government inefficiency by
challenging proposed projects, policies and procedures that might be costing
the taxpayers money, the local party put time and money NOT into his
re-election but into DISPLACING him in the primary with Dave Thomas, who won
the primary and will now go on to run for Commissioner?
I didn’t agree with all of Steve Ross’s stances (e.g., his environmental
concerns over the Tondu coal-gasification plant cost
us over a hundred new jobs with an average salary of $70,000), but I think It
is a sad day when a true advocate of the people gets routed by his own party
because he didn’t play their “perpetuate the power” game.
Democratic voters of
-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --
Candidate Bio
As
an ongoing feature of Local Election ’08, we will be running biographies of
candidates who put themselves on our mailing list. Background info and platform supplied by the
candidate. Political activity of record
supplied by Citizens for Common Sense.
Myer
Blatt for Coroner
Myer Blatt
moved to
*
* EMT & Paramedic
in
* Registered Nurse –
Emergency Specialist – 1985 to present
*
* Deployed to
post-Katrina
Myer promises to pursue truth and justice
as cost-efficiently as possible. He asks, “If something does not need to
happen, then what is the point in spending YOUR hard-earned money paying for
it?”
Myer’s campaign committee includes Common Sense board
members Kelly Havens & Barry Baumbaugh.
To contact us: webmaster@citizensforcommonsense.info
Citizens for Common Sense, Inc. Carole
“Kelly” Havens
Granger,
IN 46530 (574)
272-7606
Ozzie’s Story Jerry Osborn is a local
sprint & drag racing legend from decades past. Since then he has lived quietly on
