26. June 2008 by Greg Kelver.

Over the last several months, LaPorte County has been treated to an ongoing three-ring circus starring the County Assessor, the County Attorney, the DLGF and an appeals cast of thousands.  But just when you think that The Appointeds actually get one right and you start to enjoy the show, it morphs right back to the old classic “Why Government Doesn’t Work.”  Like poor, trusting Charlie Brown who always has the football pulled away by Lucy at the last second, it appears DLGF Commissioner Musgrave just yanked the property tax ball away from LaPorte County Taxpayers. 

According to the News-Dispatch, http://thenewsdispatch.com/main.asp?SectionID=1&SubSectionID=1&ArticleID=15008&TM=24362.09 Musgrave Musgrave said “Seven county council members, three commissioners, and the assessor share this responsibility through their collective decision making,” … “County officials have the opportunity and the responsibility to resolve issues with the vendor, or exercise the ‘termination’ clause in the contract.”

Classical political buck-passing at its finest.  While most Libertarians probably have a preference for local government that is closer to the people than either the state or federal government, state government and the DLGF share an equal responsibility with our Local Electeds to fix this flaming mess.  But apparently Ms. Musgrave has already forgotten those 11 people she noted in LaPorte County government have repeatedly demonstrated total incompetence in getting this resolved and some pretty lousy decision making ability.  The DLGF should do the job it is supposed to do and make damn sure this gets fixed right. Fundamental constitutional rights need to be protected but unfortunately, We The Taxpaying Hoosier People pretty much had our fix-it tools stolen while we were napping.  Punch 10 driven paperless elections every four years certainly aren’t much of a tool against Goliath anymore. 

State legislators and the DLGF have created the laws and Alice-in-Wonderland rules that the heavily flawed reassessment was conducted under.  But like the Local Electeds,  Nexus is just another bit player who helps Alice move the shells, distracts the Taxpayer, and collects a substantial  check for doing it.  But taxpayers, please don’t be fooled again - the real constitutional power to fix the reassessment problem lies with the state legislators, not the County Commissioners, the County Council,  the County Assessor or the hired consultants who have been retained to take the heat.  It is up to them to face flawed reassessment reality and come up with a genuine long term fix instead of the smoke and mirrors legislation they passed last session.

Over the years I have had a number of discussions with friends (and foes) about the property tax system.  I have long advocated a simple “flat tax” type user fee approach on land and structures to fund basic local government services.  I believe that “Non-profits” (i.e.Hospitals, Churches, Lodges, etc) who own land and buildings that use local government services should also pay their fair share.  For far too long, the burden for government services has been excessively and unfairly put on homeowners, renters and small business - that must end.   I  believe a flat tax approach could clearly meet the “uniform and equal” requirement of Indiana’s Constitution and would totally eliminate the need for costly “reassessment” of any type.  The taxpayers’ money could be much better spent on roads, police, fire or other basic services instead of being wasted on highly paid consultants and their legal guns. And elected bad jokes like Assessor McDaniel wouldn’t be asking the Council for an additional $390,000 of our money to cover her little problem and put a few more pounds on Goliath.

Most of my Libertarian friends have come to believe that the property tax system needs to be yanked out by the roots and replaced with nothing.  After watching the DLGF vs LaPorte County game for the last few weeks, I think I am willing to concede that they are probably right.

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15. June 2008 by Greg Kelver.

LaPorte County has some truly dedicated public servants who always are giving it their best.  Last week, I heard LaPorte County Treasurer Ken Layton on WCOE discussing the property tax mess and doing his level best to try to help citizens better understand what is going on. A few months back, I also saw Mr. Layton along with County Auditor Teresa Shuter on ALCO TV doing a similar type of informative program to help inform and educate citizens.  On the few occasions that I have had to do business with an office that Mr. Layton headed, he has always been a model of how a public official should respond - open, upfront, professional, and courteous - something I have noticed that doesn’t always happen when Libertarians start asking questions. His public comments always seem to be the same way and I believe LaPorte County has been very well served by Mr. Layton for many years. On the other hand, some elected officials always seem to put politics ahead of performance.  In my opinion, LaPorte County Assessor Carol McDaniel’s latest attack on Bill Wendt and his team is yet another prime example of what is wrong with Punch 10 driven LaPorte County Government.  http://thenewsdispatch.com/main.asp?SectionID=1&SubSectionID=1&ArticleID=14641&TM=24850.9  Assessor McDaniels has become the Indiana State Poster Child for how NOT to do a property tax reassessment.  But instead of simply and properly doing the job she was elected to do, she continues to waste taxpayers’ money with yet another politically motivated smokescreen that uses the tired old class-warfare game that brings out the worst instead of the best. Perhaps a little more time spent on fixing the Property Tax Superfund Site and a little less time spent writing political press releases attacking concerned local citizens might be a good idea - and a lot better use of our hard-earned tax money.Indiana state legislators need to give citizens the right to recall abusive and incompetent elected officials. Mix in some well deserved recalls with a couple of referendums and a lot of political smokescreens just might get blown away real fast. 

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5. June 2008 by Greg Kelver.

When it comes to taxing and spending decisions, LaPorte County Taxpayers don’t usually get to see our government make two good decisions in a row.  But thanks to a little help from the DLGF, elected and appointed officials have actually put together back-to-back good decisions for LaPorte County. First, the DLGF ordered the reassessment of all residential, commercial, and industrial property in LaPorte County  http://www.in.gov/dlgf/files/NewsRelease-DLGForders-LaPorteCountytoReassessForPay2007.pdf  With the advantage of 20/20 hindsight, I think that the DLGF made some major mistakes that helped create the current mess that LaPorte County has now.  But massive amounts of new information has come to their attention over the last few months, thanks to the efforts of Bill Wendt and the team of professionals he put together. With their most recent decision for reassessment, the DLGF has clearly dealt with those past mistakes head-on and made a gut-wrenching decision to do the best that they can now to make it as right as possible. Personally, I think Commissioner Musgrave should be commended for doing a good job within the confines of the horrible property tax assessment system our legislators have created over many, many years.  Thankfully, some local officials also seem to have come to understand that this decision really is the only fair thing to do and appear willing to get on with it without further bitching and moaning.  I believe that is what they were elected to do and they should now be going full bore to get this mess fixed as quickly, accurately, and cost-effectively as possible.

Secondly, just this week, a majority of the LaPorte County Commissioners finally decided to kick Nexus out of bed and bring in another firm to assist with the newly ordered property tax reassessment   http://thenewsdispatch.com/main.asp?SectionID=1&SubSectionID=1&ArticleID=14281&TM=10458.47  It certainly is long past time for a “fresh pair of eyes” and a careful re-examination of what has happened.  Some folks, (elected, appointed, and contracted) need to be held accountable and I think the only way that is going to happen is by bringing in a new crew to help sort it all out.

Commissioner Mike Bohacek has consistently been trying to do the right thing and get to the bottom of this mess.  In my opinion, I believe he is also right on track with looking into a potential breach of contract action and recovery of fees from Nexus. There is simply no way that the hard working taxpayers of LaPorte County should have to pay for cleaning up the Property Tax Superfund Site that the County Assessor has left us with.

As a LaPorte County Property Taxpayer, I find it pretty outrageous that we apparently have been paying not only for the County Attorney to fight, but apparently we have also been billed by Nexus as well - gotta love those kind of special contracts.   While Bill Wendt and property taxpayers who have filed appeals have been paying for those efforts out of their own pockets, Taxpayers apparently have also had to foot the bill for some Nexus time and legal costs as well.  Have we also had to pay expenses and costs to bring in expert consultants to testify against us at the DLGF hearings as well?  Since LaPorte County loves to hire consultants, the LaPorte County Council should now hire another one to provide LaPorte County Taxpayers with a complete accounting and full disclosure of exactly how much of our tax money has been wasted on this fiasco.  If ever there is a case to justify some “loser pays”  tort reform legislation, this mess should be near the top of the list.

But with the disclosure that at least one “erroneous payment” was made, the thing that really boils the blood in my Libertarian veins is the way that attempts have been made to bully and intimidate some outspoken critics with legal action.  If LaPorte County Taxpayers have made any sort of payments that in any way, shape, or form have been used to pay for legal fees designed to intimidate and infringe on First Amendment or other fundamental rights of local citizens, then I believe we should demand our elected officials help pursue a just and proper remedy for those citizens.  Perhaps United States Code Title 18, Chapter 13 http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/html/uscode18/usc_sup_01_18_10_I_20_13.html might be a good place to start.      

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1. June 2008 by Greg Kelver.

If I tried to get people to like me a little better by sending them “rebate” checks using money that I did not have in my bank account but could only get by forcibly taking it from someone else (aka theft), it probably wouldn’t be very long till Sheriff Mollenhauer and Prosecutor Beckman sent out a few of their guys to bring me in for a little chat.

But somehow, when our esteemed politicians do exactly that same thing and give it a fancy name like “Economic Stimulus Payment” nobody seems to notice that Big Gov is spending money that it doesn’t have either.  And the only way that they can get it is by forcibly taking it either directly in the form of increased taxation or indirectly by printing more inflation stressed dollars that cause $4 gallon gas and struggling families to pay more and more for less and less.

In the spirit of economic good sportsmanship, President “W” and his Congressional Cohorts who gave birth to the Economic Stimulus Act of 2008, should be thrilled to hear that I have just received and quickly spent my “Economic Stimulus Payment” - every last cent of it.  To get the biggest bang for my stimulated buck, I just invested it with some guy named Bob Barr 08 http://www.bobbarr2008.com/, and Libertarian Partiers in Washington D.C. www.lp.org , Indianapolis www.lpin.org, and LaPorte County www.lplp.org .

Let the good times roll!

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