Why Indiana Needs Recall Elections

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. 

This entry was posted on 15. June 2008 at and is filed under Government, Politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response or trackback from your own site.