Huston, We Have a Problem - and NIPSCO is NOT it.

Once again the LaPorte County Commissioners have demonstrated that they are not qualified to govern a high school class much less a real county with 110,000 real lives in it.

It is a given fact that just about everybody thinks they are paying way too much for gas and electric.  It certainly doesn’t take much political skill to get people riled up when somebody starts kicking NIPSCO in the shins.  So in yet another brilliant political smokescreen designed to distract LaPorte County Taxpayers while generating more billable hours for the County Attorney, the Commissioners have given him the go ahead to blow smoke from NIPSCO’s upcoming rate increase. Even though the News-Dispatch reports that County Attorney Friedman said it is unknown what kind of increase the energy company is seeking until it files information in August.

 http://thenewsdispatch.com/main.asp?SectionID=1&SubSectionID=1&ArticleID=15966 

Positively brilliant political pandering! Nothing like waiting to get all the facts before you announce that you are going to waste more of somebody’s money doing stuff you really shouldn’t be doing in the first place. But please keep in mind this is the same Commissioner Dream Team that has been yanking LaPorte County property taxpayers around for over a year and still can’t get it right even after being roughed up by the DLGF.

Let’s cut the bullshit.  As a small business owner who understands real economic development, I can assure the Commissioners and County Attorney Friedman that the disaster that they have created with their property tax mess is a FAR, FAR greater detriment to LaPorte County’s ability to attract new business than NIPSCO’s first rate increase case since 1987 will be. For the last twenty years, I have spent my life helping businesses to save energy in their buildings.  I know firsthand that smart businesses can save tremendous amounts of energy and improve their bottom line through sensible engineering choices.  But unfortunately, business has absolutely no such similar option for the screwed up property tax reassessment system inflicted on them by state legislators and incompetent electeds.  Ladies and gentlemen, if you truly want to understand why we have economic problems, please focus your attention on the three ring circus of local, state and federal government, not NIPSCO. 

But what is truly rich about the Commissioners quicksand stand against NIPSCO’s upcoming rate case is that at this very same meeting, they voted to sharply raise the fees for tests provided by the LaPorte County Health Department. Those sharp increases  included doubling the fee for blood profiles for county employees.  They also announced that the Health Department will start testing for chicken pox at $170 a pop.  Chicken pox!! Hello Forest, meet the Trees.

Personally, I think it is amazingly hypocritical for the Commissioners to hike the county  fees for basic health testing at the very same meeting they present the political illusion of fighting NIPSCO. But of course that is just my opinion.  Voters certainly will have an opportunity to give their own opinion in a few weeks.

Vote for more of the same, get more of the same.

This entry was posted on 18. July 2008 at and is filed under Energy, 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.