Published: March 05, 2008 11:48 pm            

Letters to the editor - Thursday, Mar. 6, 2008

Oppose expansion of government

One of the legitimate issues facing Indiana state lawmakers and the restructuring of property tax is local government funding. Critical services and education at the local level should never have funding problems, but this is exactly what happens when taxpayers’ money must go to centralized planning institutions instead of remaining in the hands of locally elected officials. Instead of the majority of our taxes being sent to national and state governments, which then release them back to local government in a tight-fisted bureaucratic manner with numerous strings attached, it should be local government that collects the majority of taxes and then releases them to state and national levels after securing adequate resources for local needs.

This does not happen, though, because voting citizens buy into the rhetoric of politicians who make collective promises to give us goods and services at someone else’s expense, resulting in financial struggles at the local level. This is an incontrovertible consequence of the liberal ideology that leads to intrusively expanding national and international governments. The collective feudalism resulting from such policies naturally deprives local leadership the ability and the resources to enact sound policy that serves their citizens.

The presidential election has shaped up to provide no meaningful choices, but pay attention to the congressional, state and local races. Will you choose candidates who oppose the intrusive expansion of government, or will you choose candidates who raid our pocketbooks and devastate personal finances and local economies?

Charles A. Layne

Bunker Hill

‘Let’s get busy building a park’

I read with interest your editorial in the Sunday, March 2, edition.

Howard County Commissioners have been poor-mouthing for quite some time, and their sentiments have been echoed by the County Council. Now we want to spend $15,000 more for yet another study, after two others have already been done. The county says they can’t pay their bills now, so where do we get money to pay for another study? If the county has extra money, my guess is we would spend it much better elsewhere.

I agree the old Continental site is not good for anything but a park. The area is blighted and needs something to make it look better.

This is not a good time to try and stimulate business. We are on the edge of a recession, and no investor is going to put a lot of money into something during this slow economic time.

I am totally against selling the property to anyone for $5, period. The site was sold years ago for $1, and it sat undisturbed for years until the county took it over for taxes.

Now they want to sell it again for $5, and still the taxes go unpaid. You want to take a guess who makes up those lost taxes? You bet, the property taxpayers in this county. The same people who are paying to reclaim the ground.

If I am going to pay for something, I should get use out of what I have bought, and that means if it is a park, at least I can enjoy the park.

Turn the property over to the city, and let’s get busy building a park and quit throwing more money into a black hole.

Bruce Keller

Kokomo

        

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