Indiana

They Still Don?t Get It

By Abdul Hakim-Shabazz

My patience for most local government in Indiana has pretty much run dry and two recent stories highlight that.  The Marion County Public Library has designated several libraries to close because of shrinking property tax revenue.  In addition, Marion County local governments are slated to lose about $79 million due to tax caps.  And every other day there’s another story about a school district somewhere in Indiana threatening more budget cuts.  Am I the only person who sees what’s going on here?

First of all, the money these local governments are complaining about does not belong to them, it belongs to the property taxpayers.  Secondly, I have yet to hear any of these units talk about consolidation, collaboration, joint purchasing, efficiencies, economies of scale, etc. etc.  If they have, I must have missed that news release and I wish someone could send it to me.

This is particularly true in the case of the Marion County Library system, which spent millions of dollars on the downtown white elephant when it should have been plugging resources into neighborhoods libraries.  Instead of talking about shutting down libraries, how about converting them into something more than a library, like a neighborhood resource center?  How about working with local law enforcement, schools, community organizations, churches, the business community and even those useless township trustees to provide an outlet for families and more importantly a place for children to hang out and stay out of trouble in the summer months?

How hard can it be to spread those costs amongst those different groups, keep the doors open, and provide a valuable resource to neighborhoods?    And that’s just a suggestion for libraries?   Schools could do the same thing by sharing resources and staff.

It gets real old when these local governments whine about not being able to take enough of the taxpayers money.  I guess the only bit of good news in all this is that eventually they’ll be so starved for cash that they will have to go away.  Then maybe we can start over again and get it right.

Full post as published by Indiana Barrister on April 12, 2010 (boomark / email).