Posted on February 14th, 2009 at 2:42 pm by daltonsbriefs
Like National GOP time for State GOP shakeup too?

RINO Sen. Sue Landske? (from Porter County Politics)

Sorry to ask the question, but what group is Senator Sue Landske protecting when she lets Lake County once again skate from reforms intended to clean up messes like … Lake County.

In this current cycle she is working to exempt Lake County from the need to eliminate elected county officials who for the most part we have all seen to be lacking in both ability and fiscal restraint. If any county in Indiana needs total reformation and reorganization it is Lake County. But once again to gain votes, the legislature is looking to exempt Lake County from restructuring laws.

Unless I’m mistaken, and feel free to set me straight, Senator Sue Landske is right in the center of this idea. In an effort to appeal to south Lake County Republicans who are fearful of a north Lake County County Executive getting elected and appointing a bunch of cronies … I believe she is pushing to exempt Lake County, perhaps the most corrupt and embarassing county in Indiana from re-organization and restructuring. Sorry to speak so bluntly, but she is also the GOP’s District Board member. Sounds like time for CHANGE.

Perhaps she needs to hear from you about your thoughts on restructuring county government to save money and reduce or eliminate corruption in all of our counties.  Perhaps she needs to hear it’s time to change the makeup of the Republican Central Committee.   Perhaps I’m wrong, and there’s a really important game being played in Lake County … go ahead make my day and tell me the rest of the story.

Update: I’ll agree this isn’t an issue of right or left …. blue or red … this is an issue of changing the 100 plus year we’ve been doing government, a way that isn’t all that efficient.

General Assembly, Local Government Reform, Sue Landske | 12 Comments »

12 Responses

  1. Am told by one respondent already that I’m flat wrong to get in Senator Landske’s face. I will be happy to modify or revise this post if and when someone tells us all (openly) why she should go against the Governor and county reorganization and keep her seat as District One chair?

    Posted by daltonsbriefs on February 14th, 2009 at 2:44 pm |

  2. I’ll agree with you that Lake County is the poster child for local government reform, but the one thing we must keep in mind is that this is not a RINO/Non-RINO issue. Republicans agree and disagree with this issue. Do do Democrats. I’m very much for it and so is Jen Wagner. But people in both of our respective counties are very much against it. So I wouldn’t go so far as to label Senator Landske a RINO. But she is obviously interested in who controls pieces of the government pie.

    Posted by Josh Gillespie on February 14th, 2009 at 4:14 pm |

  3. Ok, I’ll strike RINO agree that a lot of Republicans are so stuck in status quo that they aren’t supporting reorganization.

    I ran into another township insider who related that if the counties get control of all that cash and inter-government payments in those townships … they’ll blow it in a matter of a couple years. So, I’ll ask, how do we keep the counties themselves from blowing all the cash … perhaps it should be returned to the taxpayers and the accounts dissolved.

    Posted by daltonsbriefs on February 14th, 2009 at 5:04 pm |

  4. I have come down on both sides of the issue myself. On one hand, we should really want government to be as local as possible. The township level is a very good place to have decisions being made. And just because they are sometimes–or even often–inept is not a reason to leave the idea of local government. I would even say that is a conservative way of doing government.

    But there is a reality of today’s life means that slightly larger chunks would be more efficient and better government. I might have a different feel for the situation if property taxes were not a reality now and in the foreseeable future.

    But we have to be careful about the “efficient” argument. The end point on that discussion is “if running things at the county level is better than at the township level, why not at the state level?” And then “why not at the federal level?” And I think we are suffering enough from that attitude.

    Posted by Joel Harris on February 14th, 2009 at 11:33 pm |

  5. Steve, I think you should be cautious about waving the RINO flag, I think that label gets thrown around way too often. You know your Senator’s record better than I do – if this vote reflects a trend of voting against the party and principles you believe in, that’s one thing; it’s quite another if this is one vote where her views diverge with your own.

    Personally I think you can make plenty of conservative arguments against the Kernan-Sheppard “reforms,” they make far too many assumptions about the good nature of our elected officials. To date no one has demonstrated where consolidating government entities has ever made it smaller or more efficient.

    These proposals strike me as more of a consolidation of power than as a reform of a broken system. It only makes it easier for special interests to influence the executives of various jurisdictions, eliminates the only form of government in unincorporated areas that actually services those areas. While I do agree with some of the proposals (I could be persuaded on a single county executive or fiscal authority or oversight), but I think labeling these reforms as “conservative” flies in the face of Burkian conservatism – which leads me to wonder what makes them conservative.

    Just my own thoughts on the matter – I get tired of people saying that if you don’t agree with the governor then you’re not a good Republican. If I recall, most of the delegates to the convention didn’t agree with him on the attorney general nomination, does that mean their RINOs too?

    Posted by Derek Pillie on February 15th, 2009 at 8:31 am |

  6. On the other hand, Derek, part of the reason that the Kernan-Sheppard reforms make some amount of sense is that our local governance rely just as much on the good nature of our elected officials as the reforms. And our population does not tend to actually know the local (read “township”) officials who are actually responsible for spending so much of our money.

    And as our property tax situation continually brings up, the township assessor situation is completely broken.

    The question in my mind is if we were starting from a blank sheet of paper today, how would we structure local government? I honestly don’t think that township government would show up if we were creating it today.

    Posted by Joel Harris on February 15th, 2009 at 4:05 pm |

  7. I think we really risk hurting our party when we urge for certain people to be replaced because they disagree with the Governor. There are matters of principle that are worth disagreeing over and, if necessary, making changes over. Conversely, there are also issues where conservative arguments can be made on both sides (and in this case some of the local government reforms can easily be opposed by conservatives) and to simply throw people out of power based on a disagreement of this sort is to resort to strong-arm tactics that should have no place in our party.

    Lake County does need to be reformed, but a better way to reform it would be to make local voters responsible for making those changes, not continually using state power or state funding to make adjustments where county-level decisions are hurting the county.

    Posted by Brian Sikma on February 16th, 2009 at 8:45 am |

  8. I couldn’t agree with Derek more in his comment.

    Posted by Brian Sikma on February 16th, 2009 at 8:46 am |

  9. I’m finding the current of thought here, the little undercurrent of anti-Mitch feelings a little odd. I’m with Mitch on the entire package of reorganization … but I understand your conservative underpinnings too gang. I really do. Time for a new way of doing local government that’s all.

    Posted by daltonsbriefs on February 16th, 2009 at 9:44 pm |

  10. Ran into a couple people connected to Lake County Republicans, i guess my little shot across the bow has hit the mark. more later.

    Posted by daltonsbriefs on February 17th, 2009 at 3:22 pm |

  11. Interesting. I can’t wait to read what you found out.

    Posted by Josh Gillespie on February 17th, 2009 at 4:20 pm |

  12. we agree…!!!! you say “Perhaps she needs to hear from you about your thoughts on restructuring county government to save money and reduce or eliminate corruption in all of our counties.”

    we say: read this link http://countycrusaders.wordpress.com/

    Have you had problems with Judge Molter, Judge Potter, Prosecuting Attorney Ed James Barce, Newton County Sheriff Donald Hartman, Attorney charles Dargo, Attorney Jeff Drinski, Attorney Jim Morrison, Attorney Jim Foster, etc?
    Well, it appears that these officials where contacted: Sue Landske, Don Lehe, Senator Evan Byah, Senator Richard Lugar, Pete Visclosky, Governor Mitch Daniels and it appears they are doing nothing! So we encourage you to VOTE for someone else next time! Remove yourself for any connections you have or may have in the future with them. Do not become an “accessory” or “aid and abet” this monster!

    Posted by anothercountycrusader on December 11th, 2009 at 3:15 pm |

   
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