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!

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.

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.

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?

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.

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.