I read with interest the news item that appeared in the Times-Union several weeks ago concerning our state government, specifically our governor, trying to eliminate some expenditures in order to bring down the cost of operating Indiana. I would like to offer a suggestion.
Cut out or at least cut down the employment of The Indiana Department of Environmental Management. Do you know there are more than 950 telephone numbers listed for IDEM? We have 92 counties in Indiana. Why on this green earth do we need that many IDEM employees? We don't.
Do you know they can bring a lawsuit against anyone for any reason without cause? Guess who has to pay for all the court costs? We the taxpayers, of course. And who ever becomes a defendant has to pay their own court costs. So actually the defendant has to pay his own court costs as well as the costs of the prosecution. Is that fair?
With that many unnecessary employees they have to bring a lot of lawsuits in order to make it appear that they are busy. They are intent on closing as many businesses as possible. What happens when they close a business? The employees are laid off, just adding to the recession problem. IDEM has not overlooked Kosciusko County in this matter.
Also, we need to put pressure, voting pressure, on our government to not pass the heavy taxes on the orthopedic industry. Write a letter or make a phone call and express your wishes on this matter. If that happens, and I pray it doesn't, you can expect the orthopedic industry to move out of the country. Wouldn't you if it happened to your business? When the taxes that the industry pays at the present time would be lost, Warsaw would become a ghost town and many, many more people would be standing in the unemployment lines. Let's not let it happen.
