Continuously serving Kosciusko County since 1854
I watched with interest as the economic development income tax fell to defeat again this year.
The evil EDIT.
We've been through all this before, but please indulge me one more time.
EDIT is a tax on income. It is only assessed on those who earn money in this county. The rate proposed was 0.4 percent.
That means if you make a gross income of $32,000 per year, your EDIT bill would be $10 per month. If you make $24,000, your EDIT bill would be $8 per month.
As the opponents of EDIT were celebrating their "victory," most interesting to me were some of the bizarre, sophomoric arguments they used.
Here's a good one. It goes something like, "If we have all this economic development and make all these jobs then more people will come here and we'll have more crime."
Could someone please help dig that person's head out of the sand?
And here's my favorite, so eloquently expressed by writers of letters to the editor:
"I'm hard pressed to understand why someone living outside of a town in the southern part of the county should be paying for improvements in a town in the northern part of the county."
Or:
"The truth is the only real beneficiaries of this tax will be the largest two or three cities or towns in the county and the rest may or may not get the crumbs (if there are any left)."
Ah, yes, the "truth is."
Based on that logic, the "truth is" we should charge people who live in rural areas more for their electricity because it costs a lot more to run all those electric lines.
The argument would go something like this: "Why, it's cheap to run electricity to the people who live in town, where they're all bunched up. Why should city people have to pay more just so the electric company can afford to run lines out in the county."
The "truth is," that argument could be used for just about any taxpayer-funded service. People from the south don't generally travel roads in the north, right?
And, of course, you shouldn't have to pay for the fire department unless your house is burning.
Can we all agree that argument is lame?
EDIT fosters economic development. So it would seem to me that opponents are, basically, arguing that we don't need any more economic development.
That is patently false.
There are some sorely needed economic development projects looming around the county.
And please, please understand. We all - each and every one of us - benefit from economic development. From Silver Lake to Syracuse, Pierceton to Etna Green, we all benefit.
Here's why.
Property taxes here compare very favorably with other places in Indiana that have much less to offer.
I know this because I lived in one of those other places. In that place, property taxes in most city taxing units exceed $11 per hundred assessed. And the infrastructure is coming apart.
Why?
Because the people in that place lacked vision. They failed to nurture economic development.
Why do you suppose the property tax rates in our county compare favorably with others?
It is obviously, directly and irrefutably related to economic development. In Indiana, the frozen levy property tax system hinges on assessed valuation. The higher the assessed valuation, the lower the tax rate. It is a simple equation.
The municipalities that have vision work to increase assessed valuation through economic development. That way property tax rates can be kept low and the municipality can keep up with infrastructure improvements and fund more - gasp! - economic development projects.
A factory generates lots of assessed valuation for a municipality.
It also generates jobs. Jobs generate people. People build houses and create even more assessed valuation.
Why do you suppose municipalities stumble over each other trying to attract industry? Why do you suppose they cut deals and even abate taxes for up to 10 years? Why do you supposed industrial parks popped up all over the place? It's to get that all-essential assessed valuation.
I suppose I can believe that someone might not understand this simple concept. But to demonize it, that's just plain stupid.
Here's a quick example of how EDIT could work to benefit everyone. Warsaw could use its EDIT funds to build a second wastewater treatment plant. Leesburg could use its EDIT funds to install sewer lines in town. The county could use part of its EDIT funds to connect the two with a sewer line along Ind. 15.
Warsaw gets the sewer capacity it needs (its current system is at capacity). Leesburg gets the sewer system it needs and the county gets a whole new corridor for economic development along Ind. 15. Everybody wins.
This is not pie-in-the-sky stuff. This stuff could really happen if the funding were available.
Another senseless argument is that our city and county officials just need to tighten their belts and save money to fund these projects.
That implies that our local governments are squandering money. That's absurd. If anything, they're almost too tightfisted.
And besides, how in the world could anyone squeeze a sewage treatment plant out of an existing city budget? That's ludicrous.
Anyone who has ever read this column knows how I feel about federal taxes. Money that we send to the federal government gets returned to us at a rate of about 28 cents on the dollar. That's a problem.
But this tax is local dollars working locally. It's the way it should be. The dollars are kept right here where we can see them work. And at a rate of 0.4 percent, it's a bargain when you consider the benefits it could bring to all county residents.
But there will be always be naysayers. Those who say no matter what the benefit, any local tax is too high. These people need to direct their angst toward Washington, where it belongs.
Failure to aggressively address economic development is a mistake we can't afford to make.
