Biomet CEO Dane Miller once told me, “You never know what’s under a rock until you turn it over.” I agree, and I believe Wayne Township residents have learned and benefited from the discoveries of the Shari Benyousky for Trustee Campaign Team about the finances of the Wayne Township trustee office. What exactly have we learned?
1. On Jan. 1, 2018, there was an extraordinary cash balance in excess of $1.25 million in Wayne Township bank accounts – even if you don’t count their Rainy Day Fund. More on this in a minute, but for now you can check my figures at the Indiana Gateway website. With that much cash on hand, even if all the Wayne Township taxes were magically eliminated and the total of Wayne Township tax receipts dropped from over $800,000 in 2017 to $0 next year, the Wayne trustee office could still operate at current levels for nearly three years! That’s right: They could do everything they do now for 33 months with no tax money paid to them by any of us. That is amazing to me. How many local businesses have 33 months of cash on hand?
2. Earlier this month Wayne Township Trustee Sheila Burner explained the trustee office’s failure to respond to recent problems like Kosciusko County’s opioid crisis, by telling us, “No one asked us.” Note: Republican Gov. Holcomb pleaded with Indiana township trustees to do exactly that over a year ago as reported in the Anderson Herald Bulletin on Oct. 4, 2017. This is an easy Google Search.
3. At the Oct. 4 Wayne trustee public hearing for its 2019 budget, we were told that the Wayne trustee requested a tax levy reduction of nearly $200,000 for 2019 because they wanted to responsibly react to the $1.25 million surplus. But I doubt that. It was the Benyousky team who started bringing this issue to the attention of local government officials this past spring, long before the budget process or the Oct. 4 budget announcement for 2019.
A. April 16 – Warsaw/Wayne fire chief
B. May 7 – County councilperson
C. May 7 – County auditor
C. May 21 – City of Warsaw mayor
I think this surprise tax decrease is a simply a political maneuver to distract voters from an undetected cash surplus. This is irresponsible and also a bit deceptive.
4. And now, as a result of the Benyousky team’s Freedom of Information Act request for a copy of the “Memorandum of Understanding” between the city of Warsaw and Wayne Township, we think we see that the Wayne trustee has agreed to a bond repayment of nearly $1 million for the construction of Firehouse 3 over the coming 12 years while holding only half that amount in the same Rainy Day Fund they designated for this debt repayment. Where will the remaining $500,000 shortfall come from? A future tax increase?
So, what have we learned? This much for certain: All government needs oversight. It really doesn’t matter if it is Democrat or Republican or anything else; one-party political control of public office is never good.
What can you do? Cast your vote, now at the Justice Building in downtown Warsaw, or on Nov. 6 at your precinct polling place for Shari Benyousky for Wayne trustee and her board team:
• Lori Vallotton Roe
• Laura Deal-Decker
• Jim Falkiner
Do the right thing for Wayne Township and for yourself. Your Wayne Township local government is supposed to work for you and for all of us. But certainly not for a political party.
