Despite the forecast of snow, there was a good turnout at the Team Hammond Taxpayers' Group meeting on Tuesday night at the Woodmar United Methodist Church.
Guest speaker for the evening was Christine Cid, 2008 President of the Lake County Council.
Ms. Cid gave a powerpoint presentation on the 2009 county budget. She explained how the budget was cut by $15 million and how and where the cuts were made. A total of 119 positions were eliminated in the budget reductions. Ms. Cid also pointed out which departments, namely the sheriff, did not make any cuts and actually asked for an increase in spending. Criminal justice (courts and law enforcement) makes up 75% of the county's budget and yet, the sheriff made no cuts to his budget. She questioned the need for the sheriff's new helicopter and adding staff when other departments were voluntarily cutting staff and making budget reductions.
Future county cost-cutting measures include consolidation of purchasing and privatization of the jail. Ms. Cid said she will continue to push for budget reductions to make county government more efficient and cost effective.
The food and beverage tax was also touched on. Ms. Cid questioned whether the bus systems had looked to other sources of funding before asking the council to enact this tax. She said she would need more information on the food and beverage tax and the bus systems before she could make a final decision.
Another tax Ms. Cid was questioned on was the county option income tax. She said she had originally voted for it because 100% of the tax was to be directed to property tax relief. Cid also said the county commissioners (Scheub & DuPey) will continue to veto the income tax so it is pretty much a moot point.
Hammond Fourth District Councilwoman Kim Poland also spoke at the meeting. She talked about the ordinance she sponsored regarding take-home cars in Hammond. There are currently 71 take-home cars being used by various city employees. Poland's ordinance is currently in committee and needs to be tweaked before coming back to the council for approval. She will continue to fight for passage of this ordinance.
Mary Ellen Slazyk gave an update on the last school board meeting. She said the school city is looking at purchasing two apartment buildings on 119th Street across from George Rogers Clark Middle/High School for more staff parking. One of the buildings is owned by Donald Osborne, who is currently the President of the Hammond Multi-School Building Corporation, the holding company the school city uses to finance all their school building projects. The other apartment building is owned by a realty company whose address just happens to be the same as Mr. Osborne's business. Mary Ellen agreed Clark has always had parking problems, but questioned whether the sale of these properties would be a conflict of interest. She also said there needs to be more citizen attendance at school board meetings. The next school board meeting will be at 7 p.m. on Thursday, February 12 at the school administration center at 41 Williams Street.
Hammond Councilman-At-Large Bob Markovich spoke next about the wind turbine project for Forsythe Park and Wolf Lake. He said the city received grant money from the state for the project and the total cost of the project would be $195,000. The city would receive about $5,000 a year in electricity credits from NIPSCO. At that rate, it would take the city about 39 years to pay off the project before any potential profit could be realized. Markovich commended the city for looking at alternative energy sources. Audience members questioned the size of the turbines, placement of the turbines in a migratory flyway and if noise would be an issue.
Larry Rapchak then spoke about the staggering impact illegal immigration is having on our education and health care systems as well as property taxes. He spoke about the E-Verify legislation that would greatly benefit Hoosier taxpayers. E-Verify allows employers to electronically verify employment eligibility of newly hired workers. House Speaker Bauer stopped the legislation last year but this legislation needs to be passed this year because it protects Hoosier jobs. Larry said it is also important to fill out legislative surveys either by mail or online because our local state reps and senators need to know this is an important issue with their constituents. He passed out information on E-Verify along with contact information on our NWI state legislators.
A resolution was then passed by Team Hammond members in support of the E-Verify legislation.
Jim Premeske finished off the meeting with upcoming Team Hammond events. Members will continue to attend county council workstudy sessions and meetings and Hammond city council meetings. The public hearing for the wind turbine project will also be held on Wednesday, January 28 at 7:00 p.m. in the city council chambers.
The next Team Hammond meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, February 24, 2009 at the Galaxy Hall in Hessville. The topic of next month's meeting will be public safety and updated crime statistics.