EDITORIAL: County layoffs needed

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| Friday, November 14, 2008 | (3 comment(s))

Lake County Highway Department Superintendent Marcus Malczewski is understandably upset about having to lay off five workers and eliminate two open positions.

"It's the first layoffs we've had in my 46 years with the department," Malczewski said.

Managing a department is difficult, and even more so when you have to lay off workers.

But those job cuts should not be a concern for too much wailing by the taxpayers.

Sure, it's sad that anyone has to lose a job, particularly at a time when the unemployment rate is so high that it will be difficult for those people to quickly find work elsewhere. We appreciate the difficulties those individuals and their families will face.

But the taxpayers need a break before they get to the breaking point themselves. In fact, there are many examples of people losing their homes because of the high tax burden they face.

Lake County Councilman Larry Blanchard, R-Crown Point, said the county is suffering because the state helped balance the state police budget by using gasoline taxes that once went to county government.

Declining gas tax revenue also has taken its toll as drivers have become serious about driving less in order to conserve fuel.

"They are trying to force us to pass a wheel tax or an income tax," Blanchard said.

This is crunch time for local governments, Lake County included. But rather than yearn for bygone days or dream of ways to squeeze even more money from taxpayers, the government needs to find ways to do its work more efficiently.

Necessity is the mother of invention, and this is the time to become inventors and innovators.

In the meantime, the county's budget needs to be cut, and that means cutting the county's payroll.

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truthful wrote on Nov 14, 2008 2:49 PM:

" i like the way that some of your readers respond to your editorials. lay people off, reduce the salaries of supervisors. That should all save lake county taxpayers some cash! how would you like for someone to send your boss a letter suggesting that your salary be cut, or better yet, that your job should be eliminated? In this day in this economy, for anyone to even suggest that people should lose their jobs, it goes to show you how cruel, insensitive, and heartless people are. you can eliminate 200 jobs at the government center, how much is the average taxpayer going to save, $15 a year. Is that reason to ruin someones life? you people are sickening! "

goldwater wrote on Nov 14, 2008 8:22 AM:

" Not only do taxes have to be lower, the region needs to stem depopulation--especially the migration of younger recent college grads. Saving taxes will not solve all the problems when you are losing revenue due to shrinking tax base. However, depopulation will continue, as long as our towns lack the cultural and community amenities that families look for when deciding on a community to live in.

As well, strengthening the tax base involves bringing businesses into the region. Of course taxes, energy costs, and workforce are paramount in an employer's business location decision. But so are health care costs and community culture.

NWI's cheap gas, tobacco and fireworks are not inviting to most families or employers. Lower taxes are good, but there has to be value for the taxes we do pay. NWI's political leadership is too fixated on personal gain to see the big pictre. "

Overtaxed wrote on Nov 14, 2008 7:44 AM:

" Finally county government is doing something to reduce the bloated work force. They should also eliminate all the “non-essential workers” since they are not really needed. Now, get the remaining employees to do a days work for a days pay and day to day operations should improve. Since the supervisors now have less people to supervise, their salary should be adjust accordingly. "

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