Letter: Insurance and benefits – not tax caps – hurting county and city budgets

Over the last four years, I have been following local government spending and taxation. I have spoken about what I saw as problematic.

This started with multiple letters to the editor about economic development income taxes and then transitioned to the effects tax increment financing has on local government.

In recent months there has been a lot of talk and discussion about how property tax caps have hurt us in Dubois County. Some have suggested raising taxes, while the majority of us are already well over-taxed.

If you compare taxes from four years ago to today, you see the following:

1. Dubois County’s (including cities and towns) property tax revenue has increased 3 percent annually.

2. Dubois County’s income tax revenue has increased 10 percent annually.

The budget problems Dubois County, and maybe the other incorporated entities of Jasper, Huntingburg, etc., might be seeing are not a result of tax caps. Historically, their income has been increasing, not decreasing.

These budget shortfalls are being caused by the government’s inability to rein in spending to levels below its incoming revenue.

Why can’t our local entities do this?

A simple review of the Gateway financial reports — available online — reveals two major increases of spending over those same four years.

Government employee salaries come in a distant second to largest increase.

The kicker is one line item … health insurance. Over the four years I reviewed, the county’s insurance cost has increased to the tune of 20 percent a year.

The amount spent in 2015 on health insurance was over $2 million!

Hoosiers put tax caps into place to protect ourselves from overspending politicians. Politicians who complain about tax caps and then state the need to raise taxation to fund their spending must be held accountable for their statements and votes.

Locally, we need to have thrifty politicians who understand that raising the taxation amount isn’t the answer, and caps are a good thing as the people were the ones who voted for them.