I live in the only one county in Indiana that does not have a county income tax. The other 91 counties in the state have one. We can't continue to have that level of freedom from government intrustion, of course, regardless of the fact that the county "is also the only one of the counties to have four highly profitable gambling boats pumping millions into local government annually."
http://nwi.com/articles/2007/12/19/news/top_news/doc5cf22020a1a70517862573b60017c005.txthttp://www.nwi.com/articles/2007/12/19/updates/breaking_news/doc476970d4db1ba487207446.txt
So now the County Council has voted for a 1% income tax, one of the highest in the state. And who are our fearless County Councilmen and -women who are instituting this tax in order to "offset the sticker shock from the latest round of property tax increases?"
One is using loopholes to continue to sit on the council until he is sentenced in January 2008 for federal corruption charges.
Another is a county employee, a worker for the government that would stand to benefit from the tax increase. Is anyone willing not to vote to give himself a raise? If so, that person probably wouldn't be working in government to begin with.
Another uses a county-issued car and county-paid for gasoline to pump gas into his personal car, thereby robbing the people who pay for the car and the gas.
Thankfully it's been vetoed thus far, mainly due to these blatant conflicts of interest and corruption, but that will be quickly overridden.
But the "latest round of property tax increases" are contributing to the general stagnation of the region; taxes in some areas went from $200 a year to $5,000. Try coming up with that if you're on a fixed income. The steel mills have already closed, and now the gambling boats will seek less expensive waters in other counties (or states). And that's ironic, because the casions are some of the only places hiring in the region.
I guess I should stop being surprised to find irony in government. Especially from a government that sells a new tax under the heading of "tax relief."