Below is a letter we received from Team Hammond Taxpayers' Group, sponsor of the Lake County Indiana Tea Party to be held on March 1st. If you want to join the caravan of patriots going from Indianapolis, drop us an email and we'll get you included in our party! Together, statewide, we can send a message to our politicians that we're not buying the bull that essential services will have to be cut with tax cuts. That's an out and out lie and the taxpayers know it.
--HFFT editor
FROM TEAM HAMMOND TAXPAYERS GROUP:
"Our local elected officials must be working overtime trying to convince the citizens that property tax reform is bad for us. They would have you believe with their scare tactics that we will have no fire or police protection, and people will die! Let's put a guilt trip on the homeowners for wanting to keep their homes!
"Our local elected officials must be working overtime trying to convince the citizens that property tax reform is bad for us. They would have you believe with their scare tactics that we will have no fire or police protection, and people will die! Let's put a guilt trip on the homeowners for wanting to keep their homes!
If Mayor McDermott is so worried about this 1% cap and the loss of millions of dollars, why is he talking about building a new city hall? Or for that matter, what about the $13 million revenue bond the Port Authority floated to build a new banquet hall at Lost Marsh Golf Course? If the city is in such bad financial shape, why don't we just sell the golf course to a private interest and be done with it? It's never made money in all the years it's been open anyway.
And if Fire Chief Hamm is so worried about having to cut firefighters, why doesn't he give back the $15,000 raise he just received as a show of good faith?
It's time the good people of Hammond started asking why it is the Civil City takes in over $52 million in casino revenue annually, yet the city is in debt to the tune of at least $110 million. The city should not be broke! We should be in the black. Where has all that money gone?
The way to reduce property taxes in Hammond is by selling the golf course (the city should not be in the golf course business anyway), nix the banquet hall and new city hall, cut out all excessive spending (mayor's photographer at a salary of $50,000 a year), and have the mayor take his share of the annual casino revenue and pay off all the city's debt. The city can and should live within its means.
Essential services don't have to be cut. Our elected officials are trying to take the heat off them by laying the guilt trip on us!"
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