The Indiana Association of Cities and Towns (IACT) is urging municipalities to lobby their local legislators about pending bills which would put to a vote on a referendum in November this question: should property-tax caps be codified in the Indiana Constitution?

Already those tax caps have forced some municipalities to “make massive cuts in services like fire safety, police, parks and recreation and more,” IACT states in a letter recently sent to all state legislators.

The more immediate problem, however, is IACT’s perception that legislators may justify their vote in favor of one or the other of the bills by claiming that municipalities “have not been outspoken enough on the impacts of the property-tax caps going into the State Constitution.”

So IACT is now lobbying its member municipalities to lobby their local legislators, as Chesterton Clerk-Treasurer Gayle Polakowski told the Town Council at its meeting Monday night.

The cap on residential property limits a total annual property-tax bill to 1 percent of the property’s assessed valuation. So the owner of a property with an AV of $100,000 pays no more than $1,000 in taxes on that property in a given year.

In other business, Town Manager Bernie Doyle gave the council an update on his activities in the New Year:

•A final draft of the new Chesterton Comprehensive Plan should go before the Advisory Plan Commission at its Feb. 18 meeting with a public hearing on the document at its March 18 meeting. A workshop last week on the Comprehensive Plan went “very well,” Doyle said.

•Doyle has begun work on the a “performance management plan” with the help of LeAnn McCrum of the Northwest Indiana Small Business Development Center. Such a plan should help employees “improve their processes, equipment, and facilities,” Member Jeff Trout, R-2nd, said later in the meeting.

•A recent meeting with Chester Inc., the contracted architect for the new municipal building, to be constructed on the site of the former United Tractor facility at 116 N. 15th St., went “very well,” Doyle said. Trout said later in the meeting that he’s “thrilled” that the new building could be up and occupied in the fall.

•Doyle’s assistant, Stephanie Kuziela, is ramping up the Census 2010 messaging project, he said. The council did table for the time being Doyle’s request to increase the number of hours Kuziela works per week from 31 to 32, which would put her on full-time status. Clerk-Treasurer Gayle Polakowski said that full-time status could cost the town between $15,000 and $20,000 in benefits and PERF.

•Staff is now working on a list of wish-list projects to submit to U.S. Rep. Pete Visclosky, D-1st, for inclusion in the Fiscal Year 2011 budget.

•And Doyle, in consultation with department heads, is compiling a 2009 annual report, which may be ready for the council at its next meeting, Jan. 25.

Members welcomed Boy Scout Troop 908, which attended Monday’s meeting and whose members led those present in the Pledge of Allegiance. The scouts are currently working on their Citizenship and Community merit badge.

“I hope it was a valuable learning experience,” said Member Jim Ton, R-1st. “Please come back anytime you like.”

“These are our future leaders,” added Member Emerson DeLaney, R-5th. “There could be a future president out there. I hope you earn your merit badges.”

Posted 1/12/2010