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Regarding Brian Secor’s letter, “Tax caps should lead to cuts” (Oct. 27), regarding the Department of Local Government Finance:
It is so very unfortunate that Secor continues to spout misleading information along with appointing himself the DGLF’s enforcer on its potential woodshed-whacking activities.
I would like to stress, as clerk treasurer of Roanoke, that the DLGF is doing its job, as I speak, in determining the final 2010 budgets of Indiana government entities.
Secor has been informed numerous times by me and the Huntington County auditor and our representative from the DLGF that the 2010 budgets were estimates, as advertised, and no definitive figures were available at the time of preliminary budget workshops. The estimated, advertised figures were also determined by the DGLF representative himself for the Town Council’s submission to the state.
Most 2010 budget totals for Huntington County were higher than the 3.8 percent guideline, because Huntington County is a local option income tax county, and if cities and towns do not estimate and advertise high enough they will most definitely lose funds.
As chief financial officer of the town of Roanoke, I am always looking for ways to reduce costs and streamline services to recommend to the Town Council, as challenging as that may be in these times, while trying to not reduce public safety. It is truly dismaying that Secor continues to use scare tactics, dismiss representatives of the DLGF as buffoons and portray himself as the only sole crusader for fair taxation in Huntington County.
I take extreme umbrage regarding his accusation that there is “government greed” going on in my town of Roanoke and can assure the local residents that the DLGF will cut the town’s 2010 budget, if necessary, as it did the 2009 budget. The town will not receive tax dollars it doesn’t deserve. The Town Council was instructed by the DGLF to advertise the 2010 estimated budget high to assure that the town receives all the tax dollars that it is truly entitled to continue to serve the residents at the utmost potential
Secor needs to understand that certainly Roanoke, and the rest of Huntington County, do not need his uninformed discretion on who does, or who doesn’t get whacked.
Though we could, I suppose, take his rhetoric and use it to fertilize our woodsheds.
JOANNE KIRCHNER Clerk/Treasurer Town of Roanoke
