Recently President Barack Obama visited Elkhart, Indiana and Florida The President took his stimulus package on the road to those people who have suffered the highest unemployment rate and mortgage foreclosure. While the Republicans were refusing as a group to support the stimulus package along party lines. Republicans so far removed from the lives of Recreational Vehicle World of Elkhart and homelessness explosion in Florida
A personal touch to get Washington insiders to help these folks.
I don't think the personal stories should be viewed as a red herring. The stories could be viewed more like opportunities for putting a human face to the stimulus package. A way to keep it real for the policy wonks of Washington. The same technique that Wayne Township Trustee Rick Stevenson used to explain the growing needs in his January 19 article titled, "Township gives personal touch bureaucracy can't match", in the Journal-Gazette. Trustee Stevenson was charged with using a red herring in explaining the need to increase the budget of Wayne Township. The critic Marilyn Moran-Townsend, co-chair of the Local Government Efficiency Study Committee wrote on February 6, 2009 in an article titled, "Townships give aid, but overhead is outlandish". Moran-Townsend suggested an argument of human needs by Trustee Stevenson is a red herring. The real argument is that Wayne township administrative cost is an example of what the Kernan-Shephard report was attempting to remedy in its streamlining of local government.
Unconscionable, wrote Moran-Townsend. No, not quite. The Kernan-Shepard report did not treat all township the same.
The Kernan-Shepard bipartisan proposal calls for taxpayers to examine the waste of the public dollars by those who are elected (or appointed to public office who are ineffective, inefficient and incompetence. The proposal suggest that only elected officials should have the power to levy taxes in reducing the number of township personnel. In other words, the commission understand some townships are unnecessary and some wasteful. Wayne township is not one of those. Moran-Townsend, herself, wrote, "needy constituents can't find the trustees, many of whom locate their offices in their homes, paying themselves rent." Continuing, Moran-Townsend wrote, "many trustees fail to post signs or list telephones numbers so constituents can find them."
Unconscionable, but those townships are not Wayne Township.
Matter of fact, Trustee Stevenson points the uniqueness of Wayne Township in his January article to the newspaper. Wayne Township, in essence is used as the duping grounds for the majority of the ills of Fort Wayne. Folks, whom members of the Indiana Commission on Local Government Reform and, maybe Townsend, have attempted to extract themselves from, poor underfunded schools, poor infrastructure and growing criminal activities impacting the growing budget of Wayne township.
One could say that Trustee Stevenson inherited, a neglected township as well as its ineffective budget. A restricted budget for the poor, long supported by the status quo fleecing of Wayne township homeowners and taxpayers to bind those who were fleeing the city. Moran-Townsend ignores this historical fact when pointing out the local structure dating back to the 1800.
But the Kernana-Shepard report unlike Moran-Townsend article can not ignore history. The historical robbing of the poor to make life comfortable for the rich way of doing thing in small townships. The Kernan-Shepard report that horseback government structure is outdated, not meeting the needs of the poor. And such a government rendered a rewriting of its Constitution from a bankruptcy dating back to the 1850s. Some small townships were too small to meet the needs of their growing constituents. In essence, these small rich enclaves are the focus of the Kernan-Shepard, not Wayne township. And now these communities are just a click of the button on the computer, away from township like Wayne Township and other townships hording millions of dollars.
It is time that those townships give back to taxpayers who once were just ignored or in the words of the Kernan-Shepard report, "who have extremely difficult time maneuvering their way through the maze and making their will felt." Something, that Trustee Stevenson and his staff were committed to eliminating by using the tax dollars to restore its community. Not unlike the lady who told President Obama in Florida, she needed her "own kitchen", and not her family living in a car.
Unconscionable.
But Townsend blames the increase in the budget on administrative cost in the Wayne Township budget. Townsend fails to understand the plight of the poor in this red herring argument. Programs are created to meet the growing needs for a diverse population dumped into Wayne Township. Populations unable to score such basic as housing or food. The shift from temporary assistance of cheese blocks and canned pork to self-sufficiency of a place to lay ones head and human support is costly but not wasteful.
Nor unconscionable.
The policy wonks who sat on the Indiana Commission are not unlike the Republicans who wants to fold their arms and ignore the fact that their are real problems in areas of this country. Trustee Stevenson has simply given some light to the problems of Wayne Township that many wish would have remained in the dark tunnel of despair. Trustee Stevenson is only wanting local government to take care of its citizens so that these citizens can once again support their community.
Commendable.
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