Commentary by Fred Glynn
Residents of Hamilton County, get ready! The Hamilton County Council district 1 seat is open this year and a lot is at stake. This is a position that not too many residents pay attention to but has a profound effect on the bottom line of their local tax burden.
Recently the governor signed a mass transit bill. This gives the residents of Hamilton County the option of increasing their county income taxes to fund an increase in buses through a referendum. A very small percentage of Hamilton County residents would benefit from this, but they all would be forced to pay for it.
This has been pushed mainly because certain businesses in Hamilton County have a labor shortage and need Marion County residents to fill these positions. They need a way for those workers to get here. The bill had a provision to have local businesses share in the cost but that was removed.
Due to Hamilton County’s higher average income, the people in Hamilton County will be subsidizing people from other counties. Marion County would be the driving force behind this and people need only to take a look at the performance of IndyGo to realize how that would work out for our county.
Once these taxes are in place they will never go away or be decreased. They will go up incrementally over time as the cost goes up. I believe that increasing our income taxes for these endeavors is not prudent and the cost would far outweigh the benefits. This issue will come before the Hamilton County Council next year. I would vote no if I am fortunate enough to become your next county councilor. Every vote I take will be based on the belief that the money belongs to you and not government.
A recent article in another newspaper pointed out that we are the second highest taxed county in the state. This is due to taxes on the county and municipal levels. The food and beverage tax, the county option income tax and city taxes all start to add up when you live, dine out and shop in Hamilton County. We need to keep taxes low to make sure our county continues to thrive and remains one of the best places in America to live.
I have been out talking to voters for months now and met several people who moved to our county because of the low tax burden and crime rate. One of them told me how Marion County was a great place to live until the tax burden kept going up and slowly made it more beneficial to leave. We need to make sure that this does not happen in Hamilton County.
The elected officials, party leaders and vendors in our county who want these tax increases are pulling out all the stops to make sure that they go through. I have had supporters threatened and harassed and even had a local land owner threatened by a party official to the point that he had to remove one of my signs.
A respected legal professional in our county informed me that a deal has been made with a local union to staff the polls on election day and hand out negative literature about me. A pay-to-play political action committee out of Fishers known as Royal Tiger has recently started funding my opposition. I have set aside a place on my website for more info on this PAC because I think the public deserves to know.
Despite all of these tactics I will continue to move forward and make my case to the voters. You have it here in writing that I will continue to talk to the voters and will not be distracted. The future of our county is that important to me.
Let’s have the voters decide – isn’t that what we are all about? I have been and will continue to run an issues-oriented campaign and hope my opposition will now start to do the same.
Fred Glynn is a Republican candidate for the Hamilton County Council District 1 seat that would represent Carmel residents. People may contact him through his website, www.fredforcouncil.com