ANN ENNIS SPEAKS OUT
When we open a water tap, local county government is involved. When an uninsured motorist hits our car, local government is involved. Whether it is sanitary practices of restaurants, a rickety bridge, rehabilitating first time drug offenders or getting married, our county governments are the underpinning that holds our communities together, keep order and assure safety.
The General Assembly directed budgeting when mixed into county and education affairs mucks it up. Big federal and state government need to stay out of local taxpayer and local government’s pocketbooks, out of schools and away from unfunded mandates.
County councils, county commissioners, town councils, and school boards are hometown heroes. With much of county and local tax money being sucked up to Indianapolis it is on a detour before coming back home. County officials then have to work long and hard to find ways to keep our communities functioning.
They do not need or want the glitz and glamor of Indianapolis. They don’t get entertained by lobbyists. The county voter knows where elected county leaders live, go to church, eat and shop. As a result, elected county leaders hear the complaints and concerns of everyday people. The party caucus does not come calling on the county councilman. The state-wide party campaign committee does not fund the councilwoman’s election. But these two catch the heat of the voter.
In District 64 at least, the five counties’ officials catch the heat that comes from actions by our remote, un-known, disconnected General Assembly. The officials tell me they are not called for advice from representatives before those reps. head up-state to vote every winter. A representative should seek input from the community served.
My experience has been that attending a county council meeting is good for a voter and taxpayer’s morale. Being a county council person is not necessarily good for the council persons’ morale! They work hard to navigate stripped down budgets after Indianapolis has taken its share and state mandates.
But what you see in town and county councils are hardworking people holding their communities in good social order, while trying to also improve services, function and quality of life. You see nickel and dimes matter – and even more so when the dollars are in Indianapolis.
That is what you see in the City Halls. Now, what we must begin to see in the General Assembly are state representatives who are more familiar with their districts’ elected leaders than they are with their respective caucus or lobbyist of the moment. I pledge to provide that type of representation.
