Then we got a brief glimpse of the Bucko Plan from County Councilman, and candidate for Treasurer, Mike Bucko, that would do the same but offer the funds as a loan at an interest rate pretty close to the rates being offered by the bond bank. This was before the credit markets went haywire, and who knows what rates would be on the table now? This plan never even got a vote from the County Council, they approved $300,000 for more consultants and walked away from any decisions. It is an election year, and they are scared to make any decisions.
Now, we get a school board member from Portage, an elected board member no less, who will present the "Porter Plan" with modifications from the prior two plans but this time focused on schools.
Portage Township School Board member Tom Pappas will ask the Porter County Council to consider a plan at its Tuesday meeting to give some of the money generated from the sale of Porter hospitals to school districts in the county. Pappas received the unanimous backing of the board for what he calls the Porter County Plan, a scheme that would cover the cost of tax anticipation warrants, which are money that the school district expects to have to borrow to meet its bills.
You can read the details at the Post or go to the meeting tonite. Now let's talk politics briefly. Where exactly are all the other county councilmen? How about the county commissioners? Are they all scared to have an opinion? Before we vote on Tuesday, I'd like to hear some specific opinions from the people running for office ... this ought to help all of us make a decision on who can actually run this county going forward.
For what's it's worth: The editorial board of this site has formerly endorsed the Murphy Plan, which would help schools, libraries, and cities and towns. We stand by that endorsement and hope the democrats on the council can get on board.
3 comments:
They still haven't figured out what to do with this money? Since it belongs to all of us, they should use it to create county wide health insurance pool to make insurance coverage affordable for all of us. Just a crazy idea.
I guess there are at least three leaders willing to put plans on the table. My votes will go to people willing to lead in an election year. Muprhy, Bucko, and now Tom Pappas will get my votes.
Jonathon, I get a little frustrated that on the local big issues there's so little discourse right now. In the past it was all on the nwi times message board, but they messed up their programming and everyone left months ago.
This is over $100 million that the county will eventually spend on something, probably imporant to weigh in.
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