Communities in Porter County should join together to stop any attempt by County Commissioner Bob Harper to consolidate appointments to the county's tourism board.
It's merely another attempt by Harper to increase his political control in the county ... It's not about accountability. It's about power.
And if this move sounds familiar, remember that Harper disbanded the animal shelter advisory board so the commissioners would control decisions there.
The pattern is clear.
And unless Porter County elected officials -- those at the city and town levels as well as commissioners and County Council members -- don't act to stop Harper now, he'll set his sights on more targets in the future. (Post Tribune)
I'm not sure if this is a current article, or from a few weeks back. Frankly the Post Tribune site redates the articles so it's not always easy to know when it was originally posted. But, I think it came out today ... again a few weeks after the original attempt by Commissioner Harper to bring the issue to the table.
If I recall the details, the lion's share of the county bed tax comes from Valparaiso and Portage. The county then takes these tax dollars, roughly $1 million, and about 80% is used for overhead at the visitor center at the Dunes. Some of the remainder is used to support some county owned facilities. There have been conversations about tourism money staying with tourism and not being diverted to other facilities. There have also been conversations about why $800,000 is being used for overhead which is probably not gaining us any room nites, conventions, or tourists.
When we were all agreeing that property tax caps should be made constitutional, to limit the power of local governments to recklessly increase our tax burden ... the Commissioner stopped by this site to leave a comment. In this case I've probably shown my cards, and the fact that I disagree, but I still hope he'll stop by and state his case for consolidation of this board to central control.
