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Published August 9, 2004

Lake County Should Observe How Others are Cutting Costs

In facing a financial crisis, Lake County is no different than many other governmental units around the country. We distinguish ourselves however, by our inability or unwillingness to take significant action to correct the problem. That distinction was brought home to me again recently when I read about two proposals calling for massive government restructuring, one in California and the other in Indianapolis .

The first proposal comes from a panel created by Arnold Schwarzenegger, the Republican Governor of California . The "California Performance Review" team was charged with reviewing and evaluating state government and creating a more streamlined bureaucracy. The panel's report, though not yet embraced by the governor, proposes a top to bottom overhaul of state government that would leave virtually no piece of the state's sprawling bureaucracy untouched.

The second proposal I'll refer to as Unigov II. It is the Democratic Mayor of Indianapolis, Bart Peterson's response to the pending fiscal crisis in his community.

By act of the state legislature, on January 1, 1970 Indianapolis and Marion County consolidated many governmental functions. The consolidation brought about by Unigov was not total consolidation however.

Now, almost 35 years later, Peterson's proposal, developed in order to avoid massive tax increases and layoffs, would basically complete the job. Police and fire departments, county and city governments, township and county tax assessor, and poor relief, all left untouched in 1970 would now fall under the consolidation umbrella. It is interesting to note that, by most accounts, the governmental functions consolidated in 1970 seem to be functioning quite well.

Both of these plans are certain to face stiff challenges on ideological as well as pragmatic fronts. Those who stand to lose power, elected officials uncomfortable with change, advocates who object to shrinking government and analysts skeptical of projected savings are undoubtedly preparing their arguments against the reform efforts.

My point in all of this is not the content of the two proposals, or whether they are good or bad. The point is that government officials are publicly endorsing bold action aimed at solving a fiscal crisis by making government more efficient in the delivery of services and more accountable.

To state the obvious, we have a fiscal crisis in Lake County . Unfortunately, we are lacking leaders willing to take bold steps to do something about it. Energy is being focused not on solutions but on deciding who is going to pay the bills. The size of the bill is not being addressed. No one is benchmarking our bills against those of other similar sized communities to determine how we stack up against our peers or how we improve.

It is time for action, accountability and results. Bold steps aimed at reducing the cost of local government must be proposed, discussed and then implemented. Other communities are doing it. Maybe we can learn best practices by comparing ourselves to them. I don't believe we will ever be able to describe bickering about cell phones and take-home cars as major governmental reforms.