PLEASE VOTE NO!!

There have been several articles and columns in the Tribune lately about the referendum to combine the offices township assessors with county assessors. I want to urge our readers to vote NO.



Governor Daniels has been "streamlining" our state government for the past four years, some of it may have been successful and much of it was not successful.



One example that comes to mind is the welfare system. People used to have social workers who knew their circumstances but now they must call an automated system if they have a problem, even if their check is late. We all know how inefficient that system has become.



I just cannot understand how combining two offices in each county will save taxpayers any money. Are the staff of the county supposed to take on this extra work without increasing the number of employees? Are they allowed to work overtime? As Assessor Sillings said to the "Tribune" there will still be the same amount of parcels to assess.



As far as this being an antiquated system, New Albany Township assesses property according to market value. The system has been changed three times since 1816. The General Assembly wanted all property to be valued uniformly, that is a good idea but how can an understaffed, overworked county assessors office make sure this happens?



Sometimes we can go too far with combining offices to save money. I think this is one of those times.