Comments on Advance Indiana™: EMS Consolidation Won't Save A Dime

How can you not see that this will save the tax pa...

2010-08-01T23:37:17.683-05:00

How can you not see that this will save the tax payers money?! Everyone in Marion county that lives in a township that has fire-based or private ambulances as their primary EMS response are being jerked around and paying for 2 ambulance services. Health & Hospital who owns Wishard and Wishard EMS have always been required to provide EMS or send a Wishard Medic response anywhere in the county, But the townships decided years ago that they wanted to try and make a profit from EMS and provide it themselves. Therefore the townships were putting tax dollars into the fire departments ambulance services when all along they could have been using that money for fire apparatus, training, equipment... AND saving the tax payers from paying for two services of which they are only getting use of one. doesn't make very much sense to me.

Caught Ballard gaming on the taxpayer dime again, ...

2010-07-17T17:10:14.939-05:00

Caught Ballard gaming on the taxpayer dime again, AI. Great job!

2010-07-16T12:42:32.575-05:00

This comment has been removed by the author.

The only way to see savings is to eliminate jobs. ...

2010-07-16T12:36:06.211-05:00

The only way to see savings is to eliminate jobs. My sources tell me that spinning off the EMS service might be a way to reduce fire runs and ultimately reduce the need for firefighters.

Stay tuned and keep your eye on this one!

Are you calculating the additional state sales tax...

2010-07-16T12:35:39.969-05:00

Are you calculating the additional state sales tax increase we are paying as a trade-off for the tax caps? Don't forget the Peterson income tax increase that Ballard made permanent either, even though the state picked up the costs intended to be used from that tax increase for public safety pension debt and county welfare costs.

I think the estimates from property tax savings ar...

2010-07-16T12:33:19.787-05:00

I think the estimates from property tax savings are probably in the $800 million range, although the DLGF so far can't give me exact data.

From the online Star today: Indiana has brought i...

2010-07-16T12:11:29.960-05:00

From the online Star today:

Indiana has brought in $957 million less in revenue for fiscal year 2010 than
lawmakers budgeted for, State Auditor Tim Berry announced this morning in
closing the state's books for the year.
To make ends meet, state officials made $669 million in spending cuts and
reduced reserves from $1.3 billion to $830 million.

Melyssa, You could not be more wrong. The only gov...

2010-07-16T11:59:37.328-05:00

Melyssa, You could not be more wrong. The only government spending reductions that have occurred to date is because of the severe downturn in the economy that forced reduced government spending at the state and local level. State and local governments can't simply print up money and issue a bunch of IOUs to run deficit spending like the federal government.

To the contrary, the tax activists CAN brag that o...

2010-07-16T11:13:53.059-05:00

To the contrary, the tax activists CAN brag that our work in 2007 led to a $3.1 billion dollar decrease in spending in 2010 compared to 2009.

And the tax activists can brag that our work led to an overall spending decrease of more than $2 BILLION when you compare 2010 spending to 2006.

They need to put us in charge and do what we say. Oh yeah, that's right. We're supposed to be the ones in charge. Only our public servants don't normally do as we say.

I would expect the additional units pad out the lo...

2010-07-16T08:41:17.392-05:00

I would expect the additional units pad out the log records so that they can also pad out the budget.

In Perry Twp I see this routinely - ladders and engines being sent to medical runs. A neighbor has chronic respiratory issues and every time, there's an ambulance and 1 or 2 big red trucks that pull up.

I can understand the need to have adequate manpower and to err on the side of safety but I think the 911 operators could ferret out a better response, particularly for the 'repeat customer.'

Local state, and federal budgets are only a recor...

2010-07-16T08:38:27.836-05:00

Local state, and federal budgets are only a record of how much goverment over spends the taxpayer's money.