TRIM THE HEARTH AND SET THE TABLE

“Make your house fair as ye are able, trim the hearth and set the table.”
– Christmas song

December is a great time of year to make sure your house is in order, as fair as ye are able. I’m not just talking about putting up decorations made of pine boughs and hiring a carpet cleaning guy to get the place ready for a big party. Trim the hearth also means watching your financial affairs carefully and planning for a brighter future. If, like most Americans, you have noticed your bills keep going up but your income does not, there is another way to come out with more “net positive.”

You can find tons of money in next year’s budget even if you do not get a raise in January. How?

Here is a great tip: Check your credit card statements carefully. Is BGM still billing you for their Cassette Tape of the Month Club? What other services you aren’t using or products you do not need from companies keep dinging your card on a monthly basis? A few phone calls could save you hundreds per month.

It’s a great time to make sure your interests are protected and that the government is not taking more of your money than you need to pay!

There are also a couple of things we can do to help here at Metz Legal Services, PC. First of all, if you’re managing properties, make sure you’re appealing your property taxes every time. It is not too late, to appeal your 2010, payable 2011 taxes. But time is running out. There is no reason to give Uncle Indy extra chunks of cash. This is something we do at three different times during the year and we get a kick out of helping you keep your hard-earned pennies.

This is also a great time to make sure the family is protected by reviewing your will. A great referral for us is that person in your family who does not have a will at all! Roughly 4 out of 5 people that you know do not have one at all. They may think, wrongly, that “grandma will get the kids if I die.” Unfortunately, without a will, that is a decision the state will make. Don’t let your loved ones leave it in Uncle Indy’s hands! If you overhear someone during this holiday season commenting that they do not have a will, tell them to give us a call. Instead of making it a New Year’s Resolution next month and then forgetting about it, we invite you to call our office today to set an appointment.

Thanks for letting us help you set the table for many generations to come!

UP FRONT BAIL OUTS

The authority for a city in Indiana to act as a governmental entity comes from the Indiana Code which the Indiana Legislature passed into law. One group of elected decision makers working for the city and for voting taxpayers is council members. Council members each individually make decisions like every other human being using their own preferences. Two examples are: i) council members who appropriate a half million dollars for the city to purchase buildings prefer to spend taxpayers’ money and lose tax revenue from private ownership of the real estate; and ii) council members who vote to loan taxpayers’ money as wholly forgivable prefer to forego the city making a profit (interest). Is the thinking behind these two preferences productive for the taxpayers?

Private decision makers who prefer making profit must think critically before venturing into a new, productive opportunity. Private decision makers (private venturers) are motivated to do so, compared to politicians, because private decision makers have their own “skin in the game.” Private decision makers must think through income and expenses. If income is not greater than expenses, private decision makers would not move forward with the possible new venture because there is too much risk.

Politicians who prefer to influence private venturers’ profit decisions with selling buildings under cost, providing money with forgivable loans, and incurring construction costs for private venturers’ developments while spending taxpayers’ money, directly cause private venturers to lose clarity. Private venturers allow the expenses they do not have to pay for because the city is paying with taxpayers’ money, to trump the risk and reward analysis. Such private venturers do not figure out how to manage the real risk in order to move forward since they are getting “bailed out” up front. Up front bail outs lead to hurt feelings, sour relationships, poor decisions, and lost jobs.

IDENTIFYING DECISION MAKERS

The authority decision makers hold is great and affects many people. Decision makers make judgment calls that once are made, carries with such judgment calls long term effects whether good or bad. Decision makers’ thinking leading up to the judgment calls is important to understand. Decision makers who are elected officials, for instance, make judgment calls once they get elected which most of the voters do not even know about. Elected decision makers commonly are not held accountable about their thinking.

One reason elected decision makers are not held accountable is because voters do not identify who exactly is making the judgment calls. If decision makers are not identified, then voters cannot explore the thinking of the decision makers separately since voters do not know whose thinking to explore. Decision makers are difficult for voters to identify because when judgment calls are made, terms like Congress, the Indiana Legislature, the City Council, or the City are used.

The City of Elkhart, for example, is not a decision maker. The term City refers to many different groups of people like the City Council, departments, the Mayor’s staff, and citizens themselves. The term City is a collection of many different people some of whom are decision makers. The City being made of the collective individuals cannot make judgment calls. The City is incapable of being held accountable for its thinking because the City does not think. The City’s representative legislative group, namely the City Council, is also incapable of being held accountable for its thinking because the City Council does not think, the elected members of the City Council think.

In order for voters to make those with judgment call authority accountable, voters must understand who is making the decisions and supposedly thinking. Voters cannot get confused with collective terms like City and City Council but must identify who is the elected official who is supposed to think before making a decision. Once voters begin keeping tabs on an elected official about such elected official’s habits of thinking, voters will understand the attitude of the elected official and better understand whether the elected official is a servant leader.