Each week the Comet polls its readers on a different topic. Vote online at carrollcountycomet.com starting each Thursday, and then click the Comments link to send us an email

voicing your opinion. The best responses will be printed the

following week.

Do you agree with Delphi school board's decision to limit public comments to the beginning of the meeting? Yes No

Last Week's results

Are you relieved or disappointed that township government will probably not be eliminated any time soon?

As in many businesses, government hierarchies and organizations tend to evolve over time. Naturally, people want to do more and have more done for them, so "government job inflation" tends to happen. These people are good friends and neighbors, so we tend to elect them, and let them do whatever it is they do. Unfortunately, we forget the cost.

The layers of government, and the expansion of government, lead to redundancies and inefficiencies that cost the taxpayer more than those services should cost. In Carroll County, there are 14 townships. If you consolidated the services under the county government, there would be some people put out of this kind of work, but the overall effect would be to reduce paperwork, office space and equipment, supply expenses, salaries, and inefficiencies. Some of the township officials might end up working for the county, but instead of it being a part-time job, it would be a full-time job with larger areas of responsibility and more service yield for each taxpayer dollar. It is important to remember, though, that little if any savings will be realized if all the township officials remain on the payroll and all their "stuff" stays in use. Consolidating means cutting out the excess.

The taxpayers and the county as a whole win financially. Even if the total taxes paid do not change, the amount of revenue available to budget for public services will increase. Boy, could Carroll County benefit from that right now!