Court rules Carmel can annex Home Place

[A Westfield Resident]

I believe firmly that forced annexation falls into the morally and ethically 'wrong' category, along with compulsory purchase (eminent domain) and other such theft of personal properties/rights that has been forced upon us by our so called elected representatives. If I hold title to a piece of land and have no desire to sell it for 'just compensation' or for that matter for any amount of my choosing, I should NEVER be forced to do so by my own government! The same goes with forced annexation. If the people of an area don't want to be part of a neighboring jurisdiction, so be it. "The greater good" be damned! Keep your opinions and your hands off what's mine. If one locality offers public services to another (police, fire department, animal control, etc...) then the locality receiveing service should pay for those services, but trying to force them to merge is assinine.

[A Westfield Resident]

(Ran out of room in my last post)

Just to clarify, I fully intend to use the Monon, or whatever they call it when it finally gets up to my neck of the woods. If not being able to force people to give up their land causes it to snake round and round to avoid the stubborn codgers that won't sell at any price, I guess I get a more interesting bike ride because of the curves. I have friends just off 151st that are losing part of their yards and all of their fence row trees that are many stories tall because Mayor Brainiac wants to divide it and put in medians. The fact is that you were there first homeowners. Unfortunately the Mayor doesn't give a crap about you, or your desires.

[Just the Facts]

151st street isn’t even in Carmel......sheessh. I take it you are all for changing the system for property taxes and everyone only pay for services used for their respective areas. Incorporated areas like Fishers, Westfield, Noblesville and Carmel, pays over 75% of all property taxes in Hamilton County. Every time a secondary road is fixed or the Sheriff responds to an unincorporated area, 75% of the cost is subsidized by cities. Let the cities pay for their percentage of usage for jail and courts and any other services they use. They shouldn’t have to subsidize the rest of the county. If unincorporated areas had to pay for their own services they would be paying a lot more in taxes than the cities,

[A Westfield Resident]

Yes, I agree with the statement that I am all for charging each according to their use of the system. I am certainly against charging 'me' for 'us' as well as charging 'you' for 'me'. A perfect example of this is the further increase in sales tax in Marion County to pay for yet another stadium. I have no desire for a stadium, yet will be forced to pay for it in sales taxes. A better solution would be to offer up the building for private investment, allowing people to purchase shares of the new building, then paying them a share of the revenues. I'm sure there are plenty of investors and sports fans alike that would love to 'earn a buck' off of the new stadium. If building a stadium is so good for the economy, the economy should be able to support it without government intervention.

[Where is Home Place]

I've never heard of Home Place. Why does Carmel want to annex it?

[durbar]

imo, Homeplace would be better off as a part of Carmel (except for higher taxes) and Carmel could definitely benefit from "owning" HomePlace and improving certain areas.

But is that Carmel's right to decide that? I mean, Im starting to see Matt Milam's point...i sure wouldnt like it if a more affluent community wanted to take me over and raise my taxes 30% if I was happy with my community as it was.

If the people of HomePlace are happy with their status quo, why not let them be? Carmel may have to eventually learn that it can't assimilate everything like the Borg. People are different.(And yes, I am a Carmel resident)

Just playing devil's advocate...
Let the thrashing (of my post) begin

[Just the Facts]

durbar wrote:

imo, Homeplace would be better off as a part of Carmel (except for higher taxes) and Carmel could definitely benefit from "owning" HomePlace and improving certain areas.
But is that Carmel's right to decide that? I mean, Im starting to see Matt Milam's point...i sure wouldnt like it if a more affluent community wanted to take me over and raise my taxes 30% if I was happy with my community as it was.
If the people of HomePlace are happy with their status quo, why not let them be? Carmel may have to eventually learn that it can't assimilate everything like the Borg. People are different.(And yes, I am a Carmel resident)
Just playing devil's advocate...
Let the thrashing (of my post) begin

What Matt doesnt tell you is that of every dollar the county spends in Homeplace 75 cents came from the citizens of communities that are already incorporated. If the county budget were adjusted to have residents "pay for their own services only" Places like home place would see their taxes jump a lot higher than Carmels. 75% of all assesed value in Hamilton County is in incorporated communities.

[durbar]

Just the Facts wrote:

<quoted text>
What Matt doesnt tell you is that of every dollar the county spends in Homeplace 75 cents came from the citizens of communities that are already incorporated. If the county budget were adjusted to have residents "pay for their own services only" Places like home place would see their taxes jump a lot higher than Carmels. 75% of all assesed value in Hamilton County is in incorporated communities.

thanks JTF. wish there were more responses like that on this forum. could you provide a source for your info?(sincere question). would also like to see matt's rebuttal if he's out there