On Tracy's Thoughts
Tracy Warner gave his thoughts on Tuesday's city council meeting and the topic of consolidation. I thought his take had some good points. (link). I could only take issue with the statistic in one of his points. They are a bit misleading.
"The idea of combining many of the finances and operations of city and county government makes sense. About 250,000 of Allen County's 342,000 residents live in Fort Wayne -- nearly 75 percent. Today's editorial and legal advertisement on property tax rates show the many, many layers of government in the county. "
According to the 2004 estimate by the U.S. census bureau Allen county consisted of 342,168 people. Tracy got his estimate right for that. However, the estimate for Fort Wayne is only 219495. That is 65% not 75%.
Here is what Tracy didn't include in his point
The difference in percentage may only be 10% but it is compounded by other numbers. The per capita income for residents in the city is $18,517. For the unincorporated part of the county it is $27,446. That means that Fort Wayne is only responsible for 55% of the per capita income of the county . (link)
Per capita income is part of the formula used to determine some taxes. Itis also an indicator of income tax and property tax values.
Residents in the unincorporated areas use less public services than those in the city. One fear is that consolidation will move the tax burden to them to cover the gap posed by the population estimate and tax revenue in Fort Wayne though they would not see the usage of the services they were paying for.
"The idea of combining many of the finances and operations of city and county government makes sense. About 250,000 of Allen County's 342,000 residents live in Fort Wayne -- nearly 75 percent. Today's editorial and legal advertisement on property tax rates show the many, many layers of government in the county. "
According to the 2004 estimate by the U.S. census bureau Allen county consisted of 342,168 people. Tracy got his estimate right for that. However, the estimate for Fort Wayne is only 219495. That is 65% not 75%.
Here is what Tracy didn't include in his point
The difference in percentage may only be 10% but it is compounded by other numbers. The per capita income for residents in the city is $18,517. For the unincorporated part of the county it is $27,446. That means that Fort Wayne is only responsible for 55% of the per capita income of the county . (link)
Per capita income is part of the formula used to determine some taxes. Itis also an indicator of income tax and property tax values.
Residents in the unincorporated areas use less public services than those in the city. One fear is that consolidation will move the tax burden to them to cover the gap posed by the population estimate and tax revenue in Fort Wayne though they would not see the usage of the services they were paying for.
posted by Indiana Pundit at 6:34 PM
2 Comments:
Don't forget the Aboite annexation, which came online Jan. 1. That added 23,000 people to Fort Wayne. Admittedly my skills are limited, but according to my math, that gives the city about 243,000 of the 342,000, or about 71 percent.
Just a small correction- Fort Wayne has a higher per capita income than you state- you are using 2004 Census numbers.
Since that time, Aboite has been annexed.
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