EDITORIAL: IU study a reminder of corruption's cost
The Times Editorial Board
July 16, 2014 - 12:00 am
July 16, 2014 - 12:00 am
The revolving door between Northwest Indiana local government offices and the Hammond federal courthouse often makes our region the butt of public corruption jokes locally and abroad.
But it's not so funny when you consider the actual impact of public corruption on government coffers -- and thus taxpayers' wallets.
A recently released Indiana University study sought to rank levels of public corruption by state and put a monetary value on the misdeeds of public officials. The results were eye-popping and the lessons applicable to Northwest Indiana, even though the Hoosier state wasn't on the list of the study's 10 worst.
Northwest Indiana's public officials -- and more importantly the voters who put them in office -- should soak in this important study.
The public policy professors who led the study concluded the 10 most corrupt states -- including Illinois -- would have spent 5.2 percent less between 1997 and 2008 had those states been more like the ones with lower levels of corruption.
As part of the review, study leaders reviewed more than 25,000 federal corruption convictions of state and local officials between 1976 and 2008.
The good news for Hoosiers is highly corrupt Illinois spent $923.47 more per resident than Indiana, which fell somewhere in the mid tier of corruption among states, the study concluded. During that same time period, Indiana spent more than twice as much from its general fund on education as Illinois did during the study's parameters.
The bad news -- not reflected in the study -- is public corruption continues a historically rampant run in Northwest Indiana, and the price tag is probably higher than any of us wants to accept.
About 60 people -- mostly Northwest Indiana elected officials, vendors with public contracts or other political power brokers -- have been convicted of public corruption in U.S. District Court since 1985.
Each case likely represents dozens of legal proceedings, court filings and countless investigative hours by federal law enforcement -- all in addition to the direct costs to taxpayers of the actual crimes.
It doesn't seem to have improved in recent years, either. Former Lake County Surveyor George Van Til pleaded guilty in December to using the resources of his government office to further his campaign.
Lake Station Mayor Keith Soderquist, his wife and stepdaughter remain under federal indictment in a pending case on charges including stealing from a campaign fund and the city's food pantry.
They are innocent unless proven guilty.
And federal agents raided the Calumet Township trustee's office in the spring, seizing boxes of evidence and a computer in an ongoing probe.
The IU study reminds us there is a cost to these types of cases that goes beyond reputation and embarrassment.
The sum of all those costs -- monetary and otherwise -- should be enough for taxpayers to demand more accountability from their leaders.
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