When the economy is in bad shape, government units often suffer too. The tax base dries up, and government has difficulty finding funding to support its staffing and other expenses.

Add to this mix a new tax formula in Indiana that provides less property tax revenue to local government, and counties, cities and towns are thrown into crisis.

They have five choices:

A. Raise taxes

B. Use resources more efficiently

C. Cut services

D. Find other sources of revenue

E. Some combination of the four

Too often, government turns to choice A without fully exhausting the other options. That appears to be happening in Madison County, where the city of Anderson has voted to add 0.5 percent to the county option income tax. That would bring the total COIT rate to 1.75 percent, adding $200 to the annual tax bill of a person who earns $40,000 and making that person’s bill $700 for the year.

Councilmen Rodney Chamberlain and Art Pepelea, to their credit, voted against the increase.

Has the City of Anderson already taken measures to use resources more efficiently and to reduce services? Yes. Has it looked for other sources of revenue? Yes (a user fee for trash pickup has been instituted).

Has it enacted every potential cut to reduce resources to account for a shrinking population and to make sure that every position in city government is absolutely essential? Not by a long shot.

There are still those in city government who act as if their first responsibility is to city employees. It’s not. Their first and foremost responsibility is to the citizens of the city, to keep taxes low and to run lean while providing essential services. Government does not exist to provide jobs; it exists to serve the people with the best possible efficiency.

Raising the tax rate is almost always a bad idea. It’s a particularly bad idea right now, when the citizens of the city are suffering through a bad economy right along with the city itself. The city owes it to those residents to hold the line on taxes.

Now, there’s still hope. The City of Anderson needs Madison County or a combination of other local government entities to follow its lead and approve the COIT increase for the increase to take effect.