Belleville Township’s tasks easy as 1, 2, 3

Someone with Belleville Township may finally be getting a clue: They refused to pay for half of $11,000 so an intern could study the transition of their do-nothing vestige of government from their tiny office to City Hall.

Now we just have to hope the city doesn’t try to revive the plan by paying the whole bill.

Belleville Township’s demise is still 10 months away and has taken years of action by five layers of government and lots of lawyers. They already appointed a 9-person committee to figure out how to merge the township with the city, township Trustee Joy Schreiber already compiled a 38-page report on the transition and they still thought there was a need for an $11,000 graduate student?

Please.

Belleville Township is not rocket science and it is not a doctoral dissertation. It is simple math.

One government function: The township provides some aid to the poor, up to $245 per month and usually for rent and discount store gift cards, for a total of $83,798 last year.

Fifty needy per month: That’s how many, on average, seek help from Belleville Township.

It is difficult to imaging keeping even a part-time worker busy handing out gift cards to fewer than two people a day. Current city staff could certainly absorb that minor task, paperwork included.

As far as the city worrying about a tax levy, well Belleville Township had $787,980 in the bank as of their 2015 audit and that was after wasting $4 on staff and overhead for every $1 in aid delivered. Money in the bank calculates to enough needy aid for almost a decade before they should dare ask taxpayers for another dime.

Not that government should be in the business of taxing you to provide an ineffective, duplicate layer of charity in the first place.

This story was originally published July 24, 2016 at 7:01 PM with the headline "Belleville Township’s tasks easy as 1, 2, 3."