Recently, I was in a public place where a large group of people was gathered.

A senior citizen collapsed and as people nearby gathered to assist him, a cell phone call went out to 911. As in most of these circumstances, minutes seem like hours as the crowd awaited emergency medical help.

But, as timed by my watch, it took an inordinately long time for the fire department ambulance to arrive. Concern and apprehension turned into visible anxiety. Alarm rippled through the group. Eventually, EMTs arrived.

As we waited, I asked myself is this the face of the human toll that future restricted property tax revenue may have in Lake County's projected loss of $252 million next year? Will government services like police and fire protection, garbage pickup, snow plowing or road repair have to be pared to a level that could threaten the community's health, welfare and safety?

Will ambulance runs be cut back as the ranks of EMTs are thinned and there's less money for gas? What will happen to municipal budgets in places like Gary, with a looming $40 million shortfall, East Chicago at $30 million and Hammond at $21 million?

An easy answer is to let riverboat proceeds pick up the slack. That dog, using an old southern slogan, won't hunt. In a practical sense riverboat money would be a finger in the dike, doing little to meet all of the need or forcing government to truly pare unnecessary spending.

On the flip side, while many see riverboat revenue as "funny money," it's not always so. Before riverboat proceeds began to flow into Hammond's coffers, the City Council passed an ordinance dedicating 75 percent of it to improving infrastructure.

Over the years, Hammond had fallen far behind meeting the annual need of $2 million to repair crumbling streets and sewers, but was receiving an average of $900,000 a year from the state's local road and street fund.

Cutting local spending as the entire panacea to this whole property tax mess is a stick-your-head-in-the-sand, simplistic approach to Lake County's predicament. Absolutely, there's a critical need to comb unnecessary spending. But predicted revenue shortages go deeper than that. There's no quick, one-size-fits-all utopian fix.

An appraiser in LaPorte County recently made an apt observation that to provide $58,000 in property taxes for local schools it took 140 average homes in Michigan City, but only five homes in the city's upscale Sheridan Beach.

- The opinions are solely those of the writer. Contact her at janetcopywrite@sbcglobal.net.