Recently elected District 15 Representative Chris Chyung drafted and is now promoting legislation that would allow Griffith to become its own township with services and tax rates. For the past decade, Griffith has been trying to reduce tax rates for public services, like assistance to impoverished residents, by leaving Calumet Township. Chung’s bill would allow single towns to become their own townships and provide their own poor relief. According to Griffith Town Council president Rick Ryfa, the bill was presented to the Indiana Senate and House of Representatives on January 10.

“Our first goal is to get a hearing for the bill,” Town Council President Rick Ryfa said to the Times of Northwest Indiana (NWI Times). If the bill gets past the House Committee on Local Government, it will be voted on by the full House, then the Senate, and finally signed by the governor. If the bill succeeds, the town council must draft a plan and present it to the Department of Local Government Finance. The council president would serve the same function as a township trustee, with the remaining council members forming a township-like board, according to Ryfa. The costs of township services would fall from $2.2 million per year to $20-$30 thousand per year.

As of now, the bill’s fate remains in limbo. Griffith is still awaiting permission to join North Township or St. John Township; a year remains for one of them to accept Griffith, but the town would rather join a new township by 2020. If neither township accepts, Griffith may strike out on its own. Either way, Griffith is stuck with Calumet Township for 2019.

“I talked with Rick to request an LSA (Legislative Service Agency) draft for some legislation that would allow them to carry this through,” Chyung said to the NWI Times. “I’m trying to really cooperate with the Griffith Town Council to make this as smooth a transition as possible. I hope we can all get a solution that will accommodate everyone’s views.”

Griffith voted to secede from Calumet Township in 2018 to avoid the high tax rates, a decision over ten years in the making. The town has had to pay $2.2 million in taxes to Calumet Township while receiving only $15,000 back in public services; embezzlement and corruption have been suspected, but nothing has been proven. Unfortunately, the townships Griffith applied join, North Township and St. John Township, both of which have significantly lower tax rates, have not accepted the request. Griffith has a year to find a new township or form its own before it must rejoin Calumet Township.

Dyer resident and Democrat Chris Chyung is the new 15th District House legislator, which includes Griffith east of Wiggs St. He was born in Merrillville and graduated from Munster High School. The son of Korean American immigrants, he is the first Asian American lawmaker in Indiana, not to mention the youngest at twenty-five years old. His bid for House legislator in 2018 was his first campaign for office, as well as his first victory. Chyung’s campaign took place largely on social media; his focuses include building bridges between lawmakers and voters, increasing limited funding for public schools, and promoting government accountability.

“I believe in meritocratic system that chooses the best person regardless of skin color, sexual orientation, whatever,” Chyung said in the NWI Times. “I want to have the best person in there. That said, I do feel a sense of responsibility as the first Asian-American legislator to show other Asian kids who might be considering public service but thought ‘Gosh, there’s no one out there who’s like me.'”