Loading ...FOR A FEW MILLION MORE
Indianapolis Mayor Greg Ballard says his administration has found a few million dollars in government waste and inefficiencies since taking office. He plans to release full details as his administration completes its review. Ballard says the millions are in contracts and bad management. The Mayor has also ordered five-percent budget cuts in preparation for property tax caps. He also says if the State were to pick up the pre-1977 police pension levy, the taxpayers would save $26 million this year.
March 4th, 2008 at 10:37 am
Budget surpluses (i.e. $7M, Center Twnshp, etc.) should be returned to the taxpayers, NOW, in the current budget year. We want the change back from our dollars. Units of government are not trust funds or hedge fund managers.
March 4th, 2008 at 12:58 pm
ROCK ON MAYOR BALLARD!
.
I’m sure there is more in the Arts budget too. And that’s coming from a long time lover of the arts. The mayor needs to talk to some of the folks I have known for years in the arts community who truly established our local cultural arts for clues.
March 4th, 2008 at 4:57 pm
Abdul,
Melyssa D. has some scoop on some moneys in reference to the Arts funding. Maybe you can contact her and get the scoop if you and Gary quit bickering long enough.
Just kidding. Be safe
Flipper
March 4th, 2008 at 6:47 pm
Well, Abdul, to be fair, I wanna give this new Mayor a chance even though I didn’t vote for him, BUT:
The pension argument has been made before. By Peterson. And no one listened.
This crap started with Bill Hudnut and was continued by Goldsmith, delaying or refusing to pay those obligations at all.
Problems delayed are problems amplified.
March 4th, 2008 at 6:48 pm
Overcharges in the form of budget surpluses ($7M Center Twns., etc.) must be returned to the taxpayers (budget) in this budget year, by all offending units of government. Citizens want the change back from THEIR dollars.
March 4th, 2008 at 8:02 pm
A few million? Great, $68 million more to go.
March 4th, 2008 at 11:16 pm
So Bart Flies,
Exactly how much do you have save the tax payers before it is worth doing?
I say every dollar counts. At least Ballard is going in the right direction.
March 5th, 2008 at 6:27 am
All the budget cutting in the world will still not address the real problem associated with property tax. Sooner or later our law makers will have to address the pension problem with both the police, fire and teachers in the state. One of the reason that G.M., Ford and Chysler are floundering is due to the pension costs. What will have to happen is all new hires will only qualify for a matching 401k or the equivalent of a 401k. The problem with the fire dept mergers is it puts more fire fighter on the pension rolls I assume at a higher cost to the city then the townships. Please don’t throw stones at me I am just stating the obvious solution. If a police officer, fire fighter or teacher retires at 62 and collects 35,0000 a year they will have collected close to a quarter of a million dollars in twenty years (we won’t even talk about health benefits or the ones who retire earlier). Times that by 1000 or more and you see the problem. Wilson is a retired civil servant would you like to comment?
March 5th, 2008 at 7:26 am
Moneyguy–one fact remains unchanged: there are no surprises in pension liability. Nobody woke up one morning and said: “How do we hide this from taxpayers?” For over 30 years we’ve allowed ourselves to waltz through the tulips by ignoring our obligations.
And here’s a reality check: all those extra police officers we all want on the streets, carry a deferred pension liability of $20-30K apiece, annually. Happy calculating.
Expensive problems require prompt solutions. Hudnut and Goldsmith, in particular, and even Lugar, ignored these expensive prolems, at our peril:
Jailovercrowding due to a conservative Republican federal judge’s court order over two decades ago; disasterously underfunded pension funds; Combined Sewer Overflow issues that were brought to light 20 years ago by an ousted Republican City Councilwoman; and duplicitous layers of government that drain scarce tax dollars.
The jail, pension and CSO problems combined will cost over a billion point five to fix.
And that pricetag goes up annually. The CSO problem, for instance, had a $90-100 million pricetag when Beulah Coughenor first raised it, to the horror of her fellow Council Republicans, many years ago. I think it was 1990.
One part of the CSO fix, the Pogue’s Run stormwater plan, cost over $200 million recently.
We cannot afford to sacrifice critical infrastructure and budget priorities, at the altar of “no new taxes.” I’m not screaming for more taxes, but I am demanding budgetary reality.
Ballard is trying. But he’s fiddling with the minor things. He deserves some time–perhaps until this summer, when he has to propose his first budget that he totally controls.
Then it will get interesting.
March 5th, 2008 at 8:09 am
Hmm is it time to move to Carmel?
March 6th, 2008 at 7:58 pm
Jon G-
I say every dollar counts as well- agreed. But no one gave Bart credit for the things he did and the things he tried to do.
I wish all of these folks were here and vocal in 2004 when Bart announced his Indy Works plan. He went into the Statehouse all alone and still came out with something.
If everyone who blogs here and elsewhere were vocal then, maybe we would have already gotten rid of township trustees, assessors, etc.