Loading ...COUNCIL STUFF
Although the city of Indianapolis is facing tens of millions in budget shortfalls, the Council overwhelmingly tonight approved spending $1.5 million for the arts. Councilors said the arts programs went to help youth and would in turn help lower crime and stimulate the economy, however critics said the city had to pay for other priorities. Many Councilors felt that since the money was allocated from last year’s budget and many organizations had already spent or had plans to spend the money, it would have been unfair to change things midstream. However some supporters of the measure told the arts community that the money would probably not be there the next time around so they should start making other arrangements.
In other news, the Council went forward tonight with a measure that would allow the city to appoint members of recently merged fire departments to be the head of IFD. Current law only allows the head of IFD to come from within the department and did not include the merged departments. A proposal that would have allowed the Mayor to appoint a chief from outside the department did not make it to a full vote. However, despite the passage of ordinance, sources say if the Mayor cannot find a qualified candidate for the job within IFD, he can come back to the Council and they will change the rule.
May 19th, 2008 at 9:18 pm
IFD, grow up and don’t tie the hands of the man trying to SAVE the city! I would like one member of IFD tell me WHY they don’t want the best our tax money has to buy and if that talent comes from outside their ranks why wouldn’t they want that?
-
I am a supporter of the arts but that better be the last dime they get for a while. I hope they learn how to MANAGE it.
May 19th, 2008 at 9:40 pm
Examples of poor management, please, Anon.
May 19th, 2008 at 9:50 pm
Can artists not actually create stuff that people want to pay money for so they don’t have to rely on government programs to keep their “not having to get a real job” lifestyle?
I love music, paintings, sculpture, photography and such but don’t believe government should be doling out tax money for it. This is what private charities, institutions, endowments and purchases are for.
Maybe a checkbox on everyone’s state/local income tax form “Do you want to contribute $2 to the arts?” and then anyone who checks it pays $2 more.
May 19th, 2008 at 10:57 pm
With foreclosures up 40% from prior August to last, 65% increase in City-County taxes last summer, child welfare budget up approx 25%, graduation rate for black kids in the city at maybe 50%, property taxes and associated funding in an indecipherable limbo, since we can’t make any money from demolishing Lucas Oil Stadium - anybody got a better nomination on where to save 1.5 million? Otherwise, will gladly check for the $2 donation on the state return.
May 19th, 2008 at 11:31 pm
Stalinist Art is what you get from government
May 20th, 2008 at 12:35 am
Vive La Revolution, I got to agree with you on this one. Being an independent free thinker, I’ve always wondered why democrats don’t give up a big part of their salaries to the poor, the homeless, abortion clinics, the arts and whatever cause is in vogue. I’m not being cold here and I do know some need help from the government but some are so adamant about the government giving that you would think that they would voluntarily give a big percentage of what they make to help out the needy. And I consider some of what I do for a living as art but I don’t believe the government should subsidize me. I believe we should work for a living not take for a living. I know it sounds cold but I guess that is the capitalist in me. And don’t get me wrong, I give to charities, but they are ones that I choose to give to, not who the government says I have to give to.
May 20th, 2008 at 1:08 am
And speaking of Stalinist art. Did anyone see the large (about 3′x3′) poster of Hillary at her election night party at the Murat? Talk about a 1920’s communist propaganda look. I couldn’t help but wonder if that was a glimpse of things to come!
May 20th, 2008 at 8:58 am
What I find most comforting living in Indianapolis is that it’s priorities never change, regardless of who the mayor is.
How many new cop cars would $1.5 mil buy? How many abandoned houses could be torn down with $1.5 mil?
I love this town!
May 20th, 2008 at 9:55 am
As we speak, a number of steadily evolving works of urban art in asphalt are decorating my neighborhood. They often interface with the tires of my car. They began without funding and grow without funding. Often, curators arrive to attempt to hide them with cold patch compound, but art always triumphs.
May 20th, 2008 at 10:06 am
What’s the art for? If the programs are successful and proven deterrents against committing crime than it’s an investment which should be double/tripled? If it creates a more inviting and clean downtown to entice businesses and tourists, then the investment pays for itself. I don’t think we are talking about a blimp made out of balloons.
May 20th, 2008 at 10:13 am
I agree with CG Liddy. Given the housing, educational, and employment downturn of many cities, what if we differentiated ourselves with good statistics in employment, low foreclosure and crime, and a high graduation rate? Is the average person looking for a good place to live and raise kids, or an unaffordable ceremony for grown men to play with a ball?
May 20th, 2008 at 10:23 am
Same game different party. Once again, good money following bad ideas. And I thought the GOP and Ballard were going to change things. Art reduces crime? OK. How about education jobs and mentoring programs which have been proven to reduce crime rather than art.
May 20th, 2008 at 11:30 am
Where do things stand with cab fare? I thought council was supposed to give the ok to raise cab fare due to the increase in gas prices.
May 20th, 2008 at 11:32 am
I’ve given thousands over the years directly to the Arts and the specific projects/artists I wish to support. No one should be forced through taxation to support the Arts. This is nuts.
May 20th, 2008 at 11:57 am
to all of you tight asses….1.5 mil is chump change and the funding goes to a huge number of organizations that direclty help make Indy a better place to live…maybe you all need to move to a rural area and find out what a cultural desert is actually like…if you want a ROI on this particular tax money (probably about $1 per tax payer), go to any one of the numerous concerts to be given at the various parks this summer…
May 20th, 2008 at 12:16 pm
Anon,
I will tell you why. The local firefighters union has had control of the Chief’s office for years and they do not want to loose control to an outside person who may not roll over and play dead when they come to storm the chiefs office.
May 20th, 2008 at 12:59 pm
Read some history. The majority of the art we now enjoy as “classic” was funded through the rulers of Tuscany and Rome (also known in many cases as THE GOVERNMENT). Government and public patronage of the art is not something that the art community in Indianapolis dreamed up as a way to fleece the taxpayers.
May 20th, 2008 at 1:29 pm
You’re absolutely right PP. Those “classic” works of art are all that’s left of the Roman Empire. I wonder why.
May 20th, 2008 at 2:17 pm
Well, GG Liddy, it’s because the Romans over-bureaucratized as the Empire grew. Each year, each separate bureaucracy found their current number of administrators and workers insufficient to the task of keeping the aqueducts running, the streets and sewers clean, and in the provision to the unemployed (bread & circuses). Eventually, the tax burden grew too onerous for the citizenry and thus began a vicious circle of declining employment and rising entitlements.
Finally, some Visigoths took pity on the city of Rome, redistributed the wealth of the city, and assisted in a revival centered farther to east in Constantinople.
May 20th, 2008 at 2:42 pm
If the Romans had brought a Super Bowl to the Colosseum, everything would have been OK again.
May 20th, 2008 at 2:58 pm
Maybe Bob, but the Roman versions of NASCAR and tht WWE didn’t help much in the end.
Perhaps had the tribune Bobbus Barrca just become Emperor, then all would have been well. Of course, it would have still meant the end of the Empire…just peaceful-like. ;)
May 20th, 2008 at 3:40 pm
Their chariots had too little horsepower and their wrestlers were outclassed by the Barbarians.
May 21st, 2008 at 5:36 am
I thought that taxation was to support the legitimate needs of government.
-
Taking my money by threat of force (aka taxation) to use for the arts is wrong.
-
I wonder what part of our Indiana Constitution authorizes the CCC to use the ‘police power’ of taxation to support ‘the arts’??
-
This is yet another reason we need a LAW that forces all of our legislators to specifically cite the Constitutional provision(s) that authorize the laws they are burying us under.