A caller this morning asked how the CIB had the power to tax.
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Abdul explained that they don’t, that the CIB goes to the legislature to get a tax passed.
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This implies that We the People have a say.
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This is a lie.
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While the CIB may currently lack the power to directly levy a tax, they clearly have a helluva lot of sway with the legislature.
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As evidence, I offer the below statement of Bob Grand:
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CIB President Bob Grand said raising hospitality taxes is one possibly solution.
“Everything is on the table except [raising homeowners'] property taxes,” he said. “I have not speculated on the likelihood of any specific solution but am committed to get a solution.”
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Everything is on the table except raising property taxes on homes.
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I don’t recall government ‘asking’ us if we wanted the Hospitality tax. They just did it!
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The fallicy of us having a say is just that…a fallicy.
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Sure, we can vote people out of office AFTER THE FACT. What good does it do us to have a clean sweep. The tax is in place. Good luck getting it repealed.

Everything is on the table except pressing Irsay for renegotiating a deal that is fair and equitable to BOTH sides.

We were screwed once by political maneuvering and it’s likely to happen again.

For Bob Grand to just dismiss it as the fault of ‘the previous administration’ is insulting and infuriating. Clearly the man has no backbone nor any inclination to roll up his sleeves and find a a real solution to this mess. Bob Grand is just picking up a check and doesn’t give a damn what happens. And the rest of the board is just following his lead.

They should all be fired.

I agree with John as I see him as a moderate. My solution involved a mask, a post, and a retaining wall. The last cigarette was optional. http://www.thestarpress.com/article/20090310/OPINION/903100307 An example, timely, of what discussion does not take place when the crowd is being run to the buffalo jump. This fellow from Yorktown was an original member of the concerned taxpayer group, he is Republican, and elected. Unlike the cheerleaders, he does the dollars and cents of the argument proving vs Mitch and others that the township smokescreen is a diversion from real issues. In Yorktown, then, we know the size of the pea, and where it is. The rest of Indiana is still watching the dealer’s hands moving fast, in your pocket, out of your pocket with your cash. The view of township officials as cretins ought now be excised from any brain who had been led in that direction. John’s comment about political maneuvering is raised to the 10th power in the township matters.

It’s time to let this (Pacers) business fail. Much like the banking industry, no more bailouts. Turn Conseco into a casino, along with Union Station.

These people remind me of scaled down versions of criminal globalist pariahs. They’re completely out of touch with normal people. The problem is systemic. At the national level we have Obama’s most senior policy advisor who calls us vassals who must remain security-dependant and divided in order to maintain control over us: “to prevent collusion and maintain security dependence among the vassals…”
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And at the local level we have non-elected reps for private interests declaring that they’ll leverage the legislature to get more money from us to keep their revenues in the black.
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I don’t think these folks realize how bad they’re making things for themselves. Some folks I talk to are trying to shelter their families in the face of unemployment and foreclosure. And then we hear these ignoramus’s talking about how they’ll find other ways to tax us. In other words, “if we can’t show a profit, we’ll make the vassals pay”.
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It needs to stop.

John and Pascal for President/VP. Bob Grand and Pat Early still have amazing gall, and great tickets to all the good games. So we’re gonna tax conventioneers, who already pay Amrica’s third-highest local taxes? Great. Let’s kill one of the only bright parts of our local economy–and one that books meetings a year or two in advance, partially shielding us from current economic crap.

Here’s what this discussion, and your radio show this morning, ignore: appreciating assets.

Let’s play a little game: you are a $100K/year consultant who bought a home for $75,000 in 1980. Last week, your salary got cut 25%. Your home is in an amazing ‘hood and it’s now worth $1.25 million.

That’s about the same equity position in which the Simons find themselves. Sure, their “salary” is huge from OTHER sources, but stick with me for a minute.

IF you have a wildly-appreciating asset, and diminished income, AND you need money, what do you do?

In any basic economics class, you learn the real world answer: if your credit is good, and this recession could be temporary, you borrow against your assets.

For Joe and Joan Q. Public, if that P&L shortfall involved, say, increased college expenses, you get a home equity loan.

The Simons will cash in mightily if they sell. They’ll argue they’ve never made money, which, on paper, is likely true. But their asset has increased in value. Ask Forbes. They say the Pacers are worth $320 mil, give or take.

A handsome return on a troubled investment 28 years ago. Sometimes, your only avenune is to turn to the asset, and hope income improves.

Sorry for the elementary tone of this lesson, but someone needs to drink some real coffee here. It sure as hell isn’t Bob Grand or Pat Early–or the Simons.

Grand keeps going back to the property tax issue because that’s pure political spin. Why doesn’t he just say the CIB won’t ask for an increase in federal income taxes too? Neither property taxes for federal incomes taxes fund the CIB. It’s once again an example of Grand thinking the public is too stupid to figure out the spin.

I’ve never had any use for recycled Goldsmith spinmeisters. They’re arrogant and condescending. And they had a rather odd political answer for most of the city’s ills: borrow now, ignore the pricey infrastructure improvements. As in: kick the can down the road. Ex.: combined sewer overflow, jail…I could go on.

Sometimes tough questions demand tough answers…that the public doesn’t want to hear.

Ballard ought to disengage from the Big Four Law Firm Clusterf— and listen to sharper political minds.

Not all political wisdom comes in billable hours.

A super intelligent sounding guy called this morning and said we should look into finding a way to tax the players. There’s got to be a way to tax people who make over $1 million who earn their pay in Marion County publicly financed stadiums.
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Like a special COIT just for athletes. That way the whole state isn’t going to be called to pay for this boondoggle and we can appropriately bill those that directly profit from it.

Melyssa, that is a good idea. If that doesn’t cover it, I’d be up for a ticket tax.

Melyssa – why punish the players when the problem is their management? The athjletes aren’t robbing us – they’re capitalizing on their talent. I have zero problem with that. My problem is when team ownership leverages itself into local political fiefdoms in order to use taxes as a form of business capital.
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Don’t tax the players. Eliminate the influence of the greedy owners.

Thanks for posting this stuff. For those of us who get up after 8 AM, we miss the good interviews. :)

SB – The greedy owners of the Pacers aren’t making any money, the players are, but I agree with you to a degree. I do think the NBA needs to lower salaries so teams in markets like Indianapolis can actually compete.

One good way to lower the players salaries is to simply stop attending the games.

Ever purchase a Simon gift card? It works in reverse. You pay, say, $25.00 for it but if it isn’t used right away its value drops. After so many months it has no value. Simon must sell a lot of them to really stupid folks. But, from Simon’s point of view we are all stupid folks.

The appreciating value of the Pacers franchise is an interesting thought. The Simons’ SHOULD be borrowing against that equity, not crying about needing taxpayer help. Unless they don’t expect to recoup the money they would borrow.

If we DO get stuck funding their losses, then by God we should get an equity stake in the franchise.

The Colts were once concerned with something like a $10M annual shortfall from domed deficiencies of suites, & the Pacers are now concerned with a $15M operating expense. Are these, the legitimate concerns of citizens, or professional sports franchises which are businesses with significant value? Taxpayers incur the tangible liabilities of ownership & exactly what benefits?

Uh, Tony–look around. Lower attendance is the chief reason the Pacers are in this situation.

Taxing players might raise a few hundred thousand. I’m up for it, though, as a symbolic gesture. I doubt they’d gripe.

The NBA is supposed to have a salary cap. Unless you’re Kobe and the Lakers. Watch TV every NBA weekend…it’s the same four teams playing every single Sunday. They don’t enforce the existing cap.

Small-market teams like the Pacers are doomed unless they unite and demand some NBA reforms.

As for the rest of us…why not demand a piece of the team, like, maybe, 20%, in return for concessions? Publicly-owned Pacers. It works for the Packers, albeit a majority ownership there.

Let’s not shoot the Simons for the current problem. I want an NBA team here. I just want more realistic budgets and more transparency.

When they say “everything is on the table”, don’t for a minute think that they mean “everything”.

The Simons are already talking about getting their financial ducks in a row so they can pass the team on to their next generation.

Wow, Pat Early is really confused.

Apparently he thinks he works for the Simons, not the taxpayers.