In the immortal words of my late grandfather, Indianapolis City-County Council Vice-President Brian Mahern has lost his natural mind. I figured he was never the sharpest political tool in the shed, only the loudest and my belief was re-affirmed this afternoon.   In another one of  his publicity seeking news conferences, Mahern called for the city […]

Democrats seemed skeptical, Republicans somewhat supportive of Indianapolis Mayor Greg Ballard’s budget that closes a $65 million gap with cuts to public safety, dips into reserves and eliminates a local homestead tax credit for property tax payers. City Council President Maggie Lewis said she wanted more details but thought the Mayor should have been more […]

Here is the Mayor’s introduced budget for 2013. Below is the audio from today’s briefing as well. 2013 budget presentation 8 13 12 from IndianaBarrister Leon-Tailored Audio – City Budget – 1 Leon-Tailored Audio – City Budget – 2 Leon-Tailored Audio – City Budget – 3 A more detailed line by-line budget will be available […]

My colleague Jon Murray today in the Indianapolis Star spells out Mayor Greg Ballard’s first step toward closing the city’s estimated $30-$65 million budget shortfall.  It includes budget cuts, revenue increases and spending freezes. According to Murray the Ballard’s highlights of the plan include the following… Postponing scheduled 3% raises for IMPD and IFD Elimination […]

I was doing a little reminiscing earlier this week as it marks one year since my departure from WXNT radio.   As some of you know, I did the morning show there for nearly eight years when management decided that syndicated programming was preferable to local.   It was what it was.  I am capitalist so […]

Somehow I get the strange feeling that “Lugar Republicans” are in pretty high demand these days.  Democrat Joe Donnelly mentioned how he worked with Richard Lugar to save  Indiana’s automotive industry.   Richard Mourdock does in a roundabout way when he talks about working with Governor Daniels to keep Indiana on track.  And Democratic gubernatorial candidate […]

Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels is waiting for a decision from the State Inspector General’s Office to see if as the President of Purdue whether he can lobby the state.  This stems from the Governor’s own Executive Order that prohibits state government lobbying by members of the executive branch for one year after leaving their jobs. […]

A less than two weeks the city of  Indianapolis will unveil its budget.  I’ll be writing about this over the course of the next few weeks, but here is a cop of the adopted budget for 2012  so we all have a frame of reference to work from.  Note: public safety (IMPD, IFD, MCSD, Courts) […]

As you probably noticed what used to be a pretty daily occurrence of posting here at Indiana Barrister has tapered off just a bit.   Since leaving the radio station nearly a year ago,  I started some other ventures that are actually working out quite well. My website Indy Politics is kicking butt, and more importantly, […]

This post originally appeared in my weekly on-line column in NUVO.   It happened right before a federal judge ruled the Mayor’s Office was in its statutorily granted authority to shut down the Project School. ***** I am a big fan of charter schools. I like them because of the innovation they can bring to a […]