City-County Council Democrats may find themselves in the awkward position this election year of having to vote for a tax increase. Mayor Bart Peterson told me last night at the Jefferson-Jackson Dinner that he will need all of the new taxing authority granted to him by the legislature to help pay for Indianapolis’ budget problems. […]
This has not been one of Mayor Bart Peterson’s better weeks. He lost Indy Works in the Legislature. There were massive traffic jams downtown during a motivational seminar during morning rush hour earlier this week. News broke that IFD bounced a check. And now A Shelby County Judge has ruled there’s no issue that Marion […]
City fire officials asked me and a reporter from the Indianapolis Star into their office today to talk about a bounced check. It was for $239.00 to Lowes. It seems odd that a city with a budget of $534 million could ever kite a check. Now granted Indianapolis’ bond rating has been dropped and I […]
Believe it or not, I actually do enjoy news conferences. I was at Alberto Gonzales’ on the west side of Indianapolis Tuesday afternoon. As you know he announced $2.5 million in crime fighting grants for Indianapolis. During the event, Gonzales said the city’s rising crime rate last year was one of the reasons it got […]
I was teaching up in Carmel tonight and on the way back to my downtown apartment, I stopped by 300 East. I had a jack and diet and talked to the visiting chef who I knew. It was a real nice place and pleasant atmosphere. It was quiet so I’ll have to come back on […]
The fallout from the Legislature’s failure to pass Indy Works could be even more far-reaching than originally anticipated. Both the recently agreed to contracts for the city’s police and fire fighter’s unions were both tied to the passage of Indy Works and the Mayor having a public financing plan to pay for public safety. City […]
Indiana lawmakers tonight gave Governor Mitch Daniels a major victory by passing his health care plan, which included an increase in the tax on cigarettes. The 44-cent increase would go to help provide insurance for thousands of Hoosiers who are without coverage. The measure passed both the House and Senate by wide margins, although conservatives […]
Following the lead of the Indiana House of Represenatives, the state Senate passed a new budget, property tax relief, expanded gaming and new taxing power for local governments. The Senate passed concurrent measures that passed in the house, however critics called the measures short term, involved too much government spending and were only band-aid solutions […]
The Indiana House of Representatives passed an expansion of slots at the race tracks by a vote of 54-44. The expansion would pay for the property tax relief in the state budget.
I’ve written ad nauseum this weekend about Indy Works III and Marion County Consolidation. I’m going to give this a rest for a while, but as the Mayor gets ready to craft Indy Works IV in the wake of this most recent defeat, I have one piece of advice for him. Instead of taking aspirin […]
