COPS & COIT
I’ve always said that if you stick around politics long enough you will eventually see everything. That is definitely true in the race for Mayor of Indianapolis The new topic du jour is crime and the number of police officers on the street.
Democratic challenger Melina Kennedy says the incumbent Greg Ballard is drooping the ball on crime and that the city may lose millions of dollars in grant money because of the number of officers on the force is dropping below a certain number. The Ballard administration says the city is at strength with a new recruiting class of 20-25 officers coming down the pike and the inclusion of the park police unit in IMPD.
I find this interesting because I’ve seen this argument before, in fact I can remember at least one occasion in the Peterson administration when the number of sworn officers became an issue.
In June 2005, then Mayor Bart Peterson asked for a waiver from the federal government to avoid losing money from the then COPS program. Due to budget problems, the city was not going to replace 78 officers who were retiring from the force. The Justice Department approved the waiver since the reduction was due to the city’s finances and not the because of the grant. In this case the city is not asking for a waiver. I don’t recall a lot of complaining back then.
And as far as the question of “where did the COIT (County Option Income Tax)” increase go, that’s an easy one if you’ve been paying attention for the past several years. it’s been going away. Remember, it’s an income tax. And when unemployment is up, income tax revenues go down. So far, the city has taken in $37 million in less income tax revenue since 2008.
And if that’s not good enough for you, remember that extra court that was supposed to help ease jail overcrowding? Well the Marion County judges at the time created a new family court instead. They figured they could ease jail overcrowding with case management and really needed a family court to handle the extra caseload.
See what happens when you stick around long enough.
