Indianapolis city officials say what started out as a $126 million decrease in revenue has turned into $55 million in cash reserves.*
Mayor Greg Ballard will present the Indianapolis City-County Council Monday night with a $1.02 billion budget that is down 2.1% from $1.041 billion last fiscal year.
In a Sunday afternoon briefing City Controller David Reynolds said officials had to deal with revenue shortfalls stemming from property tax caps as well as a drop in income tax revenue. Reynolds said the city lost $36 million due to tax caps and $50 million to a drop in income tax receipts. In addition the city received $40 million less in stimulus funds than it did last year. The rest of the shortfall came from a decrease in collections from areas such as fees and fines.
Reynolds told the media the city managed to close the budget gap by continuing its annul five percent reduction in most agency spending as well as holding the line in other areas. There were no cuts to public safety however there were no increases either. Reynolds says that means there won’t be any new hires for the Metropolitan Police department nor the Sheriff. Also all IT projects are on hold. However, Reynolds says if funding becomes available, those areas could see increases.
The city did have to dip into its rainy day fund to the tune of $17.5 million, however the Controller says he is planning to build an additional $10 million in reserves through strategic hiring, wage freezes and early retirement. He says the Mayor’s office is also looking at savings through the consolidation of human resources staff from the courts, Sheriff’s department and County Prosecutor. Each agency would still have its hiring authority, however the city would process the paperwork.
Reynolds added the budget does not include any money from the proposed transfer of Citizens Gas no the recently announced parking deal. However some transportation and road projects will be paid for with recent PILOT proceeds. There are savings from the consolidation of Marion County Emergency into other agencies as well as a reduction in crime prevention grant dollars. The city also managed to save $2.5 million from not having to borrow to maintain its cash flow.
Despite the relatively good news, Reynolds warns that fund balances are getting tight and 2012 will be an even tougher year if there is no growth in Marion County’s assessed value nor income levels.
Below is an overall picture of agency/area spending.
*A quick note, in 2007 the city of Indianapolis was slated to be running a $100 million to $200 million shortfall by now. Also in 2012 due to tax caps and reassessments, the average Marion County resident will be paying 33% less than they were back in 2007.
Here is the audio from Saturday’s news conference where Indianapolis Mayor Greg Ballard, Public Safety Director Frank Straub, and Police Chief Paul Ciesielski announced the demotion of IMPD command staff members Asst. Chief Darryl Pierce, Deputy Chief of Operations Ronald Hicks and Commander of Homeland Security Bureau John Conley. Each segment is about 9-10 minutes long.
My wife and I were driving back from dinner last night when we heard police sirens. It was an officer responding to a call so we did what you’re supposed to do, which is pull over to the side of the road. However, as I got out of the officer’s way, for a brief moment the thought entered my mind that the person behind the wheel might be impaired. The thought only stayed there for a second, but the fact remains it was there.
If someone as pro-law enforcement as me was thinking that for a brief moment, I can only imagine what other motorists must have been thinking. And that is the fundamental problem with the David Bisard matter. It goes beyond the tragic accident, to a matter of trust between law enforcement and the community it is supposed to serve.
The only way public safety can truly be effective is if the community at -large has trust and faith in it. The public is willing to accept the occasional bad apple. In any organization you will have people who drop the ball and the public is forgiving. Not so much this time. Public trust has been shattered.
The real tragedy in all this is there is not going to be any quick resolve to all this. And to make matters worse, the people who’ve always had an ax to grind with law enforcement are taking advantage of the opportunity to exploit it for their own personal gain. The only thing law enforcement can do is work slowly to get back in the good graces of the public.
I hope they don’t have to be anywhere any time soon, because that’s going to take a while.
With school getting ready to start, your favorite political pundit had to take today to get a lot of class stuff taken care of. The joy of teaching graduate and undergraduate classes. I do have some thoughts on IMPD which I will share with you tomorrow. See you then.
If you understand the logic behind the UAW Local 23 and its refusal to allow a vote on an offer by JD Norman Industries regarding the GM stamping plant in Indianapolis, please explain it to me. I consider myself a pretty smart, but I can’t figure this one out.
The facts are pretty simple, in order to keep the plant from closing Norman Industries offered to purchase it from GM, but there would have to be some concessions made. The Union has reportedly said no and will not allow a vote, claiming they would have to take a pay cut and under master union rules, they are allowed to go elsewhere for the same pay and benefits.
Justin Norman, CEO of JD Norman Industries spoke to us in the media today saying the proposal he put before the union is more involved than that. He said there are several options on the table for current plant employees which include the following…
Norman also says he is not demanding a 50% across the board wage cut, but instead a wide range of base salaries would be offered to employees and skilled trade workers, who make up about 40% of the plant population, will make more than $50,000 per yer.
Now correct me if I’m wrong, but if my choice is being out a job or having one of those options listed above, in this economy, I’m taking the option that applies to me.
I don’t understand the union mentality. I can’t imagine what the local union could possibly thinking. But then again, maybe the reason I can’t imagine it because I’m not in union leadership and have been cursed with this thing called a brain and the ability to use it.
I sat through the Marion County Election Board hearing Tuesday as members of the public (albeit Democratic constituents) but the public nonetheless, express their support for satellite voting and encouraged the board to approve it. It takes a unanimous decision by the Board to approve satellite voting.
Marion County Clerk Beth White wants it, GOP Chairman Tom John says there aren’t enough safeguards to ensure the integrity of the vote. I’ve included my interviews with both in the blog post, however I think the real way to address this issue is the creation of vote centers.
The difference between vote centers and satellite voting is that with vote centers, you can vote anywhere in your County on Election Day. With satellite voting, you can only vote early. When my wife tried to vote on primary day, her polling place;s inspector didn’t show so she couldn’t vote. She’s a massage therapist and had an appointment on the other side of town. When she got done, I convinced her to drive back across town to vote. Had their been a vote center open, she would not have had to make the trip to exercise her civic duty.
In addition, the data has showed that voter turnout did not increase that much due to satellite voting and the numbers in the 2010 primary showed a 15% turnout, just slightly more than the 2006 mid-terms.
I understand Democrats and Republicans need to go through the motions on this one, but once that’s over they should join together and go to the legislature and make vote centers the law. That would go a long way to increasing voter participation and allowing citizens more options when it comes to voting.
Marion County Republican Prosecutor Mark Massa has unveiled his first television commercial. No word yet on when Democrat Terry Curry plans to unveil his first television ad.
The following is an open letter to Dr. Eugene White, Superintendent of Indianapolis Public Schools. I don’t think he’ll respond, but it’s worth a shot.
Dear Dr. White,
I know things are tough for you these days, nearly 16% of your students don’t show up for the the first day of school. Most of your high schools are under-performing so badly that the threat of a state takeover is looming over your head. Your teachers are demoralized and your district has money problems.
With that kind of pressure, I can understand your need to lash out. However, as a friendly suggestion you might want to focus that energy and effort on improving your schools and not going after yours truly. It came to my attention that you had some not so flattering comments about me at Monday night’s public hearing on the budget. They included the following…
As I said, you are under a lot of pressure and may not have been thinking straight, so let me help you out on each of your points.
And before you go down the charter school road, yes I am a big fan of charters, because when they don’t perform, they get shut down or are supposed to anyway. And charters are public schools, I notice you tend to conveniently forget that from time to time.
A couple other items you may have forgotten are your own District policies that read…
“the citizens of the District are to be viewed as the OWNERSHIP and clients of IPS, to whom the Board is primarily responsible and for whom the Board acts”
and don’t forget the one that says budgets require
“CRITICAL analysis by EVERY member of the Board prior to approval” and the board is to “direct the Superintendent to present the budget to the Board, along with ALL available information associated with each Fund, in SUFFICIENT time for proper review and discussion and in compliance with Indiana Code.”
Like I said, I don’t take any of this personally because this probably isn’t you talking, just the stress of trying to keep your ship of state afloat. I believe the Captain of the Titanic had that same problem. If you need help, just call. I’ll be more than willing to offer whatever expertise I can. Hey, I couldn’t do any worse than the people you have working for you downtown, right? Of course.
With All the Love and Respect You Deserve,
Abdul-Hakim Shabazz, Esq.
With 70+ days until Election Day, what polling data has been done is showing a bleak picture for Democrat U.S. Senate candidate Brad Ellsworth.
The chart below, courtesy of pollster.com shows Republican Dan Coats with a very comfortable lead over Ellsworth and Libertarian challenger Rebecca Sink-Burris.
And while polls are snapshots in time, take enough snapshots and you can get the full picture. Coats has maintained a 14-21 point lead over Ellsworth since early this year. And the longer that goes, the harder it will be for Ellsworth to get ahead. My colleague Mike O’Brien pontificated on this in a recent blog post.
Now the good news for Ellsworth is that we’re still a long way from Election Day and Democrats have yet to launch a massive television campaign attacking Coats on his lobbyist ties.
However, a someone who teaches school, there comes a point where the grade you have is the grade you’re going to get, so someone is going to have to step up real quick.
