Indiana Pacers Chief Executive Office Jim Morris says that everything is on the table in order to reach a fair and equitable settlement with the city, state and Capital Improvement Board over the operational costs of Conseco Fieldhouse.

Morris made his comments today at a news conference outlining a new health initiative in Indiana.

The Pacers are telling local officials that they can no longer cover the costs of operating Conseco Fieldhouse, which runs about $15 million annually.  Morris says the team is committed to being in Indiana for the next 50 years so they are open to finding an agreement that can make that happen.

Morris would not comment specifically on what the Pacers would be willing to give up in revenue should the city and CIB assume the operational costs.

State officials are looking at a number of ways to close the budget gaps for both Conseco and Lucas Oil.

In a news conference this morning, State Senate Pro Tem David Long said lawmakers are looking at making the solution as much of a Marion County one as possible.   However he did also note that when looking at user fees and having those who benefit from the facilities help pay for them, the public should know that the entire area benefits from events at the stadium, fieldhouse and  convention center, not just downtown Indianapolis.

The Children of the Revolution had their Statehouse protest today.  About 200-250 people showed up, but there were only about 100 or so left when it ended.

They touched on everything from property taxes, to the CIB, to lobbying reform.  At times it was hard to follow where it all was going.  For the next rally, I’d try to stay a little more focused and have a more tangible universal theme that is easy for people to grasp.   I’d also do it on a day lawmakers were in session and not committee so they could hear my message loud and clear.  They have potential with the right direction and right message.

And speaking of messages, no one should ever let Gary Welsh near a microphone, when he screams into it he sounds like Godzilla on helium.

If you’ve ever wondered how your school district compares to others on ISTEP, graduation rates, attendance, etc  click here.  

It’s a link to the Indiana Department of Education’s website.  It has a lot of really good data attached with it on public, private and charter schools.

Enjoy.

I’m preparing for my interview with Dr. Eugene White regarding IPS so I want to make this quick.

The Indiana State Senate moved forward today with fixing the state’s unemployment insurance fund problems.

The Indiana House moved forward today with property tax “reform” and giving Superintendent Tony Bennett unnecessary grief.

The Perry Township board tonight moved forward with consolidating with the Indianapolis Fire Department.

There was another smoking ban hearing tonight at the Marion County public library and the whole issue moved closer towards going up in flames.

Speaking of flames, it looks like the Wayne Township Trustee may be doing something worse than raising taxes on township residents as originally thought.  I’m hearing from township sources that the $1.7 million in additional funding David Baird is asking for comes from a fire taxing district that ceased to exist in the township years ago and instead of giving it back to the taxpayers or paying for fire service, might actually try to use it to supplement  the township’s rainy day fund and possibly pay for programs that have nothing to do with fire service.  Remember, this is the same Trustee that spent $10,000 on weight loss and motivational services at a west side spa.  Something smells funny here folks, hold your nose until it all comes out.

That’s all folks.

FYI,

Indianapolis Public School Superintendent Dr. Eugene White will be a guest tomorrow on my morning radio show.  He’s scheduled to appear tomorrow from 7-8 a.m.  You can hear the interview at 1430 AM or over the Internet at www.wxnt.com.  We’ll talk about the 2008 State of the District report, budget cuts, ISTEP test scores, charter schools, discipline issues and whatever else comes to mind.  I hope you’ll join us.

The Wayne Township Trustee in Marion County wants to raise taxes nearly $1.7 million to pay for fire protection.

David “King” Baird has filed notice in this past weekend’s Court and Commercial Record that the township will hold a meeting on April 9 to formally ask the Department of Local Government and Finance to increase the fire protection levy by $1,675, 696.  You can see a copy of the notice at the end of the post.  It’s unclear at this time why Baird is raising taxes, but the likely scenario is avoid consolidation with IFD and continue to pay for fire protection.

The irony in all this is that Baird opposes consolidation, having argued, in part, it was a tax increase.  Joining him in his political tomfoolerly was also State Senator Mike Young.

I wonder if Wayne Township is sitting on any surplus funds?  Because I wonder if the Trustee realizes how wrong it would be to try to raise taxes while sitting on a big stack of cash?  I hope he’s ready for torches and pitchforks.

And isn’t it also funny that all this time Mike Young has been protecting the Center Township Trustee’s office when he should have been protecting the Wayne Township taxpayers from their Trustee.  Oh well, that’s what you get from a politician who can’t keep a promise.  Remember when he said Tom John would be Marion County GOP chairman over his dead body?  Well Tom’s been elected twice and Mike is still here.

Tax Increase Notice

Although the title of this blog post may not seem very Christian, it’s okay because I am not.  In fact, these days in a tough economy I’m feeling a lot less generous and a lot less giving.

It’s been reported that the city is closing down some local pools in order to make some badly needed repairs.  Instead of being grateful, the people complained.

The story is similar when it comes to the Mayor’s Action Center.  A local story infers that people in poor neighborhoods don’t get their problems responded to as quick as those in more affluent areas (translation: citizens who pay more in taxes).

Now while I doubt if city services are doled out based on where you live, I really don’t see why the paying customers shouldn’t get taken care of first.  I would much rather have a city of tax contributors than tax consumers.   

For example, just this past weekend I got word of a couple who had to move in with their parents, but still managed to find enough cash to buy a new car and a Nintendo Wii.  And for the record, I was a never a big fan of bailing out banks, auto industries or professional sports teams and the more I hear from the “poor and disenfranchised” not getting their entitlements, my sympathy diminishes by leaps and bounds.

I have no qualms about helping the truly needy, but in light of some people, maybe we really need to redefine who’s in need.

Indianapolis Public School Superintendent Dr. Eugene White is unveiling the 2009 Indianapolis Public Schools “State of the District” this week.  I got an early copy of the presentation, and while there is some good news, IPS is increasingly becoming a school district that is poor, black and academically challenged.

Here are some of the results…

Enrollment

• Student Enrollment in IPS continued to decline; dropping from 35,325 to 33,824 students.
• The number of students on free and reduced lunch increased by 7% to 84% of the student population.
• IPS is 57% black, 23% white, and 14% Latino.  Males make up 51% of the student body, and women 49%.
• The number of students who speak English as a second language has tripled since 2000 to one in 10 students and 20% of the student population is classified as special ed.
• IPS saw decreases in student enrollment in every grade  from 2-8, but there was a near 700-student increase in the number of students from grades 8-9, primarily because none of them were ready for the 10th grade.

What’s interesting here is that IPS attributes the loss of more than 1,600 students in grades 1-8 to parents moving out of Center Township and into the surrounding townships and counties and not to charter schools.   And as more students leave and the number of poor students increase, this shows me that as parents accumulate more wealth they look for a place with what they believe is a better school system.  Because of the student losses, IPS will have closed 14 schools by the end of the 2008-2009 school year and will have to cut its budget by $25 million.

Academic Performance

In terms of academic performance the news is mixed at best.  On ISTEP+ test results regarding English/Language Arts and Math, IPS 6th graders made the most progress in English and Language Arts.  5th graders made the most progress in math, but were stagnant in English.  Third graders lost ground in English and Math.   Fourth and seventh graders only showed progress in math scores, however 7th grade ISTEP+ English scores fell by almost 10%.  Eighth grade math and English scores showed more improvement in math than English.  Tenth grade ISTEP+ scores showed an increase in math, but a drop in English.  In addition, the data also shows Latino students as a whole, performing better than black students.

When broken down by racial groups, black students in other Marion County School districts tended to perform better than those in IPS.  The highest performing group of  black students were at the 5th grade level; they came in 5th on English and language arts testing as well as 6th on the math.  Third grade black students also ranked 6th in the math.

White students in IPS came in last in virtually every grade level in IPS when compared to other districts in areas of English and math. 10th grades white students came in third from the bottom in English and second from the bottom at the 6th grade level.   White students came in second to last in 5th and 6th grade math and third from the bottom at the 10th grade level.

Latino/Hispanic students tended to perform better as a whole in all grade levels than their black and white counterparts. They scored in the top half in math in grades 3-7 and grades 4-6 and 10 in English.

Retention & Suspension

While the number of students retained in grades 9-11 is growing smaller and dropped an average of 89% from 2005-2008, the number of students being retained at the 12th grade increased 85 percent.

The news is also mixed in the area of suspensions.  The number in-school suspensions went from 2,972 in  the first semester of 2007-2008 to 3,753 in the first semester of 2008-2009.   Meanwhile the number of out-of-school suspensions went from 4,032 in the first semester of 2007-2008 to 2,473 in the first semester of 2008-2009.

Over the same period the number of expulsions went from 118 to 83.

IPS “Good” News

The 2008 report lists a variety of “good” news items regarding IPS, however looking through the list I noticed a significant portion of the good news concerns IPS’ magnet and specialty schools.  This makes me wonder if IPS is turning into a school district where if you are a bright student who can get into a specialty or magnet school, you will do quite well.  However, if you are an average student, your chances of success are slim to none at best.

I got this e-mail from a friend yesterday.   It make me think that maybe Indiana should seriously think about lowering unemployment benefits…

Hey Abdul,

You’ll love the irony in this.  My assistant is going to have to have some surgery soon and be out for about a month.  I’ve got a couple of friends that have been recently laid off and are looking for jobs, so I offered to pay them to come in and do her  job for a month while they continue to look for a permanent job.  Both have declined the offer because it would mess up their unemployment benefits.

Any thoughts?

In case you were wondering, the line-up has been unveiled for the March 25th “Revolt at the Statehouse.”  Enjoy.

I’m surprised Libertarian  City-County Councilor Ed Coleman isn’t on the list, he symbolizes what this group stands for.  With that said, there are some people on this list who should have some interesting stories to tell, there are others I would not let near an open flame, much less an open microphone.    What do you think?