The Indiana Tax Court has dismissed a class action lawsuit against the state. Citizens tried to argue the state’s property tax system was unconstitutional because of the way property was assessed and bills were sent out this past Spring. However, the Tax Court said the plaintiffs would have to go through state agencies like the Department of Local Government and Finance and have their claims heard before coming to the Tax Court. Attorney John Price called it a setback for the taxpayers.

A lot of people have been calling Mayor-elect Greg Ballard to wish him well. Sometimes they get through; sometimes his voice mailbox is full. One person who’s been having a little trouble getting through is the President of the United States. Ballard told me this morning that George W. Bush has been trying to contact him to congratulate him on his victory over incumbent Bart Peterson, but every time he called Ballard’s voice mailbox was full. Ballard says he plans to keep his phone on vibrate and his mailbox messages down so he doesn’t miss other calls. It does say something about the shape this city is in when it is easier for the president of the United States to get a hold of the president of Pakistan than the Mayor-elect of Indianapolis.

I know the headline may be a bit much, but I think it is relevant. A lot of us have been trying to figure out why in a Democrat-leaning County a Republican beat a two-term incumbent. Since Tuesday I’ve discovered that a number of Black pastors told their flocks to stay home on Election Day. This would explain why in many areas of town where Democrats were counting on heavier voter turnout, it never materialized. Even the polls showed a significant number of Black voters still undecided about whom to vote for.

So instead of voting for Greg Ballard, they stayed home. I am not surprised at this. Conventional wisdom dictates that for any Democrat to win elected office , they need 90 percent of the Black vote. Anything less and the odds favor the Republican. In the case at hand, the relationship between the Black clergy and Bart Peterson was strained at best. Particularly last summer when the pastors went to the Mayor asking for help in raising money for crime prevention programs and were told in so many words to “go to hell.” The relationship improved somewhat over time, but apparently it was not enough in the long run. Now a lot of Democrats will have plenty of time to think about this and ask for forgiveness.

If Mayor-elect Greg Ballard wants to cut city spending he may find that problem more difficult than he thinks. Sources tell me the Peterson administration is in the process of entering into contracts with vendors that will last well into the Ballard Administration. City officials deny they are entering into 11th hour agreements. I hope that’s true. Because the right thing to do would be not to sign all but the most important agreements at this point and leave things for the next administration, not take care of friends and cronies in the last hour.

The political gods came down from the mountain and found a Democratic City-County Council candidate worth saving. District 2 Councilor Angela Mansfield beat her Republican opponent Bruce Schumacher 52-47%. The race originally showed Schumacher winning but all the precincts had not been counted. Mansfield won the race by less 400 votes. She called it a roller coaster ride. Republicans had a 17-12 majority, that number is now 16-13.

I took a few hours off this morning to recuperate from the Election. As I said before, the victory of Greg Ballard over incumbent Bart Peterson was no big shocker. Anyone who paid attention to the rather angry electorate saw this coming. However this is not about past election results, but the new world we enter into today.

The new Mayor and Council have a lot of challenges facing them. Some challenges will be relatively easy to tackle, such as taking back the Metropolitan Police department from Sheriff Frank Anderson. There are 17 Republican votes to 12 Democratic votes on the Council. The Sheriff opposes this, but I question his motives because if this was so important to Anderson, why didn’t he speak out about this during the campaign, when Ballard was running and made the campaign promise?

I think I can easily predict that Ballard will get control of IMPD, and lot a of “consultants” who were hired back following their retirements from the Sheriff’s department will lose their jobs. Ballard and his team are going to have some tougher challenges ahead, mainly the budget. To eliminate the public safety tax they will have to find $90 million for pensions, new police and programs. Luckily there are some measures Ballard can take to mitigate the tax increase. He can take some of Anderson’s “consultant” positions and turn those into officers on the street. In addition, he can go to the legislature and combine the city’s two police pensions and alleviate some of the financial burden on the taxpayers.

Also, incoming District 21 Councilor Ben Hunter has proposed putting the city Park police under IMPD, and merging with the airport authority police and making them a division of IMPD, and expand their authorized territory on the southwest side of town which would make IMPD’s beats smaller because the area is covered.

Ballard can also reach out to the business community and create a community foundation fund to pay for crime prevention programs. The same effort was done to try to get a Super Bowl for Indianapolis, surely keeping kids free from a life of crime is just as important. Also, if the city is going to give out tax abatements then perhaps the application fee could be doubled to create a community enhancement fund and not-for-profit groups could apply for competitive grants to help prevent crime.

Despite the regular pressures of running a city I think the biggest challenge Ballard, and the new Council’s biggest challenge, will be to not believe their own press. They were swept into office on a wave of voter discontent and they can just as easily be taken out in four years. To manage this city it will take level heads, hard work, clear vision and patience. These problems were not created overnight, but they need to be solved within the next four years.

By a vote of 51-47%, little known candidate Greg Ballard beat an incumbent with a lot of money and a lot of organization. Not only did voter anger sweep Bart Peterson out of office, but most of his party on the City-County Council. What was a 15-14 Democratic majority now looks more like an 18-11 Republican majority. As of 10:47 p.m. tonight and 93 percent of the polls reporting, Republicans swept all but one of the at large council seats. It looks like Joanne Sanders was the surviving at-large seat.

Democrats did have some gains picking up the seat held by Scott Keller and Ike Randolph. But Republicans (with 95 percent of the polls reporting) picked up the seat held by Sherron Franklin as well as three of the at-large seats.

Mayor Bart Peterson gave a short concession speech and reminded everyone they will wake up tomorrow in the greatest city in the world.

Ballard says his first priority will be to get control of the police department from the Sheriff and with a Republican council that should be relatively easy to do. The hard part will be dealing with spending and the tax issue.

I wish them luck.

Now this is interesting. If your voting machine in your precinct wasn’t working this morning, it’s probably because someone left the voting machine off the charger. According to my sources, the circuit breaker blew out so the batteries for the Ivotronic Voting Machines were sitting in chargers that weren’t getting any electricity so they never charged. Marion County Clerk Beth White says they are investigating the problem and don’t know how extensive the problem is. There are approximately 550 of the machines in use in the County. White says voters should still go to the polls and cast their ballots. She says the ballots will be kept in a safe area until the problem is repaired.

This is it. No more commercials. No more ralllies. No more blogs. No more spin. Just good old fashioned get out and vote. The only thing that has surprised me about this election how suprised everyone else seems to be about how close things look today. Anyone who has been paying close attention should not be surprised at today’s uncertainty.

Of course the polls show incumbent Mayor Bart Peterson slightly ahead, however who would of thought a two-term incumbent with millions in the bank would have to pull out all of the stops in the last days? Easy, anyone who showed up at a tax rally over massive property tax increases and saw the City-Council raise income taxes 65 percent.

The fundamentals have been here for a long time. It just amazes me with how long it took everyone else to recognize them.

Because this election is so close, it is all coming down to ground game and turning out the vote. Democrats, Republicans and Libertarians will be looking for voters the way an Ethiopian looks for food. (Pardon the dated 1980s reference.) And he who finds the most wins.

We’ll talk later today.

Everyone keeps asking me what’s going to happen tomorrow. If I knew that the Hoosier lottery would not be as large as it is now because I’d have won it. What I can tell you is that I will not be surprised at the outcome. You can make your predictions. I’m off to go see if the polls are going to open on time. Don’t forget to vote.