Ballard Can't Find More Fluff In CIB Budget

After briefly studying the costs of operating the CIB, something his administration never bothered doing before asking state lawmakers for a $47 million a year bailout for the corrupt and inefficient government entity, Mayor Greg Ballard is now saying the $13 million in additional cost-saving cuts he agreed with Gov. Mitch Daniels to do a couple of weeks back simply can't be done. Instead, Ballard is going to look for a short-term fix to fill the gap--a $9 million state loan from the State Treasurer. What is interesting is that Senate conservatives told me that they added the state loan option to the CIB bailout plan so that Ballard wouldn't have to rely on tax increases. Instead, Ballard is still asking for the $12 million a year in tax hikes, an additional $8 million a year subsidy from the state (strike $8 million and insert $10 million--that's now how much of an annual state subsidy Ballard is seeking) and new downtown parking fees that will supposedly generate another $1.5 million. The CIB previously announced $12 million in savings, mostly from fake budget cuts. I call them fake because the agency grossly inflated several lines of its current year's budget--20% overall--in anticipation of the need to make reductions to win support for the bailout plan. Under the Ballard bailout plan, the CIB will award an additional $15 million a year subsidy to the billionaire Simons for their struggling Pacers franchise with revenues derived from the tax increases he will ask City-County Councilors to approve if the legislature approves the pending bailout plan during the special session.

UPDATE: It occurred to me after I wrote this latest post that this isn't the first time a downtown parking fee has been proposed. Sen. Luke Kenley included one in his original CIB bailout plan. Remember how Kenley was asked about it and he said the idea came from Ballard's people and Ballard's people claimed it wasn't their idea? The two sides then settled on the excuse that the inclusion of the parking fee increase was a typographical error. I guess even typos become serious ideas when people who are up to no good spend enough time trying to figure out how to screw over working class people to help out their billionaire buddies. Also, House Republican Leader Brian Bosma has a column in today's Star in which he flat out lies and claims the Senate-passed budget contains no tax increases.