Comments on Advance Indiana™: Latest Ballard Tax Increase Approved

If memory serves me correctly, Cary Likens testifi...

2011-02-05T12:27:43.435-05:00

If memory serves me correctly, Cary Likens testified at a city council meeting this was the minimum percentage increase Citizens would need approved to make the numbers work out for them. As we also know now, a private deal had already been struck with Veolia to pay them off with a big termination fee which was never disclosed. The council was lied to about the reason for setting up the escrow account from which the termination fee was paid. Ballard and Citizens knew all along that's where the money would come from to pay off Veolia to go away. The IURC simply is rubber stamping the deal the most corrupt people in this town brokered to screw over Indianapolis ratepayers. Look at the members of the IURC. You don't get appointed to the IURC unless you have been already beeb bought and paid for by somebody. Why do you think Carolene Mays got appointed? From the Star: Carolene R. Mays, a commissioner since February, comes from a family with utility ties. Her father, the late Theodore Clarence Mays Jr., served on the board of directors at Vectren, an Evansville gas and electric utility. Her uncle is a principal in BMHH Energy Services, which was awarded a recent bid by the Indianapolis International Airport board to build and run an airport electric plant. BMHH includes Citizens Energy Services, a subsidiary of Indianapolis-based Citizens Gas & Coke, a utility regulated by the IURC.

The Citizens takeover of the water company is pred...

2011-02-05T08:58:06.289-05:00

The Citizens takeover of the water company is predicated on the IURC granting this rate increase, at or close to what Water asked for.

So, the fix is in, like there was any doubt.

CT, What they think is that they're, in the m...

2011-02-03T13:33:54.744-05:00

CT,

What they think is that they're, in the midst of a sound-bite campaign, going to be able to explain away their support for tax and fee increases as being justified. That will never work.

Ballard should stop pretending he is a republican....

2011-02-03T11:03:46.431-05:00

Ballard should stop pretending he is a republican.
The members of the Council who call themselves republicans should NOT be re-elected. If you talk to one about any of the tax increases, give-aways, etc. they will talk in circles and give you 100 excuses why it had to be done.
They all have sipped the kool-aide and found it delicious.