Comments on Advance Indiana™: Ballard's North Of South Taxpayer-Financed Deal Fraught With Risk For Taxpayers

The Put Communities First Campaign will be protest...

2010-10-05T20:09:35.941-05:00

The Put Communities First Campaign will be protesting this project, as well as the Circle Centre Arts Garden connector to the Hyatt tomorrow at the 1:00 MDC meeting. The more people we can get to show up at these committee/commission meetings the better. The decisions have been made in the dark across administrations for some time now, and it is time for things to change.

"To Republicans, governmental power is boundl...

2010-10-05T14:03:39.925-05:00

"To Republicans, governmental power is boundless."

With due respect and genuine agreement for the notion that government is not to have "boundless power", I have three words for you: President Barrack Obama.

Paul, the U.S. Constitution is irrelevant to this ...

2010-10-05T13:58:26.022-05:00

Paul, the U.S. Constitution is irrelevant to this discussion.

Cities are created by state law to serve a specific purpose. The State has a constitution. This state constitution has enumerated powers. How can the state create an entity that has more powers than the state?

Merely because a governmental body is not bound by the U.S. Constitution does not mean that the government has no limits, far from it. Without specific grants of authority, governments can do nothing, at all.

Governments derive their just powers from the consent of the government. When did anyone ever consent to creating municipal government that was incapable of acting ultra vires?

The first thing Libertarians ask of government is: "what must we do?" Republicans ask "what can we do?"

Paul, the U.S. Constitution is irrelevant to this ...

2010-10-05T13:57:47.661-05:00

Cato, the "enumerated powers" are in Art...

2010-10-05T11:09:08.512-05:00

Cato, the "enumerated powers" are in Article I, Section 8 of the U.S. Constitution and just limits the power of the national government and not the states. No such limit applies to state governments. Contrary to what a lot of Libertarians think, tates do not need specific authorization under the Constitution to pass a law. Rather it works in reverse - unless it specifically says states cannot pass a law, they can.

Local government powr is more limited though as they can only do whatever the states allow them to do. Indiana grants local government a lot of power through home rule...which creates a power arrangement similiar to the national-state. Basically unless it specficially says a local government cannot take an action, the local government can.

I don't see anything unconstittinoal about this deal. (It might be against a statute, however.) That doesn't make it good policy, however.

No, I didn't see that AI. To his credit, Hudn...

2010-10-05T09:49:42.084-05:00

No, I didn't see that AI. To his credit, Hudnut pursued a pay as you go philosophy...that is projects were supposed to pay for themself and debt paid down. That philosophy has been abandoned by Godlsmith, Pterson and, in a big way, Ballard.

I say that even though I was not a fan of Hudnut at the time.

I suppose this conclusively proves that Republican...

2010-10-05T09:05:57.143-05:00

I suppose this conclusively proves that Republicans have no respect for the concept of "enumerated powers," or limits on what the government should and should not do.

To Republicans, governmental power is boundless.

Did you notice former Mayor Bill Hudnut said he op...

2010-10-05T08:21:22.418-05:00

Did you notice former Mayor Bill Hudnut said he opposed Ballard's privatization plan for the parking meters as well? I think the Pittsburgh mayor works for the same organization where Hudnut worked after leaving Indianapolis.

I also noticed that the former Mayor who called it...

2010-10-05T08:12:40.045-05:00

I also noticed that the former Mayor who called it "gutsy" also said he wouldn't have done it himself because it's too risky.