Comments on Advance Indiana™: Senate GOP Recklessly Approves Tax & Spend CIB Bailout Plan

AI - the information on the Council website does h...

2009-04-15T11:33:00.000-05:00

AI - the information on the Council website does have some level of detail, and I find it useful. But, you are correct that it is useful only to a point. The Council does not have the authority to review/approve ALL of the CIB budget.

As for running a deficit for years -- according to the 2007 CIB annual report (the latest available)the whole budget ran a deficit from 2001 through 2004, but was positive from 2005 through 2007. There are no data prior to 2001 in the report.

There is no doubt that the CIB budget numbers are not clearly laid out, and transparency with that agency continues to be lacking. But, I sat through budget hearings the last couple of years and as long as the Councillors hear the magic words "we do not spend property tax dollars" they are content. This past year a number of members of the public pressed the point that all taxes are pulled from the same pockets and should be scrutinized to the same decree. I sincerely hope that this year, the budget hearings will really examine ALL tax revenue sources.

At the end of the day, the Council is the fiscal body of the City-County. It is their responsibility to pass budgets that move Indianapolis forward - not to rubber stamp what is placed before them.

Back to your points - the year end cash balances were considerable a two years ago, but have been coming down dramatically. It is an excellent question as to how they weathered the previous years.

My bad - the hearing date was August 25, 2008. He...

2009-04-15T10:33:00.000-05:00

My bad - the hearing date was August 25, 2008. Here's a link to the webpage with the list of that Committee's archived meetings:
http://indianapolis.granicus.com/ViewPublisher.php?view_id=12

Had Enough, The councilors knew there would be a d...

2009-04-15T09:54:00.000-05:00

Had Enough, The councilors knew there would be a dificit this year. What the councilor told me that he/she didn't know was that the CIB had been running deficits for the past decade. It's still a mystery where all of the money came from to fill the budget gap all those years. Were there that much in excess funds lying around somewhere to tap? How and why did those excess funds come to be? The audited financial statements that are prepared are not online. Why? The budget document to which you refer is missing so much information that it really is of little use.

Wow ! You said a mouthful. And, quite well. The...

2009-04-15T09:39:00.000-05:00

Wow ! You said a mouthful. And, quite well.

There are a couple of comments I'd like to make.

I hope the Councillor with whom you spoke is new to the Council and did not sit on the Municipal Corporations Committee during last year's budget hearings. Barney Levengood, Executive Director of the Convention Center and LOS, clearly said that the income from LOS was $7.7 million and the cost to operate $27 million and that the difference was being taken from their cash reserves. Upon questioning by Councillor Pryor, he stated that the CIB, the Mayor, and the Legislature were already looking over options to fix the operating budget deficit. If someone wants to view the whole hearing -- Channel 16 archives has it - Municipal Corporations Committee, August 25, 2009. The CIB is the second issue of the evening.

The CIB does not need to be enlarged, in my view. They all need to be fired. The good-old-boy-and-girl special interests need to be banned from the board.

The provisions to post the budgets etc online are all well and good, as is the auditing of the books - but that does little in reality to protect the public. Instead the Senators should have voted NO to the bailout. That would have protected the public.

By the way, the CIB budget is posted on the City Council webpages, as it has been for the last couple of years at least. The link: http://www.indy.gov/eGov/Council/Proposals/Pages/home.aspx scroll down to the bottom for all of the 2009 budgets.

And the Ponzi scheme continues.

2009-04-14T22:53:00.000-05:00

And the Ponzi scheme continues.

To give you an idea who Gov. Daniels will appoint ...

2009-04-14T16:40:00.000-05:00

To give you an idea who Gov. Daniels will appoint to the CIB, let's look at who he appointed to the state's stadium authority:

David Frick, Chairman-Retired V.P. of Wellpoint, former deputy mayor

Charles Golden, Retired CFO of Lilly

John Mutz, Former Lt. Governor (he passed a gag rule when he ran Indianapolis' Water Works Board to keep an independent board member from speaking to the press)

Joe Loftus, Barnes & Thornburg (talk about conflict of interest)

Joe Perkins, Sr. Counsel to Cummins

John Thompson, CEO of Thompson Distribution

Linda Grass, Hancock County Auditor

Do you feel your interests are represented by any of these people? Do you have any confidence that Gov. Daniels would appoint anyone but a political insider just like all of these people are to look out for your interests at the CIB? Tell me another joke.