Comments on Advance Indiana™: Republicans On Tax Panel Vote To Hike Taxes In Indianapolis

It's rumored these "stewards" of pub...

2013-06-26T07:56:37.898-05:00

It's rumored these "stewards" of public trust meet every morning, for Breakfast At Tifs.

Did anyone ever ask this? -Our Mayor states the...

2013-06-25T16:54:59.741-05:00

Did anyone ever ask this?

-Our Mayor states there is a $55 Million Public Safety budget deficit. Now where is the audit of what Frank Straub did with our money???

Some things we know he did:

1) Remodeled his suite of offices to include a personal shower (why did he need one when all other city employees shower at their homes. The cost of Straub's remodeling was more than the cost of most homes in Indianapolis. Mayor Ballard, we taxPAYERS need an answer!

2) The city has been laying off police officers by attrition. We now have the smallest police force in modern history. In theory the budgeted money for salaries should be in the budget. Since we have the smallest police force in modern history, where is the money??? Why has the police department had a hiring freeze for 2 years, and our Mayor just vetoed the bill to provide for recruiting and hiring of new police. -Where is the audit of Frank Straub.

3) Frank Straub personally signed a contract without Corporation Counsel approval for his "Regional Operations Center" that prima facie stinks of dirty politics. Why was he allowed to do that? Why didn't the building meet fire codes? Why did the city pay to have firemen sit in the building to provide "fire watch"??? What about the unusual arrangements to pave that parking lot? Something smells like politics or organized crime....perhaps an audit would track the players. Who paid who and what were their relationships? Where is the audit of what Frank Straub did??? We need to have the paper trail investigated by a forensic auditor.

4) It would appear that the Mayor who campaigned on "Public Safety is Job #1" may not have been so sincere....paying $6 for a cricket field that the people of Indianapolis do not want has a foul odor to it. How many police officers salaries could that pay for?

5) Violent criminals are out among us, terrorizing us. The man who shot 9 people only about 2 years ago is out of prison and the subject of a police chase, and guns were found to be in the car. I bet he's laughing pretty good at Ballard's credo about public safety being job #1. It seems to me that shooting 9 people is worth about 20 years per person shot in the prison. That guy should be in prison for the rest of his life, but for either a liberal prosecutor or a soft judge...or both.

Bottom line: Before you hike our taxes and eliminate our homestead exemptions, a forensic audit of what Frank Straub did with the money is mandatory!

Paul, She is both.

2013-06-25T13:06:56.935-05:00

Paul,

She is both.

There is no party of Constitutionally reconciled (...

2013-06-25T10:54:52.564-05:00

There is no party of Constitutionally reconciled (law) small government; just one party that goes by two names.

Maggie Lewis is either a really bad political stra...

2013-06-25T10:28:32.766-05:00

Maggie Lewis is either a really bad political strategist or she is, as you suggest, Louis, purposefully caving in on these issues.

The key will be if the two D councilors on the Commission voted against it. If so, the D's plan to use it against Ballard in 2015. If it's not part of a bigger strategy, I think Vop Osili would have supported it.

Good point, Louis. There's plenty of blame to ...

2013-06-25T08:37:13.030-05:00

Good point, Louis. There's plenty of blame to go around.

The larger question is "Why did the Council D...

2013-06-25T08:27:37.700-05:00

The larger question is "Why did the Council Democrats agree to establish a commission where they would be in the minority when they are a majority on the council?" Could it be they were seduced by baubles? E.g. Maggie Lewis' $400,000 over the past 4 years for her non-profit, Vop Osili's, Joe Simpson's and John Barth's TIF goodies.

Umm, It's a bipartisan panel. If the Republica...

2013-06-25T07:41:27.913-05:00

Umm, It's a bipartisan panel. If the Republican appointees supported it and four voted against it, one might conclude Democrats voted against it. The Star story doesn't say who was present for the vote and for some reason WCTY hasn't posted video of the meeting online so I can't speculate beyond what the Star reported. Why don't you ask the Star's Jon Murray why he didn't provide a breakdown of the vote in his story?

So who voted no? Why don't you mention them i...

2013-06-25T07:12:43.370-05:00

So who voted no? Why don't you mention them in the story?