Behind the Taxing Numbers

Wow. I really could not believe what I was hearing at the Mayor’s press conference last Thursday on the steps of the Statehouse. The Mayor was issuing a call to the Governor to convene a special session of the State Legislature to deal with property tax issues. (Thankfully, Matt Tully of the Star pointed out the next day that the Mayor had used exactly the same tactic four years ago – even with the same headline in the official press release).

This was shameful enough, but then the Mayor said that he was not there to engage in finger pointing and then proceeded to point fingers at the Statehouse. Of course, most of the fingers should have been pointing at the Mayor himself with his failure to stand up for the citizens of Indianapolis during the last session of the State Legislature. When Abdul Hakim Shabazz of WXNT asked about what had gone before, the Mayor said he was not there to talk about the past, but only about the future and “going forward.” It was a page right out of Mark McGwire’s testimony on Capitol Hill. Unbelievable.

You simply can not take the last few days of income and property tax shocks and remove them from the context of what happened in the past. The Mayor has a sustained pattern of failing to act appropriately and then calling for dramatic action as a last resort with him as the savior. In my book, I tell leaders that they must take care of A, so that B and C don’t occur. The Mayor never takes care of A, so the bad news of B and C are always around the corner.

The Mayor is counting on the citizens of Indianapolis to forget about the past, so we should document it here. Everyone knew during the last session of the legislature that property tax increases would be enormous. This was no secret. The Mayor was largely absent and/or ineffective during this session and Pat Bauer and the Democratic majority in the House killed the proposal that would have provided $450 million in property tax relief this year. The Mayor’s own party did this. Instead, the citizens got a watered down version with much less property tax relief.

During the past session, he never requested that the state take over the child welfare costs from Marion County, but he did so during the press conference and even asked that the costs to be paid back be retroactive to 2005. Where has he been the past two years on this issue? He’s counting on everyone to forget his inaction.

The day before his press conference on the Statehouse steps, he held a highly orchestrated press conference at the Boner Community Center on the near eastside to announce a 65% income tax increase to fund $90 million for “Public Safety.” This press conference too positioned himself as the savior, but facts can be stubborn things.

The State Legislature wanted to provide $300 million dollars in pension relief throughout the state through lottery privatization, which would have gone a long way toward reducing the $30 million of police and fire pensions with which the Mayor is now taxing the citizens of Indianapolis every year. The Mayor did not lobby or support this bill and of course it was killed by his own party.

Additionally, he announced the hiring of 100 new police officers to great applause (no doubt a response to our campaign’s request to put more cops on the street), but until proven otherwise, these 100 cops appear to be those already heading for the academy. These new cops are or should be already funded, so why is he taxing the citizens another $11 million for these cops? Not to mention that these new cops will only replace those scheduled to leave the department by the end of the year, leaving the city essentially the same shortage of cops we have now. The Mayor is counting on no one breaking down this analysis.

If he was serious about putting more police on the street, he would call for an increase in authorization levels, but he never mentions this. He’s hoping no one will look more deeply when he says “100 more police.” What a sham. The FBI recommendation for cities is 2.5 cops per one thousand residents. Indianapolis is currently below 2 per thousand. I wonder why crime is high in our city.

Another $30 million of the $90 million tax increase is described by such words as “maintain” and “continue” and “pay overtime.” Aren’t these in the current budget? Another $10 million is to “fund current contracts for police officers and firefighters.” Did we not already budget to pay for our police and firefighters?

This $90 million tax increase needs to be scrutinized very closely. Thirty million of it could have been taken care of by the State Legislature this past spring. Forty to fifty million appears to be taxing the citizens of Indianapolis for items that are already budgeted for.

The Mayor’s only legislative victory at the Statehouse this year was to gain the capability to increase income taxes on the citizens of Indianapolis, which he promptly did. However, no one should forget the past, the Mayor’s inaction, that got us to this point.

We deserve better than this. The Mayor didn’t take care of our problems when he could have and he is now fixing it by siphoning off even more from our overburdened taxpayers. Very brazen. He’s counting on all of us not to notice.

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