Ineffectiveness and Value for the Dollar

I’m sure they’re all nice people. However, a complete ineffectiveness, an inability to plan ahead and make things happen, is a hallmark of those whom we elected to serve us in our city. I was on the Greg Garrison Show last Thursday expressing my disgust that they can’t seem to do anything right, from running an election (remember the recent primary which was a shame on our democracy) to proper assessment of property taxes. What are we getting for our money?

Then just yesterday, I attended the monthly Marion County Alliance of Neighborhood Associations’ (MCANA) meeting where Bart Peterson was the speaker. When questioned about the upcoming income tax vote at the City-County Council meeting, he was asked why we should trust him with more of our money, citing the federal dollars given to the city for those cameras that are intended to reduce crime and the city’s inability to make them work. The Mayor deferred to one of his staffers who said the cameras were harder to install that they thought (don’t businesses do this every day? – I had cameras installed when I worked at a company a few years back; it’s not complex). She said that in one case they installed a camera and then discovered there was no power source there; so they had to install a power source also.

Think about it. Who would install a camera or any device without checking if a power source existed? Nice people, but simply ineffective.

To my delight, Matt Tully of the Star ran a column on Friday saying essentially what I said on the Garrison show. On assessments, he said “That’s the government equivalent of a waiter spilling a pot of coffee in your lap – on purpose.” He then said “It’s hard to remember the last time we saw such an utter failure on the part of local government.”

On elections (he entitled the section Democracy), he said, “Polls didn’t open. Voters couldn’t vote. Democracy stalled for a day…Beth White was unable to provide a basic government service – in this case, an election.”

Tully then mentioned that IPS (remember that schools are over half of your property tax bill) might have to return hundreds of thousands of dollars to the state because middle school students only attended 177 days of school instead of the mandated 180.

He closed saying he didn’t even mention crime, The Central Library, or the coroner’s office.

Really, who’s in charge? Is anyone?

You can’t separate what has gone before from where we are now. As many taxpayers have pointed out at the various rallies and in the City County Council meetings, if the Mayor had done things correctly in the first place, crime would not have risen to where it is and he would not be asking for an income tax increase. If he had actually convened his Fiscal Policy Council, he could have reigned in all of these taxing agencies (such as the Library Board). He could have had public safety pension relief if he had effectively lobbied at the Statehouse; instead he now wants to raise your income taxes. He could have had fire and trustee consolidation (it was offered to him at the Statehouse and he declined to consolidate the trustees). Unbelievably, at the aforementioned MCANA yesterday, he said he was in favor of trustee consolidation. Anyone following the trail knows the truth here.

Instead, he fails to act early and then rides in on his white horse to save us from his own inaction. The citizens of Indianapolis have to see through this.

Nice people. Ineffective.

Berbagi :