Ballard Blasts Lawmakers For Approving $25 Million CIB Bailout

If Mayor Greg Ballard had sat down and thought about how he could deliver another middle finger to the grassroots people who elected him mayor in 2007, he couldn't have come up with a better one than this reaction to the approval of a $25 million a year bailout of the corrupt and inefficient Capital Improvement Board. From WRTV:

Ballard said he is frustrated that lawmakers' latest plan would raise only $25 million annually.

Ballard sought an increase of admissions, car rental and hotel taxes to pay for the operation of Lucas Oil Stadium and other Indianapolis sporting venues . . .

"It's problematic. It's disappointing, and frankly, the state's the loser. It's the state sales tax revenue really at stake," Ballard said. "I was very clear we need to get over this three or four-year hump. Then, we could re-look at it. If we can't do it with what they are making available to us, we are going to have to make some serious decisions."

Ballard admitted that he doesn't have a Plan B, and said the city will be forced to work with what it has. The mayor said he's concerned that the city's tourism efforts will suffer.

Apparently, Ballard's handlers forgot to tell him he could end the bad off broadway act he and his useless CIB leaders, along with Gov. Daniels and Republican lawmakers, have been putting on for the past few months to convince the public there would be hell to pay if taxpayers weren't forced to hand over another $15 million a year to the billionaire Simons per their latest greedy demand. Isn't it nice to know that you can work your butt off to beat the downtown elites to return City Hall to the people and in a flash those same corrupt self-dealers can buy off the politicians who told you they were on your side and negate the results of the election?

In other action, the IURC approved a more than 12% emergency water rate increase for the Indianapolis Water Company. The Ballard administration had requested a 17.6% increase, but the Commission decided the water company's revenue demands didn't warrant such a high increase. I suppose the Mayor will be releasing a press statement complaining about the IURC not raising your water rates enough to finance public works projects to reward campaign contributors and to give even higher fees to Veolia, the French-owned company that was given a sweetheart deal to manage the water company.