You read that right. The Administration & Finance Committee of the City-County Council voted tonight to find a way to give $1.7 million to Mayor Greg Ballard's ill-conceived plan to force city government to begin funding pre-K education, an obligation it is neither constitutionally nor statutorily charged with performing. Yeah, you may have pothole-riddled streets, neighborhoods without streetlights and sidewalks, neighborhoods which flood every time it rains and run-down parks, but there's always plenty of money for the downtown mafia, the billionaire sports team owners and the real estate developers who stuff money in the politicians' pockets for the hundreds of millions of your tax dollars they give away to them for their private real estate development projects.
Now you're going to be seeing millions of your tax dollars go to glorified day care centers where the elitists in this town send their children so you can lower their child care costs under the guise of helping low-income children who are already taken care of through the 100% federally-funded Head Start program. Seriously. Think about it. Do you think these people would actually be spending anything to help poor people? Can an old dog be taught new tricks? The typical citizen is too ignorant to know any better. You only believe the lies you read in the Indianapolis Star or hear on the evening news, which are nothing more than mouthpieces for the corrupt ruling class in this city.
You'll never guess where these dishonest council members claim they've found funding for pre-K education. Oh, the city budget includes $12 million for the homestead credit. That would be the credit Ballard wanted to eliminate to fund pre-K education. Well, it seems we really only need $10 million for the credit they're now telling us. It's possible we're going to shortchange some homeowners, but at least on paper we can pretend we're only going to need $10 million. No, what they really mean is that they're taking money from your pockets that should be spent on other underfunded basic services and spending instead on something that promises something in return to them individually for agreeing to obligate city tax dollars for pre-K education. Only people who are deaf, blind and dumb don't know better, which in Indianapolis represents 98% of the population. Bad ideas never die in this city. Just the good ones.
5 comments:
It seems to me there are some legalities some enterprising lawyer might find that does not permit the city council to enact pre-K funding. Something "fishy" going on. Somewhere in the 1-2-3 -I believe says that a referendum is required for certain initiatives. I expressed much of this in correspondence with members of the council and with the exception of a few did not receive a response. The most telling was the Democrat saying there was a moral imperative to enact this. What about the moral imperative of the recipients?
More important some accounting of HeadStart should be in order.
Not a done deal. Hunter does not know what he is talking about. It's not a "given" that these funds will go to preK. The public needs to loudly demand unmet services rather than worry about preK.
The council president, Maggie Lewis, went on the record as supporting the use of the newly-found money for pre-K. Angela Mansfield made a compelling argument for using the money elsewhere, but we know that Lewis and Barth will vote in lockstep on this issue and drag a few others along with them like Hickman so the money will likely be there since the GOP members other than Scales and maybe Cain, will go along with the plan.
Word on the street...Lewis and Barth huddled with Mike O'Connor at Eli Lilly. Wonder what they were promised?
I thought Public Safety was Job #1.
Call it what you want: If you call it "Pre-K Education, then education is the state's consitutional responsibility. Cities are not formed to fund it, nor should they.
If you call it the proper term: "Daytime Babysitting," then that is a parental responsibility. Not the function of a city government.
What should be done with the money? -How about re-opening the Children's Guardian Home? That service is truly needed. -How about public safety? We need more police and police need more equipment to do their job.
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