Indianapolis taxpayers are told they must suck it up and pay higher income taxes to fund a metropolitan bus rapid transit system that ultimately could cost upwards of $1 billion to provide connectivity to suburban communities like Carmel, Fishers and Greenwood. While suburban communities spend nothing on mass transit, they do make large public investments in roundabouts and ample public parking spaces to make commuting by automobile as convenient as possible.
Carmel council members recently gave Mayor Jim Brainard more borrowing authority to spend tens of millions of dollars on constructing more roundabouts at traffic intersections. Last night, those same Carmel council members approved $20 million in new bonding authority to construct two new parking garages. A private developer, Old Town Design Group, will get a 580-space parking garage to house the employees of Allied Solutions and a 308-space parking garage for office buildings and apartments also being developed as part of the Midtown development.
Again, the Indianapolis Star, which rams down our throats the necessity of funding mass transit, never makes the connection between all of the public money being spent by these suburban communities to promote and ease commuting by automobile at the same time it insists that higher taxes be paid to provide mass transit connectivity to these suburban communities. News stories by the Gannett newspaper are always written approvingly of all of these massive public expenditures by suburban leaders to support private developers while already overtaxed residents in Indianapolis are expected to absorb major tax increases to provide public transportation to transport low-paid workers in the urban core to those same suburban communities who want us to deliver them to their door but not make affordable housing available for them to reside there.
Carmel moving to $2B in debt by year end.The time is getting closer. Nothing can save them now. Delusional Jim Brainard will go down in infamy.
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ReplyDeleteYes, Christine Accetturo. I am a Carmel resident who firmly believes the financial death knell is upon my willingly blind Ham County bedroom community brethren.
And just as that utterly feckless Indianapolis City County Council allowed a corrupt and duplicitous ex-marine to steal Marion County taxpayers blind, just as those useless, impotent Indianapolis City County Councilors allowed law breaking Ballard's every corruption to yet stand, the Carmel Council bows before their Emperor Attorney Mayor.
The Disneyland appearance of Carmel is financially unsustainable.
Will Carmel housewife jokes make a come back? Duh Star is dumber than Wikipedia but operates on the same Orwellian principle. The memory hole is then complimented with Mao's observation that a lie repeated one hundred times becomes the truth.
ReplyDeleteIf there are any fiscal conservatives in the legislature it would be good to now draft a bill for the next session to the effect that when the balloon bursts all the costs will be borne by Carmel, it's residents, its Republicans and that no State of Indiana money is to be diverted to Carmel, ever. Torr might carry such a bill?
ReplyDeleteThe bonds will be general obligation bonds too. I always think: If this project is such a good deal, why not finance it with revenue bonds instead & leave the taxpayers off the hook? But, then again, nobody ever accused The Star of digging too deep into municipal financing...
ReplyDeleteAt least there will be a referendum in November to vote on a Marion County transportation tax. Expect the corporate propaganda machine to be in full operation for support especially since their 10% contribution was taken out of SB 176. Marion County townships can opt in even if the plan is rejected by the County by having their own referendum but at the cost of an increased local tax if approved. If riders are required to contribute 25% of the cost for the Red Line, it would seem that taxpayers would pay 75% of their ticket price to get them there.
ReplyDeleteIf Granny-Net is serious; they can sell off the Scar to pay for their economically crass tran-sh*t.
ReplyDelete"The bonds will be general obligation bonds too. I always think: If this project is such a good deal, why not finance it with revenue bonds instead & leave the taxpayers off the hook? But, then again, nobody ever accused The Star of digging too deep into municipal financing..."
ReplyDeleteBecause those in the know, know this is a money pit waiting to be filled with tax dollars. The plebs don't know the difference in a revenue bond or GO bond it's all tax money to them.