Wednesday, October 29, 2014

Indianapolis Public Library Gets Approval For Its Latest Tax, Borrow And Spend Plan


Previously, we told you about how the Jackie Nytes-run Indianapolis Public Library had crafted a $59 million capital spending plan to build new library branches all over the county without subjecting the borrowing plan to the referendum process Indiana lawmakers led you to believe you would have available to help protect your property tax bills from increasing unnecessarily when it passed property tax reform legislation in 2008. Ms. Nytes, who was CFO of the library back in the 1990s when your library tax levy skyrocketed because of the Taj Mahal addition to the Central Library, which has turned into a popular hang out for street bums to sleep off their hangovers and a make-shift home/loitering hall for downtown's growing homeless population, assured members of the Municipal Corporations Committee that the massive borrowing and spending plan can be done without raising taxes again.

What her high-paid consultant from Umbaugh & Associates showed us with her fancy chart is that property tax levies that would otherwise decline substantially because of the retirement of old debt will instead remain at least as high as they currently are to pay for the new debt that is replacing the old debt. A little more than $70 million in old debt will be replaced by a similar amount that you will be taxed to pay off for decades to come. The levy rate may remain steady, but that doesn't mean your taxes won't increase unless you're banking on your property values remaining the same and not subject to future assessment increases by your friendly assessor. For the average council member with an IQ of 75, it sounded good enough as they passed her massive debt plan unanimously. By the way, these people from Umbaugh & Associates are the same financial experts who've been providing advice to the City of Carmel for years. Remember how Mayor James Brainard continuously assured the public his financial experts had assured him his beloved Redevelopment Commission was sustainable with existing property tax revenues right up to the point he had to ask the city council to bail it out?

Watch the video above as their slick, high-paid bond lawyer dances around the referendum-avoidance issue while laughing in your faces. He even told the council members the bond fees would be the same whether a single $59 million bond issue is underwritten or it's broken up into multiple bond issues. When he spoke of fees, he was only speaking of the finance fees; he wasn't speaking of the fees his law firm gets to charge anew with each successive bond issue. If you believe a lawyer's fee for a single bond is the same as the fee for serial bond issues, I've got a bridge in Brooklyn to sell you. There was nobody who spoke up at the meeting tonight on behalf of taxpayers; only the usual suspects who get paid to testify bothered to show up. It just reminds me again of how there really is no hope for representative government in this country anymore. Only the voices of the people feeding at the public trough get heard. The rest of us can just go to hell.

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

About paid witnesses--Russ Brown.

"My law firm does legal work for the library, but I'm here as a former township trustee and father."

What a crock. What a tool.

Anonymous said...

Who are the mummy dummies pictured in the video? They look like they are high on drugs or drunk ... or both.

Anonymous said...

Perhaps Mr. Welsh would feel better about our library if he actually used its vast resources.

Gary R. Welsh said...

I've tried using the Central Library in the past. There are very few people who go there to use it for its intended purpose. People's behavior is not policed, making it unpleasant for those who are serious about it. It's become nothing more than a very costly Internet cafe where people play on the computer (not for research purposes, mind you) and carouse. The last time I was in there an entire section was packed with loud talking people who were all drunk or high.

Anonymous said...

It seems that the people actually using the "vast resources" of the Central Library are the homeless and mentally ill. All that taxpayer money for a Taj Mahal for the lower societal element to toilet themselves and find shelter or shake off a high.

Everything Gary penned in this news post is absolutely correct, Anon 1:38. Everything.

I long ago gave up the Main Library as a safe place for me to conduct research, check out materials, or to even have a cup of joe. I have a feeling I am not alone in this regard.

Anonymous said...

I use it frequently, and have to strongly disagree. It is a wonderful library, and I enjoy being there. Yes, there are sometimes unpleasant people there, but you'll find that with any public building. In my observation, they do a very good job. I'd say you should give it another look, but we tend to see only what we are looking for.

Having a world class library system is an asset to our city. I'm sorry you don't support it, but there are countless others who love and value it.

Anonymous said...

Remember the mentally unstable homeless guy they originally arrested for the Cosmopolitan fire? He spent the morning following the fire at the Central Library where he bragged to his friends that he set the fire. Wonder what kind of research he was doing at the library.

Anonymous said...

Sounds like the library is better for being minus a couple of judgmental, crotchety bastards. Seems like a win to me.

Anonymous said...

I see the liberal trolls are out again doing what they do best: selectively focusing on a segment of the truth to confuse the actuality of the larger picture.

The MAIN point of this post – which is true- is that the IMCPL led by entrenched Democrat insider Jackie Nytes is intentionally preventing a mandatory referendum process for their plans to build new libraries all over Marion County. Twelve years of insider City County Council experience no doubt assisted in crafting a scheme to push through a spending plan that deliberately avoids taxpayer input at the polls. But this is what liberal Democrat hacks and their consultants who are hired and paid to produce supportive results do… they are the masterminds who know better than we the unwashed and, by God, what the masterminds want the masterminds shall have. Anyone who knows the history of Nytes’ previous tenure connected with the IMCPL knows Nytes was a keystone of past large library tax levy increases. And here we go again.

A SIDE ISSUE presented in this blog news item- which is also true- and commented on by readers who were mocked by the trolls- is that the Main Library is used for purposes other than intended by the taxpayer funds who built the grand structure. It is a fact that unsavory characters loiter the E. St. Clair Street library entry area; they use the building more for its restrooms and its shelter rather than for its educational and personal enrichment offerings. When did the purpose of the Main Library become more of a mission for the impoverished and homeless than a safe and welcoming place for serious subscribers?

While Greg Ballard and his handlers at the law firms excel at giving away City assets to the pay to play group, local Democrats excel at increasing taxes and tax levies that the already financially stretched taxpayers are forced to support. Perhaps this is just one reason the producers fled Marion County for the suburbs over past decades.

Anonymous said...

What these uninformed council members fail to understand is that by allowing Nytes to keep that library levy way high she is crowding out funding other services provided by the city and other units of government by pushing more property against the property tax caps. I really wish we could find some intelligent people to serve on the council. It is very frustrating watching the council in action. Both parties must intentionally seek the lowest common denominator in choosing council members to make sure they are easier to control

Anonymous said...

Yet another reason to move out of Marion County.

Anonymous said...

Anon 9:16 and 11:42 nail it perfectly. Over the decades, politicians of both parties and their handlers created a Marion County that is increasingly populated more of the aged, the infirm, and the low socio-economic....the usual outcome of liberal/RINO politics and policies.

The vigor, the growth, and the young who will eventually run the world are in the contiguous counties and beyond... where education and entrepreneurial opportunities have yet to be completely killed off by lib Democrat/RINO Republican regulations.

If I could move to the areas outlying the suburban counties, I'd do it in a quick minute.