The Capitol Improvement Board (CIB), which runs Victory Field, Conseco Fieldhouse, Indiana Convention Center and Lucas Oil Stadium faces a $20 million deficit because they woefully underestimated the costs of running the new stadium.
The mess was caused by former Mayor Bart Peterson, Gov. Mitch Daniels, Mayor Greg Ballard, both political parties in the legislature and City-County Council, CIB members past and present, Colts owner Jim Irsay and Pacers owners Mel and Herb Simon.
Now, taxpayers, including African Americans, must clean up their mess even though the Black community uses CIB facilities less than the white community, especially the new Lucas Oil Stadium.
Many have criticized Colts and Pacers players for not doing their share to help. But they do! City/county income taxes paid by the players, plus visiting NFL and NBA players, help pay down the mortgages on CIB facilities.
Another criticism is that everybody pays taxes to help the stadiums. Not true. If you don’t patronize restaurants, fast food, bars, or get a hotel room or rental car here, you’re not paying taxes for CIB facilities.
A complication is that the Pacers’ contract with the CIB gives them the right to renegotiate their deal this year. Pacers CEO Jim Morris said on “Afternoons with Amos” last week that the Pacers want to stop paying the expense of running Conseco Fieldhouse. Something they’ve done since day one of Market Square Arena.
I agree with Jim, but only if the Pacers surrender all Fieldhouse income from non-Pacer/Fever events.
Marion County’s admission tax must be extended to all major sports/entertainment venues in Indianapolis/Marion County. Including the Indianapolis Motor Speedway where the Town of Speedway should get a cut for their economic development initiatives.
In that same spirit, Hamilton County should be included in the admission tax. That would include Verizon Center and give Hamilton County a cut of the action.
Hotel/motel taxes shouldn’t be raised. There’s something obscene about hotel/motel taxes here being higher than tourist destinations like Orlando, Washington and Vegas.
I very reluctantly support a token increase in the food and beverage tax in Marion and some surrounding counties. The increase should be minimal, just a quarter percent (0.25 percent); no more.
Finally, I have sympathy for the financial woes of the Pacers. As owners, the Simons have been among the best and most community-minded in the country. They’ve done everything asked of them by this community and their league. Spokesman Les Morris says the Pacers suffer because they’re a “small market” team. But, six NBA cities (Utah, Milwaukee, San Antonio, Oklahoma City, Memphis and New Orleans) are smaller markets than Indianapolis.
But there is an area the Pacers are bleeding cash where the NBA must step in to help. Since the NBA/ABA merger in 1976, the Pacers have been forced to pay millions (over $4 million this year) to a group in St. Louis. These Missouri leeches must stop feeding off our team and our taxpayers. NBA Commissioner David Stern should end this extortion. By peaceful means or by a hard knuckle lawsuit if necessary.
What I’m Hearing in the Streets
What will Indy spend stimulus money on since it won’t be sewer projects? They’re out because Indy doesn’t qualify under federal funding formulas. Sewer projects accounted for a major chunk of the millions the Ballard Administration hoped they’d get for stimulus cash.
So, what are we getting, where will it be spent and when will Mayor Ballard say what the city’s applying for? Unfortunately, Mayor Ballard can’t count on stimulus money to fix the cash strapped parks since that’s forbidden by the stimulus law.
Yet, despite a busted, broke budget, Ballard suddenly says he wants to spend $7.5 million the city doesn’t have to fix swimming pools.
But pools in two Black-majority neighborhoods, Bethel Park on the southeast side and Wes Montgomery in Forest Manor; and Gustafson in a racially mixed neighborhood near 30th and Moller Road on the Westside will be closed this summer. Bethel and Wes Montgomery for two years.
The closings are ostensibly because of leaks as Bethel ranks first, Gustafson third and Wes Montgomery fourth in the amount of water they leak.
But Garfield Park’s pool loses almost as much water as Bethel. Yet that pool stays open, as do five leaky pools in majority-white neighborhoods.
I’d heard rumors of swimming pool closings two weeks ago, but the Ballard Brood wasn’t ready to give the community bad news. But after WTHR/Channel 13 got wind of the scheme, Ballard’s PR maven Robert Vane rushed to tell the Black community the bad news.
Closing pools because of leaking in Black neighborhoods while other leaky pools remain open in white neighborhoods sends a bad message from the Ballard Brood.
The latest in a string of bad messages from this administration to its African-American residents!
John Clark III is the new head of the Indianapolis Airport Authority. A veteran airport administrator with jobs in Detroit and Sacramento, Clark has run the Jacksonville Florida airport system for fourteen years. Not only will Clark be the first African-American airport director in Indianapolis, he will be the highest paid Black public official around, with expected salary and benefits exceeding $300,000.
Yet, controversy surrounds Clark. In Jacksonville, Clark’s been dogged by reports of lavish spending, a confrontational attitude towards other public officials and labor unions.
A detailed November 2008 article in Jacksonville’s alternative Folio Weekly portrayed Clark’s lavish spending, including junkets at first class hotels and airfare and some on the public’s dime. Including $17,000 spent on a retirement party for his executive assistant.
Interviewed on “Afternoons with Amos,” Folio Weekly reporter Susan Cooper Eastman talked about her story and Clark’s shortcomings, including his arrogant attitude towards local media.
Ron Littlepage, columnist for the Florida Times-Union daily newspaper, also slammed Clark’s my way or the highway attitude.
Yet, the Jacksonville Urban League gives Clark high positive marks including his leadership of the Urban League’s Board.
The last high profile Black official from Jacksonville, former Indiana University President Adam Herbert, had a less than stellar tenure in Indiana. The Republican dominated airport board is bringing Clark here and they should tell him that in Indianapolis we expect our highly paid public officials to be prudent with public dollars and be open and accessible to the media. Whether you’re Black or white.
See ‘ya next week!
