In last Sunday’s Indianapolis Star, columnist Matt Tully complained that the Democratic majority in the Indianapolis City-County Council needs to start cooperating with Mayor Greg Ballard and Republicans.
Tully’s upset that Democrats strongly oppose Ballard’s plan for funding another series of massive infrastructure improvements.
Tully repeated the Ballard mantra that Indianapolis needs to spend millions to fix up more of our crumbling sidewalks and roads.
I and a lot of Democrats agree with the mayor’s goal. The dispute, partly political and partly philosophical, is how to pay for them.
The Ballard administration’s position is that the city should be allowed to fund the repairs by borrowing hundreds of millions through state bonds that would be repayable over the next 30 years.
Democrats have serious concerns about borrowing money for repairs that won’t last the life of the repayment period.
Tully cites unnamed “experts” who say that sidewalks last 50 years, major roads last 20 years. The problem is that there are many neighborhoods where sidewalks and roads have been repaired during the past 30 years which are now falling apart. East 38th is a prime example.
I don’t have a problem so much with Tully’s opinions, it’s his behaving like a Fox News commentator blindly accepting the premise that in terms of bipartisanship, Democrats must always yield to Republican demands. That’s unrealistic.
Matt, I agree that we need to have more bipartisan cooperation on major issues in Indianapolis government. But you’re ignoring the basic fact that such cooperation is a two-way process. It’s not one party dictating non-negotiable demands to the other side in a “take it or leave it,” “my way or the highway” mentality.
In his column Tully cites examples where Democrats have cooperated with Republicans, using Delaware (where Democrats control state government) and Ohio (where they don’t).
But we’re not talking about a state, but a consolidated city. Tully’s column cites no examples of bipartisan city level cooperation.
Now Matt, before you think this column shills for Democrats, you’ve only been in Indy 12 years. This column is well into its 20th year. During that time I’ve written plenty of columns that have taken Democrats to task; sometimes very sharply.
Council Democrats have dramatically failed their duty by not publicly condemning the sins and ills of Ballard’s reign. Council Democrats have failed miserably in not framing the debate and coming forth with specifics on Indianapolis’ problems and how they’d solve them.
Part of the problem, though, are journalists like Matt Tully who won’t even give Democrats and progressives (and even conservatives who decry Mayor Ballard’s tax and spend policies) any coverage or acknowledgement.
Tully complains about Democrats (and many others) continued attacks on Ballard’s cricket thing, which is now $2 million over budget according to documents released at a council hearing last week. (Which Tully ignored).
Mayor Ballard’s cricket thing is an example of his majoring in minor things, while real issues go unresolved.
Indianapolis faces major decisions. We need more cops on the street. We need a solution on fixing infrastructure without more borrowing. Especially since Indy’s credit rating was lowered because of all the borrowing the Ballard administration has done already.
While Tully slams Democrats, he’s paid no attention to what’s happened on the other end of Washington Street in state government.
Our conservative Gov. Mike Pence has been in office 16 months with unassailable Republican legislative majorities. Yet, Gov. Pence has had few bipartisan successes, especially on proposals where he needed Democratic votes.
But something Tully ignores, is the tone Gov. Pence set with the minority party.
Not only has a Republican conservative governor communicated regularly with Democratic legislative leaders, he’s personally met with every legislator.
Also, Gov. Pence has regularly met with the members of Indiana’s Black Legislative Caucus.
That type of personal outreach from the state’s chief executive, not just his staff, helps both sides keep open dialogue and provides a basis for building bipartisan cooperation on key issues setting the stage for the political compromises necessary to run a government.
While assailing Democrats alleged lack of bipartisan cooperation, Tully ignores the numerous examples of Mayor Ballard’s imperial imperiousness and arrogance toward Democrats in general and the City-County Council majority in particular.
Unlike Gov. Pence, during his 76 months in office Mayor Ballard has shunned City-County Council members of both parties.
Except for Council President Maggie Lewis, Mayor Ballard has never met with any African-American Democratic councilor during his two terms.
Despite introducing key pieces of legislation affecting Indianapolis, Ballard has never sat down with Democratic legislators who represent the majority of Marion County’s legislative districts.
Matt, how does that blunt disrespect by a Republican mayor help bipartisanship?
Since Matt Tully regularly doesn’t read this newspaper, when you tell him about this column, direct him to this paragraph first.
Tell me Matt, can a mayor who blacklists one of Indiana’s oldest newspapers, who stiff arms a key voice for the largest minority group in this city and state, be someone who really wants bipartisan cooperation with his political opposition?
See ‘ya next week.
You can email comments to Amos Brown at acbrown@aol.com.
