It was the perfect opportunity for José Evans, my counselor from the northwest side and a second tier Democratic candidate for Mayor. With the Mayor's very unpopular announcement of a three year ballot for the Indiana Pacers costing taxpayers well over $30 million dollars, at the same time as library hours, bus routes and the park budget are being slashed, Evans had a chance to speak out against the Pacers deal and distinguish himself from insider Melina Kennedy, the leading Democratic mayoral candidate, As expected, Kennedy remained silent about the deal, ceding the ground to Evans to take verbal command. Instead Evans seems to have chosen to pass up the opportunity.
The rhetoric on José Evans campaign website seems tailor made to a candidate willing to take a very popular stand for taxpayers against the downtown elite.
Here in Indianapolis, politicians are too pre-occupied with giving sweetheart deals and tax breaks to wealthy downtown businesses even as our neighborhoods are declining and our people are out of work....If you are looking for politics as usual, José is not your candidate. But, if you are looking for a new approach to leadership - one that focuses as much on revitalizing our neighborhoods and creating jobs as we do about revitalizing downtown - we hope you will join the campaign to bring real change to city hall.
Probably 80% of the public would agree with Evans that City leaders are too preoccupied with passing out sweetheart deals and tax breaks to the wealthy of Indianapolis at the expense of working men and women. But you can't score points if you stay on the bench when the game is being played.
P.S. I read that Marion County Democratic Chairman Ed Treacy sent out a press release in which he criticizes the Mayor because the multi-million tax dollar giveaway is only for three years. In it he apparently suggests Ballard just delayed dealing with the "problem." What problem? The Pacers couldn't have moved anyway under the 1999 contract anyway. It's bad when both Republicans and Democrats are fighting to hand out corporate welfare, even though the public overwhelming is against it. Anyway, if anyone has the Treacy press release, please send it my way: pogden297@comcast.net
4 comments:
The mayor was making the rounds on TV this morning. On WISH he stated that the city would lose $5 million in tax revenue if the Pacers left.
What are they being taxed on?
Maybe that was supposed to be a reference to state income taxes on player salaries? Are they salvaging STATE taxes by spending CITY tax dollars? That's just lovely.
If these folks were smart, they'd be trying to kill the story. It's not gooing to be good politically any way you spend it. The Ballard people are just too tone deaf to understand that.
Yes, Ed Treacy is also no friend to the taxpayers. Check out his ventures.
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