Indianapolis Mayor Ballard Chooses Cricket Over More Cops

The Choice is Cricket!

Indianapolis Mayor Greg Ballard took $6 million out of the RebuildIndy fund to build a cricket field out on the east side of Indianapolis.  But when a coalition of Democrats and Republicans passed a measure  to use $6 million of the Rebuild Indy money for a police recruitment class, which we haven't had in years, it was met with a veto.  Is cricket more important than cops in a city which is seeing a major upswing in violent crime?  Apparently for this administration the answer is a resounding "yes."

The Indianapolis Star reports:

Indianapolis Mayor Greg Ballard today vetoed a proposal that would have tapped $6 million from the city’s RebuildIndy public works projects fund for spending on police recruits.The expected move marks the second time the Republican mayor has vetoed a City-County Council proposal allowing spending from the RebuildIndy program for public safety recruit classes. Ballard has been protective of the fund, which the city started during his first term using $425 million in utilities sale proceeds.

Okay, the last sentence is false as the Mayor's plan to spend $6 million from the fund on the cricket facility.  The article continues:

Democrats rebuked the mayor’s veto, repeating their criticism of a RebuildIndy project that will add a $6 million world sports venue to the Far-Eastside.“As Indianapolis continues to get raped and robbed and murdered,” Majority Leader Vernon Brown said, “the mayor is spending money on cricket.”

...

 The council’s proposal would have set aside enough money, potentially, to pay for 60 recruits for one year.

"This veto comes as Indianapolis is in the middle of an escalating wave of violent crime,” council President Maggie Lewis said in a statement issued in response to the veto. “To date, we have seen little action from the mayor as he instead spends his time on misplaced priorities including a cricket stadium and international travel.”

She says Ballard’s plan to deal with police staffing shortages “comes a long six years after his pledge to make public safety a priority.”

When a Republican is, rightly, being accused of reckless spending by liberal Democrats such as Vernon Brown and Maggie Lewis, you know it is a Republican who has no understanding of what it means to be a fiscal conservative.