Star Columnist Disingenously Avoids the Facts While Praising the "Sensible Borrowing Plan" to Fund the Extension of Rebuildindy Program

Matt Tully

A couple days ago, I wrote an article about Indianapolis Star columnist Matt Tully conveniently leaving out critical facts when writing in favor of the Browning-Whole Foods Development in Broad Ripple Village.

Two days later, Matt Tully pens yet another disingenuous column, this time praising Mayor Ballard while calling the Democrats a "the party with no ideas, no alternatives and no leadership."  As a Republican, I would love nothing more than to bash the Democrats.  But unlike Tully, I believe the opportunity to pen a column also comes with a certain responsibility to tell the truth.

I'm sure as I write this Gary Welsh of Advance Indiana is hard at work ripping apart ever last absurd sentence of  Tully's column.  What I will do instead is focus on one of the more absurd sections of Tully's column:

Meanwhile, Democrats recently rejected Ballard’s proposal to spend millions of dollars on infrastructure repairs through a sensible borrowing plan. We are talking basic, neighborhood-building street and sidewalk improvements. It’s not very smart to stand in the way of investments in the most basic of city services. Investments, by the way, that would benefit many of the districts Democrats represent.

"Sensible borrowing plan?"   Are you kidding me?  During a three year period in which the Department of Public Works would already be spending $200 million o on infrastructure improvements, Mayor Ballard has proposed adding another $150 million. That $150 million, to be spent over three years, would be derived from floating 30 year bonds. Many of the proposed infrastructure improvements, things like paving roads, are unlikely to last anywhere close to 30 years.  That $150 million will cost taxpayers more than  $142,553,741 in interest and fees, The annual debt service would be approximately $9,651,792.  The Ballard administration touted a new revenue source to pay for the debt service, increased annual gas tax revenue the state has decided to kick back to the counties.  But that revenue source is by no means certain to continue into the future.  Also, the actual revenue source is far below what is necessary to pay the debt service.  Although billed at $7.8 million, it turns out that the revenue source is actually about $3.5 million.   That is, if it continues into the future.

Matt Tully could have presented these facts to the readers and then argued that it was a "sensible borrowing plan."  But he knew darn well people would disagree with him if readers knew those facts. After all, the Ballard administration is simply proposing that we mortgage the future for some cash to spend today.  Why can't Tully simply be honest with his readers for once?

See also:

Wednesday, September 18, 2013, Had Enough Indy Blog, Gas Tax "Windfall" - Not What the Mayor Makes it Out to Be 

Tuesday, September 03, 2013, Advance Indiana, Mayor Ballard: Everyone Knows It's In The Best Interest To Borrow Against Money We May Not Receive

Monday, September 2, 2013, Ogden on Politics Blog, Ballard Administration's Attempt to Mortgage Indianapolis' Future is Rebuffed by Council Democrats  

Friday, August 30, 2013, Had Enough Indy, There's Exaggerating - Then There's Outright Lying