Mass Transit Dead For Now

WRTV's Norm Cox reports that legislative efforts by RINO Mayors Greg Ballard, James Brainard and Andy Cook to hike income taxes to finance a multi-billion dollar metropolitan transit system for the sole purpose of rewarding their pay-to-play contractor pals is dead for this session. The most they can salvage is a study committee. Ballard flew back into town to make a last ditch appeal for this horrible legislation to no avail after pitching an international cricketing event for the $6 million sports park he announced during his trip to India the city is constructing using ReBuild Indy funds intended only for infrastructure improvements.

The proponents claim they've studied the issue to death, but not a single one of them can explain why IndyGo has failed to meet its goal of providing efficient bus service in Indianapolis. On that point, kudos to State Sen. Mike Young, who this blogger has been highly critical of this session, for asking the obvious question none of the proponents want to answer:

"I think my question today to them is if they've studied this issue for 16 years and IndyGo is a bad system, why haven't they been able to improve it in 16 years?" asked Sen. Michael Young, R-Indianapolis. "And they still have leeway on the tax to raise it if they need to make a greater and better bus system. And they haven't been able to accomplish that."

The man is telling it like it is. Mayor Greg Ballard has done absolutely nothing to improve IndyGo during the five years he's been mayor. During that time, he's thrown tens of millions in new subsidies to the billionaire sports team owners and passed out hundreds of millions of dollars in taxpayers subsidies for private real estate developers who have showered him with campaign contributions, meals, gifts and other freebies for him and his family. Carmel Mayor James Brainard and Westfield Mayor Andy Cook have done nothing within their current taxing authorities to establish mass transit for their constituents. It's not a priority for any of them. Yet they think we should create an entirely new, unelected, unaccountable regional transportation authority to do what they refuse to do with their current taxing and spending authority because they have other priorities.

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