Mayor Greg Ballard's attempt to raise property taxes $8 million a year by eliminating the homestead property tax credit in favor of more spending on sports facilities and public subsidies for the private development projects of his pay-to-play pals was rejected by the City-County Council tonight on a 11-18 vote. Despite all the arm-twisting of Republican councilors to stick with the tax-and-spend Republican mayor, not all were persuaded, including Councilors Bob Lutz, Aaron Freeman and Christine Scales, who voted with the Democratic-controlled council in rejecting Ballard's tax increase. It's good to see that there are actually Republicans left on the council who haven't broken their campaign pledges regarding property tax increases. That's more than can be said for Ballard and most of the Republican council members. Former City-County Councilor Jackie Nytes also has some explaining to do. The Indianapolis Public Library CEO was at tonight's council meeting lobbying in support of the elimination of the homestead property tax credit, which is paid for out of local income tax revenues. While the city gains from the elimination of the credit, its elimination actually cuts by several million dollars property tax revenues collected by schools and other local units of government, including the library. The library stood to lose at least a half million dollars annually if the measure passed. Councilor Monroe Gray admonished Nytes, a Democrat, for once again meddling in Republican politics.
UPDATE: Mayor Greg Ballard's office released the following statement in response to tonight's vote:
City-County Council leaders tonight failed to back up their rhetoric about providing more funding to our police and fire departments. I introduced this proposal a year ago. An independent, bi-partisan study commission recommended this step which would have cost only a percentage of homeowners less than a dollar per month and generated more than eight million dollars to support public safety in our city.
Umm, Greg, aren't you the one who has failed to back up your rhetoric of making public safety job one? You made your choices. Handouts to professional sports teams and your pay-to-play pals in exchange for campaign contributions and overseas junkets have been your priorities as mayor. If you want more money for public safety, stop diverting our tax revenues for purposes other than what they were intended to be used when they were levied and collected.
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