A necessary look back

For those of you reading this website in the past, this entry will look familiar.  But we do think the message bears repeating.

Present media reporting continues to tell us of the financial woes of the Capital Improvement Board (CIB).  The latest tale of misery concerns the possibility that CIB employees may have to bear the brunt of years of irresponsible mis-management by having to take furloughs or layoffs.

10 years ago the CIB, this group of fiscal wizards, turned over Conseco Fieldhouse, a $183 million building, to the local basketball franchise, rent free and with team retention of all revenues, with the franchise responsible only for operational costs. 

About 4 years ago, these same folks arranged for the construction of a $750 million football field, paid the franchise $100 million to "force" it to use the new stadium, and, once again wearing Santa Claus suits, gave virtually all revenues from the building to that franchise.  (A franchise which, incidentally, now demonstrates its civic attitude by responding to the city's plea for financial help with a polite "drop dead.")

At about the time of the announcement that there had been no plan for higher operating costs for a larger, more complex stadium, the public was made aware that the CIB had, in fact, been operating in the red itself for the past 10 years.

Currently, a $3.5 million deficit is projected for next year's CIB budget.  And there apparently is serious consideration of the Board picking up annual Fieldhouse operating costs of $15 million because the basketball team loses money in its rent-free palace.

(An article in the current Indianapolis Business Journal (IBJ) is headlined, "Flush with cash, Simon revives hunt for acquisitions."  We're told that, as a result of smart money management, Simon has accumulated "...$6 billion in 'dry powder' it can use for acquisitions...."  The idea that people smart enough to amass that kind of fortune but run a basketball team at a loss for 20 years - the last 10 in a rent-free building - does seem to present an anomaly.)

But, let's get to the point.  Despite this terrible history of financial ineptitude, much of it carried out in secrecy, city leaders seek only to find additional sources of taxpayer dollars to be handed over to these wastrels.

And no one - NO ONE - in any position of authority is willing to say, "STOP!  It is time to to look back and see how we got here before scraping more hide off the taxpayer.  It is time for an independent audit.  It is way past time to find out where the money has gone."

We believe the taxpayers are entitled to answers.

We also believe a city having severe problems keeping its public parks available to its citizens, is morally wrong to tax those same people for the purpose of subsidizing millionaire-owned, private, for-profit entertainment businesses.

Comments

[Vox Populi]

Once again our esteemed city council have decided that the ICVA needs more dollars. The money is to come from the CIB renovation fund and will, if passed by the full council, increase their budget to about 9 million dollars. Never mind that the overhead in salaries for the ICVA is about 41% of their budget our esteemed council somehow believes the ICVA CEO's statement that their overhead is only 15% of their budget.
It would appear that our city government will always believe the biased statements from the leadership of entities like the ICVA and the CIB rather than perform the necessary due diligence required to prove the veracity of those statements.
Note to city leaders from a taxpayer's point of view; it would appear that regardless of the amount of dollars requested by these taxpayer funded entities that any plea for more dollars will be accepted as necessary and will be given to those said same entities.
We all know that the Pacers will get another 15 million dollars don't we now.

[Leslie Baker]

Perhaps a problem here is that you are too precise and articulate with what you write. The people to whom these questions are directed are so used to obfuscating that they have lost their ability to read and reply to good, solid English.