"PINCHING PENNIES"

That's the descriptive phrase used in this morning's headline referring to the financing of the operation of the convention center expansion - and the stadium.

If the matter were less serious, this approach might have the makings of a comedy skit.  An individual purchases a luxurious residence, then finds there is no money to heat it in the winter.  The bumbling idiot - or sly con man? - then concocts a plan selling the neighbors on paying the utility bills, basing the scam on the idea that the value of their properties will fall if they don't maintain his mansion properly.

First, of course, we would question the use of the term here simply on the fact of volume.  Surely the expenditure of a billion dollars on the two projects, particularly without provision of operating funds, rises above the connotation of "penny" pinching.

The shortage of such funds for the two buildings is not a case of poverty.  It is a case of stupidity, or at least a lack of "due diligence" - possibly at a criminal level.

The key to the whole problem may lie in a sentence in the very last paragraph of the (57 column inches) story.  It quotes the mayor's chief of staff as follows:  "From the beginning, it's been said that this was not about the Colts stadium, it was about expanding the convention center." 

He is perfectly correct.  That lie is, in fact, what has been said.

Aided and abetted by a media which accepted press releases as gospel, the whole project was actually dedicated to increasing revenues for the professional football franchise while hiding behind the screen of "needed convention space."

Then, in the four years since the agreements were signed, no visible efforts were made to provide operating funds for the stadium until construction was virtually complete.  Now, suddenly, with convention center expansion well under way, we are handed the same problem for that structure.  A pattern here?

We're reminded of the stories that abounded years ago about school corporations spending most of the proceeds of a bond issue on a gymnasium, then coming back to the taxpayer for funds to build the "needed classrooms" - the basis for the original sales pitch.

We won't argue some economic value for a well-run convention center.  But it is lunacy to continue to hand public funds to a board with the financial record of the Capital Improvement Board (CIB).

The CIB has failed completely to negotiate leases for publicly owned properties which have any semblance of reason or fairness to the taxpayers supporting them.  The CIB apparently is incapable of recognizing the simple fact that larger, more complex buildings will require increased operating costs.  And, while the CIB has talked at great length about the importance of convention business, it has miserably failed to anticipate the operation, and appropriate financing, of that function.

No, Mr. Editor.  A "penny pincher' is one who lives very carefully within prescribed limitations of income.  It is not one who has blown through every last penny made available - many on questionable items - and then whines about a lack of wherewithal.

 

 

Comments

[Vox Populi]

Why do we keep pouring money down the sink hole known as the CIB? The CIB has sold the city of Indianapolis and it's taxpayers down a river of debt. Both the Pacers and the Colts receive the lion's share of the revenue generated by the facilities while we receive the bills.
All the politicos downtown tout the economic impact of LOS, Conseco and the convention center but yet they keep up their shrill cry for more tax dollars to support those facilities. Does that make sense to anyone?

[John Howard]

They use the term because 'taxpayer-pincher' is both too accurate and a tongue twister they couldn't utter without laughing.

[Leslie Baker]

Good one, JH.

[Bygningsentreprise]

Very good article. Its so beautiful. Keep on posting.