What are they thinking?

When we used to review local governmental budgets as a part of our job, we always wondered at the disconnect for so many people between spending and taxes, and the need for prioritization.

The feeling came back this morning when we read the column in the morning paper by one of its prize columnists.  In lamenting the financial position of IndyGo, our so-called public transportation system, and suggesting that tax increases are the proper solution, Ms. Smith winds up by saying, "When logic fails, it’s time for the ludicrous."

She goes on to suggest asking for individual contributions, money collections at the office and bake sales.  Ludicrous?  Absolutely.  Any more ludicrous than some of the alternative uses being made of public funds by the city?  We think not.

What we do not understand is the ability of the author to overlook what is actually happening locally.  We wonder whether there is a connection between the writings and the editorial position of the paper for which Ms. Smith works. We do understand that our fiscal senses have been dulled by the folks in Washington throwing around billions and trillions, to the extent that a few millions hardly seem worth mentioning.  But we will mention them.

With the complete support of the paper, the city currently is squandering something in the neighborhood of $10 to $15 million converting three blocks of a city street into a park or promenade or some other "ludicrous" idea - all for show for those attending an up-coming football game.  What would those dollars have done for IndyGo?

Has it occurred to anyone what an attraction benches on heated sidewalks and streets will have for the homeless in the winter?  After the football crowd has gone home of course.  What kind of program and/or facility for the homeless would $15 million accomplish?

With no objection from the paper, a gift of more than $30 million of municipal funds was handed to the local basketball team on the simple claim that it was losing money.  We haven’t seen a column speculating what that money might have meant to IndyGo.

Then, of course, we can get into the really big money - hundreds of millions.  The city is committed to a debt of over $1 billion to build the indoor football field in which the above mentioned game will be played.

Under the rules of semantics currently in use, that project is, of course, called an "investment."  It is an investment which will pay a handsome return to the team owners of the National Football League and some downtown businesses.

We wonder what an "investment" of a billion dollars in IndyGo might have meant to the guy who may or may not be able to get across town on a bus.  And we wonder why the columnist and her editorial bosses never seem to notice the disconnect between raising revenues and the absolutely outrageous lack of prioritization of the use of those revenues.

Let’s face it. The leadership of this city is primarily interested in providing transportation, and attractions, for people to come downtown and spend money.  (You know – attractions like Union Station for instance.)  And they will continue to throw public funds at any program which is projected as accomplishing that fact.

Is it too much to hope for a media with fewer endorsements and more questions?

Comments

[Larry Calloway]

"Is it too much to hope for a media with fewer endorsements and more questions?"

At this point, yes it is.

[Leslie Baker]

I found myself thinking something similar as I drove through the Lafayette Square area yesterday, which, in years past, I was closer to geographically than I am now. While I understand that there are improvements being made there and great hopes for it, I couldn't believe what a ghost town it was, including the strip center just southeast of 38th and Lafayette Road.

What is it that makes only the downtown area of Indianapolis the focus of all this money? Why do people care so damned much about how one set of tourists will see us for a couple of days? Are they going to hide other urban parts of the city, lest someone see the reality of blighted neighborhoods?

As you have pointed out more than once, most of the money from the Super Bowl is going to the NFL anyway. What about the average resident of Indianapolis? I fail to see how bringing in (theoretically) such large amounts of money is going to amount to anything very far outside the mile square.

[Mike Kole]

I'm pretty well convinced that Smith is on IndyGo's payroll. So many rah-rah transit articles is hard to miss. It's also hard to wonder at the lack of the reading of a balance sheet. She could do this just once and recognize that the taxpayers are by no means cheapskates, for 80% or so of IndyGo's operating budget comes from taxes, less than 20% from fares, any year you would like to choose.