Wrong question

Reference is to yesterday morning’s editorial labeled "Move past this bump in the road."  The general subject matter is the financing of the $1.3 billion transit project being proposed and the legislation needed to put that part of the project to a vote of the people.

The last sentence of the editorial reads as follows: "Let residents decide whether to pay the cost of first class mass transit or continue to pay the cost of doing without."

What needs to be put to the vote of the people is a question of confidence as to putting that many additional taxpayer dollars in the hands of local politicians.  History suggests this a reasonable query.

For instance, we would remind citizens that, having levied and collected a variety of taxes for the specific purpose of constructing what ultimately became the RCA Dome, that build was razed after 24 years with nothing having been paid on the principal of the debt.

It is our recollection we were told that debt had been refinanced and rolled into the new debt for the football field replacing the Dome. We do not recall ever having seen any explanation as to where the revenues actually collected did wind up.  (Come to think of it, do we really know the principal of the new debt is being paid?)

"Surplus" TIF funds, which should be used to retire debt but are currently accumulating at the local bond bank, are being used to finance new projects which have no apparent connection to the original levy purpose.

And just to get really picky, when Congress voted "transportation" funds, might there be some doubt as to whether they intended to have the funds used to choke off traffic by turning streets into party areas? (Surely a zipline was not in the definition of "transportation!")

The question should not be whether the people have a vote on raising taxes.  (Actually, of course, asking the opinion of the taxpayer on any public project expenditure in this city is pretty much a foreign concept.)  The real question is how to make absolutely certain the local "leaders" of the community - political and business - use any such huge funds with common sense and logical priorities.

History should give us all pause on that one.

Comments

[Vox Populi]

You raise a valid concern, where did the money go if it didn't pay off the RCA Dome? Want do you want to bet that no one in this town knows how that money was spent or how much was spent.
In today's paper Andrea Neal has a good article about mass transportation. to summarize, it is never cost effective and it usually costs more to build than anticipated. Of course we won't pay that bill off either.

[Fred McCarthy]

No bet since we will never really know. But I'd sure guess that some of it eventually wound up 1) in political campaign accounts, or 2) in private bank accounts - freshly laundered.

[guy77money]

Yes more money for the Indy Go buses! As for light rail do we really need to spend a 1/2 billion for a system that only is needed 4 hours a day 5 out of 7 days a week? Rush hour is the only time that light rail would be beneficial. The rest of the week there is absolutely no problem getting around Indy. It wouldn't take that many cars off the road.

Now having a bus system that would have stops every 15 to 20 minutes make a whole lot of sense. Opps that would cater to the less wealthy in Indy, we certainly couldn't do that!

[sjudge]

Absolutely correct - the public, given a say in their own taxation, will do something terrible. An issue like this ought to be left in the wise hands of a legislature that gave us creationism in schools.

[Fred McCarthy]

sjudge - The transit project has been given an outrageous amount of push by those who will benefit. The people may still vote on the facts. But that's not the question here. The question is the precedent in this city for decades of ignoring common sense and logical priorities in public expenditures, with complete disregard of the citizens. If you can find a politician (legislator?) or business leader who can/will tell you what happened to 24 years worth of tax revenue supposedly legally dedicated to paying the debt of the RCA Dome, that might -just "might" - make an approval of a new $1.3 billion levy a little - "little" more palatable.