Equal Rights in Fishers

Over the last several days, a lot of controversy has erupted over the Indiana General Assembly's adoption of what it called the "Religious Freedom Restoration Act".  Governor Pence has taken a lot of criticism for his support of this law, including from some Republican mayors like Mayor Ballard of Indianapolis, who feel that this law is bad for our image and bad for business.

Fishers Mayor Scott Fadness has today announced his own disapproval of this law, as reported here by Larry Lannan:  http://www.larryinfishers.com/fishers-speaks-on-rfra.html. I have told Mayor Fadness that while I disagree with him on some things, that I agree with him on others. This is one of the times we agree.  I have in the last few minutes emailed that message to the Mayor.

But perhaps we need to go beyond statements and proclamations and take a hard look at drafting an equal rights ordinance for Fishers.  To my surprise, apparently we do not have such a local law. Fishers is generally an open and accepting community, with residents of many faiths, and origins from all over the world. I believe that the time has come to enact that open, accepting attitude into local law.

I believe strongly in equality of the law for all people, regardless of race, religion, gender, national origin, disability, or sexual identity or orientation. We continue to strive to achieve that standard that Thomas Jefferson wrote more than 200 years ago, that "... we hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal...". A local ordinance recognizing that principle should be something to consider.

Fishers Debt Keeps Rising

I had said in an earlier post that pursuant to a Public Records Request I obtained last year, that Fishers' total debt was $252 million. Well, that seems to have changed.

Try to find this information on the Fishers website.  I don't think you can, it simply is not there. But there IS a public resource, called the Indiana Gateway, run by the Indiana Department of Local Government Finance, which has all sorts of interesting information.  The Indiana Gateway can be located here.

So, being curious, I looked up Fishers' total debt. As of today, March 11, 2015, it is an eye-popping $263,610,910.  This is up $11 million from when I asked just last fall.

And the amount of debt being paid by Tax Increment Financing (TIF) revenue is an equally-disturbing $101,540,060.

Keep in mind, the total of Fishers' annual budget this year is only $73 million.

Are you concerned about these numbers?  I am.

A Step in the Right Direction, Part 2

A couple of weeks ago, I wrote a post on this blog, which I called A Step in the Right Direction, which commented on a new development on Maple Street where a real estate office will be built, and without the TIF loans which characterized other downtown developments.  I noted I have been strongly critical of TIFs, for a number of reasons.

Since then I have had a some comments about how even this project involves what I have called "corporate welfare", that is taxpayer giveaways to do a particular development.  And they are correct, this project does do that. Some of those so-called incentives for this Maple Street project include:

• A sale price for the land of $25,000.  The Redevelopment Commission appears to have paid $175,000 for the property, then about $12,000 to demolish the existing structure built in 1940. The land has an appraised value of $95,500, so the new owner is getting it at a considerable discount. 
• Waiver of impact fees amounting to $58,000.00. 

The City was prepared to award TIF money, which it would borrow on its own credit, but that did not happen.  That was the point of my comment in the original post.  Again, this is a step in the right direction, but serious scrutiny needs to be given to other incentives.  At a minimum, the return to the taxpayer should be a net positive, not a negative. City Administration would doubtless argue (and have, publicly and privately) that the long-term benefits will be both tangible and intangible.  That is a conversation worth having.  

There are long-term liabilities to all the TIF and other taxpayer funding in the downtown redevelopment. Our total debt is skyrocketing.  The last total I was able to get, and then only by an official Public Records Act request, was over $250 million.  Per capita debt rose about 700% between 2007 and 2013, a period of time when our population also rose. Developments in TIF districts do not add to the tax base available to fund local government (including some impact on the schools) until the debt is paid off, even if a particular project did not get a TIF loan. Some of the TIF-funded projects, such as the Depot, Switch, and others, generate less in new tax revenue than is needed to make the debt service payments. 

And again, the Maple Street project does not do that. But there is nothing to prevent TIF funding from happening again unless citizens speak out, and make their voices heard at the ballot box.