On Monday night the full City-County Council took up the issue of whether or not the North of South (aka City Way) boondoggle warranted a Certified Technology Park status (see "Taxpayer Fleecing for NO-SO (aka City Way) Continues"). Six Councillors stood up for the taxpayers of Indiana and Indianapolis and voted 'no'.
The six were Democrats Adamson, Brown, Gray, Hickman, Mahern, and Oliver.
All remaining Councillors, with the exception of Hunter and Mansfield, who were not present, voted in favor of declaring shops, hotels, and a few apartments, with their attendant minimum wage jobs, the very high tech jobs we need to be attracting to our City.
To view the discussion, click here and then scroll down to Prop 66 under "all items".
Councillor Brian Mahern began with a statement, in which he clearly outlined the lack of an actual high tech component. He also mentioned the $98 million financing for the City's loan to the developer was with Federal 'Disaster Relief Bonds', which just might have been put to good use in Southern Indiana about now. Excellent point.
Councillor Zach Adamson, who voted against the boondoggle in Committee, also made a statement - saying outright that "Designating
City Way a CTP is dishonest and would further add to justify the distrust the
public has in its elected officials". Exactly.
So, from one taxpayer, thank you to all six Councillors.
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Mark Small posted a blog post
3 hours ago
2 comments:
I caught most of the discussion of this issue on WCTY. What really bothered me was how Deron Kitner was representing to the council that an agreement was reached with Rolls Royce concerning this tech park designation when it announced the earlier deal, even though I don't recall any mention of it back then. Councilors were led to believe that the city would be reneging on its deal with Rolls Royce unless the tech park was approved that included City Way. If it was such a critical component, why wasn't it previously disclosed when the Rolls Royce announcement was made? What Kitner was telling the councilors was totally disingenuous, if not downright untruthful. Yet nobody challenged him on that point.
I agree. That was a bunch of hooey. Rolls Royce is a part of the CTP in name only - no state or local tax revenue will come from it and no procedes will be spent on it.
No-So (City Way) is to be another party place like Broadripple - plus have a toney hotel. That's it. Minimum wage service jobs.
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