Council Meets Tonight

The City-County Council will hold its first meeting of the year tonight.  Hold on to your wallets.

The agenda is posted here.

Two Mayoral vetoes will be taken up last : Prop 362, which would allow RebuildIndy funds to be used for Police and Fire recruit classes, and Prop 372, which are the Democrat drawn Council district maps.

Next to last is the Council funding ordinance proposed by the Republicans, which does not contain money for legal action on Council district maps - Prop 450.  Curiously, Prop 447, which was proposed by the Democrats and did contain the additional funds, is nowhere to be found.  It was listed on the public notice for the Admin & Finance meeting, but is not mentioned in the minutes as having been considered.  It also has been omitted from the list of pending proposals. 

No action is to be taken tonight on the eviscerated budgets of the County Offices.

An appeal of an MDC decision on a zoning matter in Washington Township is set for hearing by the full Council.  Unfortunately the City's webpages that list zoning petitions has been cleansed of matters prior to December, so I cannot tell you what issues are involved except to say it involves a request to allow a 90 unit apartment complex to be built on 6 acres at 8845 Township Line Road.

Two new taxes are being proposed this month - Prop 23 would increase the event admissions tax from 6 to 10%, making your visits to the IRT and other entertainment that much more expensive. Prop 24 would increase the car rental tax from 4 to 6%. [edited to add: a recent article by IndyStar reporter, Jon Murray, says that the car rental tax would to from 15 to 17%]  These revenues would go to the CIB, which had enough spare change to send a gratuitous $5 million to the Pacers just last month and will send another $5 million this month.  But, should they pass you can enjoy your family time at sporting events, concerts and plays even more, knowing you are all that stands between the Simons and a soup line.  They are being assigned to the Admin & Finance committee which next meets on January 15.  These taxes must be approved before the end of February, or the authority to raise the taxes vanishes.