Fox 59's Heather MacWilliams Carries Decatur's Story

Heather MacWilliams, Fox 59 reporter, did an excellent job reporting on the impacts of the Airport's un-American attempt to shut down a legal private business on private property.  She interviewed four of us yesterday; Bob Cockrum, Chip Pierson, Eldon Rasmussen, and me.  Click the hyperlink above to view the broadcast version and full text.

The Decatur Township Civic Council has taken a position in opposition to the Airport's lawsuit that seeks to overturn the MDC approval of the Fast Park project.  Three representatives of the Civic Council, Chip Pierson, Paul Fox, and I, attended Friday's Airport Board meeting to convey exactly why we took that position.  I was given 5 minutes to make our case.  MacWilliams was in attendence and followed up to hear more from our group.

Decatur has suffered from being a neighbor of the Airport all these years.  And, as Bob Cockrum put it, "Enough is enough".

All Americans should be concerned with the Airport's attempt to kill a legal business that customarily locates next to airports simply because it might cut into their profits and simply because they have deep pockets with which to accomplish a long drawn out and expensive legal battle.  Their role is to provide aviation infrastructure, period.  And it is abhorrently un-American, anti-capitalistic, and anti-economic development, for government to say what legal, upstanding business can and cannot be built on legally zoned private property.

As MacWilliams' reported:

Decatur Township residents are fighting a lawsuit the Indianapolis International Airport has filed to block a privately owned parking lot at Ameriplex just south of Interstate 70.

"All we want to do is to be able to park some cars out here while people go to the airport," said Bob Cockrum, Decatur Township resident.Sounds simple enough but the Indianapolis Airport Authority wants it stopped.

"We're just trying to do what we think is in the best interest for the airport and the community," said Michael Wells, IAA President.

Well said filling in that spot would be in direct competition of the airport. But residents said without it, they have nothing.

"We don't have a place to buy a new book, a new pair of shoes or shirt in our entire township," said Pat Anderson, Decatur Township Land Use Chairperson.

By attracting those businesses, Anderson said it will bring in approximately $500,000 in property taxes they so desperately need.

"For us it's dollars and cents. It's our tax base. It's our future. It's trying to get those basics for our people," she said.

People like Eldon Rasmussen who has lived next to the vacant land since 1969.

"We'd appreciate getting some finer establishments in," he said.

However, he said, since anything put there could be considered direct competition for the airport, where does it end?

"Are they going to oppose us to put in a filling station because they are going to put in a filling station on airport property," Cockrum asked. "Enough is enough."

Decatur Township Parks Chairman Chip Pierson believes it all comes down to money.

"That's what it boils down to is their greed and they want to shut out competition," Pierson said.

The matter is going before a Marion County Judge. A hearing date has not yet been scheduled, but the residents are ready.

"We're not backing off. The airport has crossed a major line and they've just gone too far for us," said Anderson

If you haven't done so already, would you please visit MacWilliams' report and 'recommend' it and 'share' it on social media. We need to get our story out to as wide an audience as we can. Thank you in advance.

Comlux Hasn't Paid Property Taxes In 2011 Yet - Oopsie !

Now, if you or I didn't pay our property taxes, we'd be sweating each time the phone rang.  Hell, they got Capone on taxes.

But, if you are are a business in Indy and can make the right connections, the city will toss you a $6.5 million loan with the possibility that half a million of it will be forgiven if you manage to meet certain job creation targets. 

That's what happened with Comlux America, LLC, who will use the loan to help build itself a new, bigger, hangar on airport property.  The Airport also has a deal to acquire the hangar once it is built and lease it back to Comlux.  It apparently meant little that Comlux America, LLC, had not filed its required Form 103/104 to report its Business Personal Property (due by May 15, 2010) until after the May, 2011, property taxes were usually due.  Because of the late filing, the property taxes on the personal property are now due in November.  Presumably with a penalty added on.  Hopefully with a penalty added on.  As of today, the taxes remain unpaid.

As with all businesses that locate on airport property, they get a pass on real estate property taxes.  So, one might think that the City would at least require such a company getting a loan secured with TIF district proceeds to be current in the taxes it does owe.  Guess there really aren't any sort of minimal standards and there seems to be little due diligence on the part of the Ballard administration when it comes to handing out our money.  I am given to understand that at least some people knew of the unpaid taxes during the process to approve the deal.

The MDC voted in favor of the deal on December 5, 2010 (There are 9 voting members, but I do not have the exact vote).

The Economic Development Commission voted in favor of the deal on June 8, 2011 (There are 5 voting members, but I do not have the exact vote).

On July 13, the Economic Development Committee of the Council voted 5-0 in favor of the deal.  I even showed up to voice opposition to the use of TIF funds, but it never crossed my mind that they were behind in filing their business personal tax form, much less late in paying the taxes that would be due had the form been timely filed.

On July 15, the Indianapolis International Airport Board voted 6-0 to delegate authority to the Executive Director to approve the deal.

On July 18, the City-County Council voted in favor of this proposal (Prop 190, 2011) by a vote of 25 yes, 2 no (Councillors Ed Coleman and Brian Mahern), and 2 not voting (Councillors Doris Minton McNeil and Joanne Sanders).  While the minutes of this meeting suggest a somewhat extended discussion of the Proposal, nobody stopped to ask if the company was current with its tax filings.

That's a lot of people to get through.  Maybe it should become a standard question in the future, so that the overarching interests of the public are served.

Budget - Airport Public Notice

On Tuesday the Indianapolis Airport published a public notice regarding its proposed 2012 budget.

The have two funds with a total budget estimated at $269,648,000.  The notice indicates that the airport will not raise property taxes for any of that budget. 

Please see my blog entry "Airport to Receive Property Taxes - Make No Mistake About It" for more information on the topic of how the airport plans to, in fact, receive property taxes by retaining property that should be sold, simply by calling it a 'lease payment'.

Is Indy Airport Playing Politics For Ballard?

I've said it before and I'll say it again - nothing happens at the Indianapolis International Airport that is not pre-approved by the Mayor.

I suspect his fingerprints are on the latest news from the Airport. At least his campaign's fingerprints are under suspicion.

In today's Indy Star there is a notice of a public hearing on an Airport ordinance that would rescind an older ordinance allowing collective bargaining by Airport employees. In part the notice says:

General Ordinance No. 1-2011, if adopted, shall repeal General Ordinance No. 9-2008 which established a system to permit representation of certain employees by unions (employee organizations) for purposes of limited collective bargaining for employees of the Indianapolis Airport Authority.

The meeting of the Airport Authority Board will be at 8 am, April 15, in the main conference room of the Radisson Hotel, 2500 South High School Road - not in the Board room at the airport.

The Airport Board was going to vote on this proposal to nip union hopes in the bud (aka 'union busting') back at its March 11 meeting (see my blog entry "Union Busting Reaches Fever Pitch in Indiana"). Then, all of a sudden, the proposed vote was taken off the table "indefinitely" (see my blog entry on March 9 "Indy Airport Sidesteps Union Issue - For Now") "Indefinitely" sure had a short tenure.

At the same time as the vote was 'indefinitely postponed', Mayor Greg Ballard's campaign was making much hay of its endorsement by 4 AFSCME locals representing City workers. In fact, the campaign made the announcement on March 8 and the Airport's 'indefinite' postponement hit the newspaper on March 9. Coordinated ? Quack, quack, quack.

Now that the campaign no longer needs undivided attention to its supposed support for and by Union brothers and sisters, the Airport is released to return to its union bashing ways.

Perhaps the 4 AFSCME locals would contemplate rescinding their endorsements on principal.

Indy Airport Sidesteps Union Issue - For Now

A very small blurb in today's IndyStar notes that the Indianapolis Airport Board's public hearing on collective bargaining, originally set for Friday, is indefinitely postponed.

Union Busting Reaches Fever Pitch In Indiana

Union busting is all the rage these days, and the backlash is just about to be ramped up in earnest.

At the Indianapolis International Airport, CEO John Clark has announced his intention of revoking collective bargaining rights for airport employees. Make serious note here, that nothing happens at the airport without the full consent of Mayor Ballard, who appoints 6 of the 8 board members. IndyStar reporter Bruce Smith, reported on Thursday (Feb 17, 2011):

Jeff Withered, business agent for Operating Engineers Local 399, was blunt in saying negotiations ended abruptly after Clark became involved. He said that smacks of a betrayal of promises by Clark and the Indianapolis Airport Authority board to allow collective bargaining.

"John Clark stopped it and told us to go away for two years," Withered said.

Clark will ask the airport board Friday to begin steps to repeal the ordinance passed in December 2008 that granted collective bargaining rights for airport employees.

The board is expected to hold a hearing March 11 on an ordinance to repeal those collective bargaining rights.

At least three employee groups have shown interest in forming unions.

Airport Board meeting agendas can be obtained by visiting the Board's webpage and clicking on the calendar for board meetings in the upper right hand corner of the page. As of right now, no Board meeting has been added to the calendar for March 11, so keep checking.

Meanwhile the Republican-controlled State Legislature is pushing forward on a large number of bills, all of which hack at one key component after another, of workers rights to collective bargaining or union operations. They want to make collective bargaining illegal for all state workers. They want to prohibit union/government negotiated project labor agreements. They want to increase the size of a project wherein a common wage would have to be determined. They want to limit what can be part of the negotiated package for union contracts in educational institutions.

The idea that a group of American individuals should be legally prohibited from associating with one another and joining together to improve their work environment and pay, is in direct contradiction with the inalienable rights enunciated in our Declaration of Independence.

The real aim of all of these legislative efforts is not to make Indiana more competitive in attracting business. It is to bust the unions, and allow employers to do whatever they want in work conditions and wages. It is also, to reduce the ability of unions to lobby for better laws and to contribute money and manpower to Democratic candidates.

For much of this week, the Central Indiana Labor Council plans rallies at the Statehouse. The schedule is:
Monday, February 21 -- 9 am
Tuesday, February 22 -- 10 am
Wednesday, February 23 -- 10 am
Thursday, February 24 -- 10 am

The Central Indiana Jobs With Justice is focusing on the hearings on HR1468, the so-called 'right to work' bill. That hearing begins at 9 am, Monday, February 21, in room 156A in the basement of the Statehouse. If you cannot be there, even though Monday is a holiday (thanks to unions, by the way), you can watch live video feed from the Statehouse through the Legislature website, by clicking on the 'Watch Indiana General Assembly Live' button in the right hand corner of the home page.

Unions may represent a small fraction of workers in our State. But there can be no mistaking the positive influence of those contracts on the rest of us.

Airport To Recieve Property Taxes - Make No Mistake About Their New Plan

The Indianapolis International Airport Board has okayed the long term land use plan developed over the past year. (see Chris O'Malley's,IBJ reporter, take on the deal "Airport could land $63 million annually from land development")

Nothing happens at the Airport that is not okayed by Mayor Ballard. The Mayor gets to appoint 6 of the 8 members.

This plan depends upon the Airport holding on to vast tracks of land that it no longer needs for its own operations. That would include the old terminal and adjacent parking and car rental facilities. Much of the land in question is situated in Wayne Township, but some is inside Decatur as well.

O'Malley reports:

The potential of generating up to $63 million for the airport annually is based on land-rent income only, Berta Fernandez, executive vice president of Landrum & Brown, told the board.

But it’s likely the airport, in conjunction with other governmental entities affected by the airport, will have to offer incentives to lure businesses. Competition is already robust among other communities and other states waving around tax abatements and other lures.

It always amazes me that Republicans claim to be so committed to the free market, yet continuously set up these types of unfair competition situations that taxpayers ultimately are funding.

If the land were returned to the tax rolls, property taxes would be paid on the land as well as any improvements built on the land. In this scenario, the companies would pay taxes only on their improvements and lease the land from the airport. The whole thing hinges on the lease payment for the land being less than the property taxes that would have to be paid if the Airport sold off the land to private developers.

In effect money that could have gone into property taxes would flow instead to the Airport. The remainder would constitute a permanent property tax abatement.

This most assuredly affects Wayne and Decatur Township, whose property tax levies unfairly tilt toward homeowners, as the Airport controls so much land. Half of all property taxes go to the schools in each township.

Other consequences, though, include the unfair competition that comes about when one company sits on Airport property, and its competitor does not. This is exemplified by gas stations that now sit across the street from each other in Wayne Township. The subsidy envisioned to 'lure' businesses to Airport property will also unfairly compete with the full development of Ameriplex.

While the burden of an airport for central Indiana falls on Wayne and Decatur Townships, that burden should be no more than is absolutely necessary. The abject failure of the Ballard Administration and the Airport Authority to return unneeded property back to the tax rolls places just such an unnecessary burden on Wayne and Decatur taxpayers. But, make no mistake about it, City coffers, Library coffers, IndyGo coffers will also be lightened by this misguided plan to divert new money to the Airport. The City-County government takes in roughly a third of all property tax revenues. If the deal means $63 million a year to the Airport, it would mean at least a loss of $20 million a year that could have gone to our City and County government. And not a single new tax would have to be levied nor rate increased. All it would take is for the Airport to do exactly what it should to - return the unneeded land to private develoment and commerce.