Muni Corps Committee Trims Airport Budget

As I mentioned in my last blog entry, this phase of the budget season is usually dry and boring.  What with split government this year, we are seeing an attempt by the Democrats to change Mayor Ballard's introduced budget in significant ways.  But, still I was expecting the Muni Corps committee meeting to be dry and perfunctory.  Figuring I'd save myself a needless trip and parking fee, I emailed Chairman Monroe Gray and asked if there were going to be any amendments introduced.  Yes, he thought Councillor Lutz would be putting forth something.

Councillor Bob Lutz is a Republican, so what's up?  Could he be fiddling with the Airport's budget?  The airport got an earful from the public and a polite note of disagreement from the Councillors when they presented their budget in committee last week.  A key spark was the fact that the Airport Board had just decided to begin an appeal of Judge Keele's ruling against them in their lawsuit that tried to stop a Fast Park facility from being built in Ameriplex.

Well, they got more than that this time.

Lutz offered an amendment to cut their budget by $100,000; the cost of the appeal.  In a $161 million budget, they won't be left wounded or anything.   Through this cut, the Council would be sending a message that the continuation of this lawsuit is frowned upon.

Lutz and Councillor Jason Holliday share the airport in their districts.  Lutz on the Wayne side and Holliday on the Decatur.

Between them they laid out some of the history of the airport/Ameriplex/Fast Park story that I had not heard discussed in public before.  And it is telling.  Both the developer and Ameriplex approached the airport as soon as they thought there might be a good match in locating a Fast Park facility within the industrial park.  They wouldn't go any further if the airport had a problem with it.  The airport didn't have a problem.  The Mayor's office didn't have a problem.

Fast forward to  when plans were coming to fruition.  Indy Park Ride & Fly - an off airport parking facility that moved out of Marion County and into Plainfield when the new terminal opened - had hired an attorney who went door to door in the abutting neighborhood.  That attorney is now representing the airport in its lawsuit.

Lets face it, this lawsuit doesn't have merit.  Never did.  The airport is simply using its deep pockets to make it too expensive and too prolonged for Fast Park and Ameriplex to continue.  They want to drive a legitimate business out of Decatur Township.  They don't want the competition.  This governmental entity wants to kill off competitors in a free market.

Long story short,  the committee voted 4-3 to amend the airport's budget by $100,000.  Voting with the Decatur community were Councillors Lutz, Holiday, Cardwell, and Mahern.  Voting against were Councillors Gray, Talley, and Osili.

They also voted to send it to the full Council with a do-pass recommendation.  I could see Gray vote no, but could not tell who else may have joined him.

This is an important vote for Decatur Township.  We overwhelmingly want the Fast Park to be built.  It is not your granddad's parking facility; rather it is so green that it can teach the airport a thing or two about being environmentally responsible.  It would be located outside the TIF and bring much needed tax dollars to our schools and help move us toward a more balanced tax base.  It will spark the development of much need commercial property that will benefit the community at large and help Ameriplex attract more high salary tenants to the Purdue Research Park.

I want to thank Councillors Bob Lutz, Jason Holliday, Jeff Cardwell, and Brian Mahern for standing up with us and standing up for us.  Your support means a lot to us.

For those who are interested, I've embedded that part of the committee meeting from the WCTY archives below - it runs almost half an hour:



Public Notice Catchup - A little bit of everything

Public Notices in Thursday's Indy Star included the CIB, the Town of Speedway, Rocky Ripple, and the Town of Clermont. Westfield was also noticed. Friday followed up with Beech Grove Schools, Health & Hospitals, IMCPL, and the Beech Grove Library.

The CIB's public notice was a more detailed list of expected receipts and expenditures for the remainder of 2010 and the full 2011. More on this in a later post, after I have pulled the same statements from last year's budget. The capsule version is that with an estimated budget for 2011 of $104,440,502, they will not get any money from property taxes - unchanged from this year. The CIB's public notice failed to mention any public hearing either at the CIB (which already held their public hearing) or at the Council. The City-County Council will take public comment on September 20, beginning at 7:00 pm, along with any comments for any budget that is working its way through the Council committees. The Municipal Corporations committee will consider this budget and take public comments on October 11, beginning at 5:30 pm. The full Council meets in the public assembly room and the committees meet in room 260 of the City-County Building.

The Town of Speedway estimates a budget of $12,520,217, with a maximum property tax levy of $6,470,697, up from $5,219,915 this year. They note that the maximum levy limitation is $5,145,654. They will hold a public hearing on October 11 at 7:00 pm at the Speedway Town Hall, 1450 N. Lynhurst Drive. They expect to vote on the budget on October 25.

Rocky Ripple estimates a budget of $100,707, with a maximum of $24,261 coming from property taxes, down ever so slightly from this year's $24,443. They will hold a public hearing on September 14 at 7:30 pm at 930 W. 54th Street. They expect to vote on the budget on October 19.

The Town of Clermont estimates a maximum budget of $953,800, with a max of $529,618 coming from property taxes, up from $481,471 this year. Their public hearing will be on September 30 at 7:00 pm at the Clermont Town Hall (no address given). They expect to vote on the budget at their October 14 meeting.

The City-County Council's Rules committee will hold a non-binding public hearing on all the small Towns and the Township budgets on September 28 in room 118 of the City-County Building, beginning at 5:30 pm.

Beech Grove Schools estimate a total budget of $29,378,233, with a maximum of $14,031,380 coming from property taxes, up from $9,271,971 this year. They will hold a public hearing on this budget, their 3-year capital projects plan and their 20-year bus replacement plan on September 20 at 6:00 pm at 5330 Hornet Avenue. They expect to vote on the budget on October 18.

The Marion County Health & Hospitals Corporation is estimating a budget of $392,902,679, with $102,130,737 coming from property taxes, up from $102,678,763 this year.

The Indianapolis Marion County Public Library estimates a total budget of $53,500,000 with a max of $46,800,000 coming from property taxes, up from $37,474,023 this year. They note that the maximum levy limitation is $39,500,000 and an excessive levy appeal of $3,500,000.

The full City-County Council will hold a public hearing on H&H and IMCPL budgets, along with the rest running through the committees into October, at their September 20 meeting, beginning at 7:00 pm. The Municipal Corporations committee will consider these two budgets at their September 27 meeting. The schedule says that they will meet at 5:30 in room 118, but check the notice posted outside the room. Another committee is also scheduled for the same time and room and one would think one of the two would meet in room 260.

The Beech Grove Library estimates a total budget of $1,163,400 for 2011, with a maximum property tax levy of $1,115,000, down slightly from this year's $1,116,091. Their Board will hold a public hearing on October 14 at 6:00 pm at the Beech Grove Public Library (no address given). They expect to vote on the budget on October 25.

2010 Tax Cap Credits -- Municipal Corporations

Now we move on to the municipal corporations, those units of government run by a separate Board, but operated in part or in whole with taxpayer funds. The Boards are appointed by elected officials and the budgets are approved by the City-County Council. These muni corps are: the Capital Improvement Board, the Marion County Health & Hospitals Corporation, the Indianapolis International Airport, the Indianapolis Marion County Public Library, and IndyGo. For the tax cap credit impacts, I will also list the smaller local Libraries and the Speedway transportation system, although I do not have information about their budget totals.

The Capital Improvement Board, as we are often and loudly told does not take property taxes (usually while they are busy picking another of our taxpayer pockets). Their entire budget is not open for approval or rejection by the Council; barred from review is anything to do with Lucas Oil Stadium. The CIB relies upon a laundry list of tax revenues and is so awash in ample cash that it was recently able to give away $33.5 million to the Pacers organization. (Just in case you missed it, that was sarcasm.)

The Indianapolis International Airport is legally able to ask for property tax support, but it does not do so. Instead, it relies on landing fees, funds from the FAA, ticket taxes, and the like for its revenue. This does not mean that they do not impact property taxes in Indianapolis. Given their huge expanse of property and their willingness to extend property tax-free status to the likes of FedEx and others, they cut down the property taxes that could be garnered from private enterprise that operates on airport land. When those taxes aren't paid by these huge and small companies, the rest of us pick up the slack. The biggest loss is to those of us living in Decatur and Wayne Townships, but the impact is definitely County-wide at some level.


In addition to the property tax revenue of each of the muni corps, I am noting the size of each entity's entire budget, since those documents are readily available on the City's website. Links to each are provided with the actual total budget figure. The numbers in the "%" column are calculated by dividing the circuit breaker credit (or, tax cap credit) by the certified property tax levy as determined by the Indiana Department of Local Government Finance (DLGF).

	Total Budget	Property Tax Levy*	Circuit Breaker Credits	%
CIB	$94,127,800	$0	0	n/a
H&H	294,673,536	[108,416,452] 57,128,763	3,964,611	6.9%
Indy Airport	258,972,924	0	0	n/a
IMCPL	49,511,592	[38,426,227] 37,474,023	2,536,486	6.8%
IndyGo	76,413,334	[22,094,075] 20,668,415	1,472,888	7.1%
Beech Grove Public Library		1,116,091	318,490	28.5%
Speedway City Public Library		760,028	7,838	1.0%
Speedway Public Transportation		236,336	2,437	1.0%
* Number in brackets is the amount of property tax levy approved by the City-County Council. Number not in brackets is the levy certified by the Indiana Department of Local Government Finance, which is the final, official amount.

Beech Grove continues to demonstrate higher percentage of its property tax levy having been lopped off in the form of tax cap credits. The muni corps that get property tax revenues have seen an average impact from the tax caps.