Mahern Posts Letter To The Editor RE: Tully's Column

First, you have to know it is there, and then you still have a bit of poking around to find it online...  But, today's IndyStar has a letter to the editor penned by Councillor Brian Mahern in response to Matt Tully's recent column (see my take on the column in my last post, "You Can't Fix Willful Ignorance and Greed")

Here's Mahern's letter:

In his Dec. 21 column, Matt Tully sets out to examine possible threats to Indianapolis successfully competing with suburban counties for taxpaying residents. Instead of exploring possible solutions to the serious and vexing crime problem facing our city, Tully instead settles for a full-throated personal attack against me.
He accuses me of political partisanship and failing to offer alternatives to the Ballard administration’s policies and proposals with which I have I disagreed. The fact is I have raised legitimate concerns regarding tax increment financing economic development policies that I believe were overused by the last two Indianapolis mayors, one a Republican and one a Democrat. My concerns about TIF are echoed by fiscally conservative Republicans in Hamilton County.
Mayor Ballard proposed balancing the 2013 budget on the backs of homeowners by raising their property tax bills by more than $8 million, these being the very people Tully suggest we are in fierce competition with the suburbs for. I suggested instead that the Capital Improvement Board should finally pay something for the large amounts of public safety resources used during the conventions and Pacers and Colts games held in CIB facilities. That seemed only fair to me. In response, the CIB threated a lawsuit, citing it lacked money to share with the city, only to turn around and give yet another $10 million to the Pacers on top of the previous $33.5 million it forked over during the last four years.
It is not helpful to give short shrift to the crime problem in Indianapolis. We all need to thoughtfully discuss the impact of crime and the importance of public safety funding. My now months-old invitation to Tully to join me for a chat still stands. All he needs to do is pick up the phone and return my call.
Brian Mahern
City-County Councilman
Indianapolis

You Can't Fix Wilfull Ignorance and Greed

Its very unfortunate for Indianapolis that Matt Tully has an opinion column in which he can toss about misinformation and press for more of your tax dollars to be spent on his neighborhood's pet projects.  And its very unfortunate that he does that, not by providing well reasoned arguments, rather, by maligning one of the few elected officials still willing to stand up for sensible government that will not break our economy and who presses for sustainable funding for police, fire, libraries, schools, and other basic services that benefit all of us, rather than the few.

Tully is in love with the government giving your tax money to private developers and campaign donors, and he really evidences no concern with what that does to the public's ability to finance basic services.  He stood in favor of the Mass Ave TIF, that robs known tax proceeds to pour money into an area already building and thriving.  He stands in favor of the well to do in his own neighborhood and those neighborhoods nearby, to decide how THEIR tax dollars will be spent, while all the rest of us chumps can chip in to make sure his neighbors get police and firefighters to their door whenever they dial 911.  He cries a good game about the schools - but lets see where he sends his child.

But, the lowest point is reached when he maligns Councillor Brian Mahern, one of the last, if not the last, elected official willing to speak publicly of our need to be cautious about the use of TIFs, and who will acknowledge aloud that the more tax revenues we corral inside TIFs, the less money we have to fund basic services.

The pressure to frivolously spend, to ignore that each decision has pros and cons to be weighed, to follow the lead of those whose only goal is to feather their own nests, that pressure is great and has caused most who truly understand the impact of TIFs and corporate welfare to stand down and only whisper the truth among known allies rather than spread that truth further.

The sky is blue.  Water is wet.  And, like it or not, TIFs have consequences.

I had thought Tully was a reasoning person.  But, he has proven me wrong.  He just wants you to foot the bill for his basic services so he and his well off pals can give thier's to developers to make their neighborhoods more fun.

The old myths - that tax money before a TIF is established continues to flow to the schools and police, and that the bankrolled developments will spur free market development - continue to be pressed by those like Tully.  Meanwhile, the Mass Ave TIF and the Mid-North TIF stand on its head, the traditional use of TIFs to help struggling neighborhoods pull out of great need.  Now TIFs are to aid the well to do and to boost areas that are already seeing the free market work.

In the age of tax caps, unexamined TIFs and their unfettered use, will grind on our City's economy.  Then folks like Tully will leave because there are even fewer police and firefighters to cover our whole county, fewer tax dollars reaching the library and the schools and IndyGo.  And, instead of TIFs making his neighborhood more enticing to executives, it will make everyone more fearful of living anywhere in Marion County - fearful of crime as well as fearful of providing a very weak start in life for their children.

Matt Tully - Wrong on TIFs - Not Just Merely Wrong; Most Sincerely Wrong

There is no doubt the IndyStar columnist, Matt Tully, is a talented writer.  As a person, Tully's opinion is of no more importance than the next guy's.  As a paid opiner for the Star, with its wide reach, his opinions are amplified in the community.  With that reach, and with being a journalist, one would hope Tully would be fastidious in checking what he promotes as facts.  Unfortunately, in his column on the proposed Mid-North TIF, Tully fails the accuracy test.

Tully repeats that tired old fairy tale that TIFs only capture new development.

First, the TIF captures only new property tax revenue -- meaning money from new investment over and above what is already collected.

We see this year, where $490 million of base - which is the 'old stuff' - in Marion County's TIF districts, was converted into increment - which is, according to the fairy tale, supposed to be only the 'new stuff'.  That's a full third of the existing base.  How much time would it take to accumulate an additional $490 million of property value for our tax roles through development?  And yet, in one year that huge amount of property value is yanked from producing tax revenues for the schools, libraries, IndyGo, Health & Hospitals, fire departments, IMPD, parks, as well as the city-county government.

Where Tully gets alarming is where he promotes brand new fairy tales about TIFs.  He actually most succinctly framed the idea in a short twitter debate he had with Amos Brown a week ago.  Below is a screen shot of the back and forth so you can get the context in which Tully said

"If Midtown continues losing high income families that's a disaster for the city--particularly the most struggling parts of it."  Huh?  And, from the context, TIFs are apparently the answer.

Let's face it, a Mid-North TIF is a solution searching for a problem. 

Tully is promoting the idea that TIFs are designed to bring tax dollars into well to do neighborhoods to make them even better places to live so that rich people stay in Marion County.  His logic is other worldly when he can reach the conclusion that improving the lot of the well to do has a positive impact on those who struggle daily.

If it were just Matt Tully, a person, with this attitude, it would be part of the community conversation.  But, it is Matt Tully, the print media columnist, who is spreading this insidious meme that TIFs are for the better off areas.

You likely remember that extraordinary series of columns Tully wrote about the Meadows years ago now.  Where is that Matt Tully?  TIFs were designed to help just this type of neighborhood, where no dollars are going and a few dollars has a shot at making a real difference; first in the real estate, then in the lives of those who can't afford the rent in Tully's neighborhood.

If there were a prioritization of neighborhoods in need in this city/county, Meridian Kessler, Broad Ripple, and Butler-Tarkington wouldn't be anywhere near the top of the list.  Yet, they want to get theirs first, before the reality sinks in that TIFs have consequences, not all of which are good for Indianapolis and its future.

The last couple of years, Tully has taken immense amounts of time to experience IPS, and he penned riveting and pivotal pieces that helped to elevate the discussion of education in Indy.  Where is that Matt Tully?  Doesn't he know that existing TIFs already harm IPS' bottom line?  And yet he is promoting the creation of another square mile TIF in the IPS district. They call the downtown TIF the "dead zone", because of all the property value that does not send revenue their way.  IPS already has 22% of all taxable property within its district caught up in a TIF increment.  One-fifth.  That's twice the average for the County as a whole.  40% of the circuit breaker penalty (the property tax revenues that government qualifies for, but cannot collect due to the property tax caps) in the County can be attributed directly to TIF districts and their sequestration of property value.  With its higher percentage of property valued contained within TIFs than the County as a whole, one would estimate that TIFs cause an even greater percentage of the $15 million circuit breaker penalty that IPS will see in 2013.  What could IPS do with an extra $6 to $12 million a year more?

But this Tully, the one for whom there is no valid and valuable community conversation about TIFs going on, this Tully would add another square mile of untouchable tax revenue in IPS's district.  He seems to think that excluding residential property from the proposed Mid-North TIF is a positive.  But, lets face it, residential property has a 1% tax cap, and the TIF would capture the commercial values - which are higher in assessed value and which have 2 % and 3 % tax caps, so pay a greater proportion of property taxes from the same size lot.

Tully does columns on crime in a variety of areas in our city-county.  Yet, he doesn't mention that TIFs take revenue away from IMPD - not just shelter revenue from IMPD's grasp, but take it away in the form of the circuit breaker penalty.   According to Jeff Spalding, City Controller, the 2013 circuit breaker penalty will be over $5 million for IMPD and over $7 million for IFD.  As currently configured, the 2013 budget calls for no IMPD recruit class and one for IFD only if they can get their hands on a federal grant.  Again, at least 40 % of those circuit breaker amounts are directly attributable to existing TIFs.

Well, with or without Matt Tully, the community conversation about the reality of TIFs will continue.  Personally, I had hoped by this time our conversation would be about how much of our property value should be tied up in TIFs for the next 25 to infinity years.  Other jurisdictions that use TIFs and place a limit, set that limit at 5% of property value.  We are at 11%.  With the ramrodding of TIFs through the Council prior to the implementation of the recommendations of the TIF Study Commission, based on incomplete information, one has to wonder what generational damage these folks are doing.

Tully has a soapbox courtesy of the Star's circulation.  He also has a responsibility to be accurate with the facts he sprinkles throughout his columns to support his opinions.  On the TIF issue, he completely and utterly fails on the accuracy test.

Tully Takes Stand On Negative Ads

Star Columnist, Matt Tully, has taken on the negative ads and laid the bulk of the reponsibility on the Kennedy campaign.  In today's edition, Tully admits he favors Kennedy, however the tactics being employed undermine her message, and will leave a stain on her administration should she be elected.

He says:

If elected mayor in two weeks, Melina Kennedy promises to usher in to city government what she calls a spirit of collaboration and a bold effort to tackle, from the ground level and with the help of many people, the city's massive education problems.

Kennedy talks often about overcoming the city's challenges by working closely with neighborhood groups and building tight relationships with community leaders, teachers and other residents. The core of her campaign message seems to be a vow to rally Indianapolis residents around the notion that the city can be greater. Her team says she can be the force that brings competing factions and diverse interests together.

It's a compelling message -- one that anyone who has read my column in recent weeks knows has swayed me toward Kennedy as Election Day approaches. I'm convinced that Indianapolis needs a mayor who can persuade residents to embrace tough solutions to our biggest challenges, and Kennedy seems to have an ability to get people around her excited and motivated.

And that is what makes the topic of today's column -- the relentlessly negative and exaggerated television and radio ad campaign Kennedy has run -- so disheartening. For weeks, she has pummeled incumbent Mayor Greg Ballard, by all accounts a decent and honest man, with phony and unfair attack ads portraying him as everything from a corrupt fat cat politician to a reckless big spender eager to raise taxes.

Meanwhile, she has sat back while the nasty and bullying leaders in the Marion County Democratic Party air radio ads on African-American stations suggesting, at the very least, racial insensitivity on Ballard's part, invoking an unwelcome dose of racial politics into the campaign.

Finally, her campaign has needlessly dragged Deputy Mayor Michael Huber through the mud. That's a particularly infuriating tactic. In 19 years of covering politics, I don't think I've ever dealt with a more impressive, sincere and dedicated political aide than Huber, a young father who spends his days eager to find solutions to the city's biggest problems, including efforts to transform the city's infrastructure.

Huber is exactly the type of person we need in politics -- collaborative, creative and smart. But the attacks against him explain why so many good people avoid public service.

For months, I've listened to Kennedy's speeches. I've read her position papers. I've spent hours talking to her about issues such as crime, education and her vision for the city. She is a master of policy and has big ideas about what the city can achieve. She is an impressive communicator and a tireless worker. She's pretty much sold me; I believe a Kennedy administration could do big things.

But this much is clear: The tenor of her paid-media campaign does her candidacy a horrible disservice. And it is turning many people off.

Repeatedly, I have talked to voters, both Democrats and Republicans, who mention with disappointment the nonstop negativity coming out of the Kennedy campaign. This week, I talked to a friend who said she went to bed Sunday night, after watching the final mayoral debate, excited about Kennedy. But after seeing a handful of attack ads during the local news the next morning, she'd changed her mind.

It's just too mean, she said.

For the record, Ballard's campaign has run negative ads, too. But Kennedy went first, forcing Ballard to respond, and the ads coming from her campaign are more personal; they are filled with much more dangerous allegations. And, of late, they have come without any balance. It's as if her campaign has decided to go all negative, all the time in these final weeks.

In the end, it might work. Fear and anger clearly motivate voters, and those emotions have helped retire many incumbent politicians in recent years.

But there is a cost. And it's far too steep, particularly for a candidate with Kennedy's potential and in a city that desperately needs leaders who can bring people together.

A campaign too heavily based on mean-spirited messages will leave a lasting stain. If Kennedy is elected, and I still hope she is, voters will remember not just that she won but also how she won. Ultimately, she will learn that harsh campaign tactics make it much harder to bring about the type of positive change she so often talks about outside her TV ads.

That would be a shame. That would be harmful for Indianapolis. That's why Kennedy should stop the silliness and end her campaign on a different, much more uplifting note.

While I'm not the fan of Huber that Tully is, I think he painted the rest of the picture quite well.  Time is running short and there are repercussions that may outweigh the benefits to the tactics being embraced by Kennedy's campaign.  I know in my house, which is composed of Liberal Democrats, the majority are now voting for Ballard precisely because of Kennedy's actions.

Tully's Posts Continue On Arlington Woods Turnaround

Next in the series regarding the Turnaround at Arlington Woods Elementary is online now in "High expectations inspire high goals".

The entire series:

Feb. 13: Two teachers develop a plan to transform a struggling school.
Feb 16: Higher standards and weekly tests are keys to the turnaround.
Feb. 20: The school discipline team works to prevent disruptive behavior.
Feb. 23: Cameron is only 12, but he has a plan for college.
Feb. 27: Can the success achieved at Arlington Woods be replicated elsewhere?

Tully's Fantastic Series Continues

IndyStar columnist, Matt Tully, has an stellar ongoing series on the turnaround in one IPS school - Arlington Woods Elementary.

Sunday's newspaper had the third installment "School's peacemakers are key to its turnaround". It is now posted online. Again, this series is a must read for all those interested in improving education in our State.

The entire series:

Feb. 13: Two teachers develop a plan to transform a struggling school.
Feb 16: Higher standards and weekly tests are keys to the turnaround.
Feb. 20: The school discipline team works to prevent disruptive behavior.
Feb. 23: Cameron is only 12, but he has a plan for college.
Feb. 27: Can the success achieved at Arlington Woods be replicated elsewhere?

Matt Tully In Process of Hitting One Out of the Park

Star columnist, Matt Tully, is running a series of articles on stellar progress by students, staff, and parents of Arlington Woods Elementary school. The centerpiece is a teacher-crafted plan they call Project Restore with a core principle of high expectations for students.

Sunday's segment : "When every minute counts"

Today's segment : "Students rise to challenge of Project Restore's rigorous tests"

Must read for all those interested in improving education.

Dubbing the series " The Code Breakers of Arlington Woods", here are the topics Tully will present

Feb. 13: Two teachers develop a plan to transform a struggling school.
Feb 16: Higher standards and weekly tests are keys to the turnaround.
Feb. 20: The school discipline team works to prevent disruptive behavior.
Feb. 23: Cameron is only 12, but he has a plan for college.
Feb. 27: Can the success achieved at Arlington Woods be replicated elsewhere?

Tully's Sunday Article On IPS-Bennett Meeting A Real Gem

Yesterday's Indianapolis Star had a front page, in depth, article about a meeting between Indiana Superintendent of Public Instruction, Tony Bennett, IPS Superintendent, Eugene White, and 'more than a dozen [of White's] staff members'. This is part of Matt Tully's Manual Project where he has written on various aspects of getting an education at IPS' Manual High School.

[edited March 30, 2010, to add link to IndyStar post of article : click here]

I cannot locate this outstanding piece on the IndyStar website and I fear it has fallen victim to the Star's new practice of omitting some of the favorite columnists from its web version, in an attempt to increase at least their Sunday paper copy buyership. I am told the Star posts the Sunday articles that are print-only some time midweek. I'll post a link as soon as I can.

With that rant over, let me say - maybe the dollar store still has a couple of copies or maybe you can get a copy from a friend or neighbor who still has it, or if you are going to the public library perhaps you can read their copy. It is extremely well written - Tully having massive talents in that arena. It is so good and so important that I would have willingly typed up chunks of it here, had I not learned at the recent Citizen Journalism Boot Camp put on by the Indiana Coalition for Open Government that doing so is a legal no-no.

So here is the inferior gist of Tully's article.

Bennett met with White and others from IPS to discuss whether 8 IPS schools, including Manual, would be taken over by the State Department of Education (DOE) beginning next school year. These schools are Arlington Community High School (grades 7-12), Emmerich Manual High School, Northwest High School, Thomas Carr Howe Community High School (grades 7-12), George Washington Community School (grades 7-12), Broad Ripple High School for the Performing Arts (grades 7-12), Emma Donnan Middle School (grades 7-8), and Willard J. Gambold Middle School (grades 7-8). According to the Indiana DOE website (click here for all school in Marion County with links to their performance) all have been on probationary accreditation.

Tully quotes Bennett as saying

"I want you to be able to have every discussion you have going forward with a framework," he said, staring at White. "And that framework is this: Who do we want to run these schools? I know who I want to run these schools. That's the guy sitting at the other end of the table."

Bennett then turns the conversation to what IPS is will to do differently that will improve education in these 8 schools. Tully says that the State DOE has the legal authority to make sweeping changes, including tossing out teacher union rules, due to a 1999 change in State law. They can also increase the length of the school day and the school year. But, IPS can make those changes on their own, if they can get buy-in from the teachers union.

Again just the gist of Tully's article - roughly 40-60% of teachers in these schools are ineffective, by White's own estimate. The union President, Ann Wilkins, objected to the notion that they protect bad teachers, rather saying that they support the 'process'. Tully notes that even if the State DOE takes over the failing schools, any teachers let go from those schools would be relocated to other schools in the district. That certainly is a valid conundrum.

Tully doesn't put it this way, but I believe it is all about finding some way to improve education in Indiana - improve education in all schools and improve education for all students in Indiana.

We are quite possibly on the threshold of dramatic changes in the way Indiana deals with failing schools, and Tully gave us a rare glimpse of that threshold.

Again, I highly recommend finding a copy of this article. I understand the Star will post this story within a couple of days - I'll keep checking and add a link as soon as I locate the post. This is a gem that should be read widely in Central Indiana, if not the entire state.

The Role of the Press

I see two opinion pieces in today's Star regarding the train wreck that is this Legislative Session. First is Matt Tully's great column that reaffirms his writing and thinking talents. In 'Our lawmakers failed us again', Matt writes:

After four months of silly games and petty politics, lawmakers ended their 2009 session without fulfilling their only constitutional duty: passage of a new state budget. Despite a winter and spring spent cashing paychecks from taxpayers and enjoying free meals from lobbyists, the General Assembly failed Indiana.

and

First, the General Assembly is in dire need of new leaders. The annual brawls between House Speaker Pat Bauer and Republican leader Brian Bosma have turned the House into a gridlocked embarrassment. Second, there is a stunning lack of effective rebels in either chamber willing to challenge their legislative bosses and the old way of doing things. Third, if things don't change and if the legislature doesn't start thinking less about politics and more about policy, Indiana is going to sink even further behind other states.

The Star Editorial Board also took on the pathetic Session in an editorial titled 'A sad state of legislative leadership', which started with:

Rating the Indiana General Assembly's sessions is like rating Chicago Cubs seasons. The scale typically runs from disappointing to bad, to dismal to disastrous.

The legislative session that expired Wednesday night deserves a spot on the low end of that register for several reasons, including lawmakers' failure to complete a state budget before they adjourned. Now, taxpayers must bear the cost of a special session at a time when revenues are falling and services are squeezed. That's a minor concern in the scheme of things, but it does illustrate how ineffective and even irresponsible lawmakers were over the course of the session.

These are representative cases where the role of the Press in a free society is to call out elected officials who do not do the work of the people. This is a good thing.

But come election time, lets watch closely for who the Star endorses. While it is clear that Dan Burton will definitely feel the Star's wrath, will they settle for that token gesture? Will they do their usual thing of shedding crocodile tears for the state of our city, state and nation, then endorse all but one or two incumbents?