Marion County Sheriff Frank Anderson takes his budget before the City-Council Public safety Committee. Anderson will likely argue against proposed cuts today, saying they will harm public safety and result in early releases from the jail. Of course this is also the same Sheriff whose original budget request was $111 million.  It’s $86 million now. […]

Here’s one of the latest ads from the McCain campaign.  It’s not bad, but I have to wonder if they are running against Democrats or Republicans?  Enjoy.

As I sit here with martini in hand and cigar in mouth I am wondering what was going through the heads of my Democratic City-County Council friends during last night’s meeting. Reportedly they met with County Chairman Ed Treacy prior to the Council meeting.  According to my sources, Treacy encouraged them to do what they […]

After sitting for an hour and listening to the arts community cry bloody murder about proposed cuts in funding, I decided to go check and see how much they actually get from the taxpayers.  Back in May the City-County Council passed an ordinance giving the arts groups more than $1.5 million.  Here’s a breakdown of what each […]

It looks like the Marion County Township Assessors will get a few more months to hold on to their jobs.  City-Council President Bob Cockrum told me tonight that funding for the township assessors will be restored. Mayor Greg Ballard had hoped to save $3 million by eliminating the funding to the offices, however Cockrum said […]

If Monday night’s Indianapolis City-County Council meeting was any indication, this going to be a long two weeks toward getting a budget done. Monday was the public hearing so the public got to speak.  Most of them complained about cuts to arts programs.  I can honestly say there were more people there than usual. The […]

Democratic Gubernatorial candidate Jill Long Thompson says contrary to some Internet and broadcast reports, rumors of her campaign’s demise in Southern Indiana are grossly exaggerated. JLT was responding to Internet news stories and plain old fashion rumor-mongering that her campaign is cutting back and has no real presence in Southern Indiana, a crucial part of the […]

Since the city won’t be hiring 100 new police officers anytime soon, you might be wondering where your public safety tax money went that was supposed to hire them?  $38 million of the tax increase went to IMPD, $10 million of that was supposed to hire new cops.  Here’s a breakdown of how it was […]

Some food for thought… The federal government is bailing out Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae. The federal government may bail out the Big Three automakers next year. The federal government already bailed out Bear Stearns. There’s a good chance the airlines will ask for a bail out. With all these bailouts of all these industries, […]

For the past couple of weeks I’ve been consumed with focusing on the Presidential race , my teaching duties, and progressive movement in my domestic situation, unfortunately to the detriment of keeping an eye on city hall. No longer. When I saw the news reports about Indianapolis Mayor Greg Ballard not being able to hire […]