Sunday Morning Musings
Once again we start the week with little things (or not so little in some cases) that are worth paying attention to…
Township Tales
- In it’s never-ending to quest to justify consolidation, the Washington Township Board voted itself a 69-percent pay raise. Their salary went from $2200 annually to $3800. The nice thing about that is that the township’s budget went from $20 million to $1.6 million after consolidating the fire department with IFD. So since they have less work to do, they felt a pay raise was in order. The Board meets later this week.
Ballard’s Budget Act
- As the conversation and controversy continues over the Mayor’s proposed tax cut, one question that’s being asked is why not hold on to the money and save it for a rainy day? According to city officials, it would be illegal to do so. The revenue from the .02 tax cut could only be used for property tax reductions. Now the city could leave the $18 million in the bank and borrow against it in the future if times got tough, but that would be like using your credit card to buy groceries.
Cityscape
- As city officials get ready to deal with abandoned and foreclosed homes, two potential major issues are staring them in the face. First, homes which are foreclosed but are rental properties, may not be covered by the HUD grant. Also there is coordinating enforcement with Health and Hospital. The agency also has code authority and there are some serious overlapping issues that are going to have to be worked out.
Pike Fight
- Look for a fight to brew up in Pike Township over the replacement of Cherish Pryor on the City-County Council. Pryor won her race for the General Assembly. The race is reportedly between Annette Johnson and Maggie Lewis. No one is quite sure where the party loyalties are. Watch for this one.
That’s all folks, for now.
