Indianapolis Mayor Greg Ballard today struck $32 million of the budget passed by the City-County Council, impacting every Marion County office. Ballard’s Chief of Staff Ryan Vaughn says the cuts will come from the county option income taxes that are dedicated to the County Office such as Sheriff, Clerk, Auditor and Surveyor. The cuts won’t […]
There is an old saying in politics that if you stick around long enough, you will eventually see just about everything. I have been writing about the Indianapolis City-County Council for nearly eight years now and I think this year I have finally seen things come full circle, particularly in the area of public safety […]
Smoking bans will get taken up on both ends of Market Street Monday. The Indiana House of Representatives will vote on a proposal that would ban smoking in most public places except casinos and racinos, cigar bars, private clubs, and hookah bars. It would also grant an 18-month exemption to bars and taverns in order […]
If anti-smoking advocates were hoping to reduce the number of smoking establishments in Indianapolis before the Super Bowl, they will have to wait until the next one comes to Indianapolis, whenever that is. A proposal that would have banned smoking in most businesses with a few exceptions failed to garner support tonight in the Democrats’ […]
Some of my Democratic friends on the Indianapolis City-County Council are not happy campers right now. They are upset that outgoing Council President Ryan Vaughn is moving forward with a plan to draw new council maps. The first public hearing was held Monday. In-coming Council Vice President Brian Mahern called the move an act of […]
Outgoing City-County Council President Ryan Vaughn has unveiled his new proposed council district maps. By law new maps must be redrawn every ten years in accordance with the census. The move has been controversial as Democrats have complained Vaughn exceeded his authority in drawing the new maps and he should not have contracted with Election […]
The usual problem with zealotry is its inability to compromise, especially when it is getting 90-percent of what it wants. Most reasonable people understand that in politics, when you are working toward a goal there comes a point where what you get is as good as it will get so you take it and move […]
Outgoing City-County Council President says he will introduce a smoking ban ordinance that Indianapolis Mayor Greg Ballard will sign. The proposal bans smoking in bars and taverns but leaves exemptions for cigar bars, tobacco shops, hookah bars and private clubs. More importantly he ordinance can be passed in time for the Super Bowl. Under Indiana […]
A lot attention was raised this weekend on how much money was raised by Republican Greg Ballard and Democrat Melina Kennedy in the race for Indianapolis Mayor. However, there wasn’t much reporting on how much the political parties raised nor individual City-County Councilors. I decided to spend some time this weekend looking through reports and […]
Here’s most recent list of the slate of candidates for Mayor and City-County Council as of Thursday. An asterisk indicates which candidate is the incumbent. As you can see both the Democrats and Republicans have someone running in virtually every seat and the Libertarians are running more candidates than usual as well. Regardless of which […]
