So I've finally gotten fed up with the wankers on the Indy City County Council. I had a short lived project to go to all of their meetings, but life intervened and they were fucking boring. Issues or not, sitting through an hour of special recognitions and bullshit bloviating is too much for this humble blogger with a life and a fiancee (and Fallout 3 to play).
But between cutting the COIT to give Indy residents a whole
$12!!omg!!!eleven111! , wanking about the city buying ferrrrin cars from them jap-o-neese and now paying the assessors $54,000 to sit on their asses for two years I just can't take it anymore.
So I emailed all of the Democrats on the CCC (well, all but Jose Evans. Someone hook the dude up with some email! For real.) I tried to be nice, but man, their wanking and pandering has gotten out of hand. We'll see if I actually get coherent responses from anybody.
Here's the email. I'll follow up with any replies I get.
First I want to say that I am a life long Democrat. I'm sure you hear that alot, but I've never voted for a Republican and only not voted straight ticket once (a write in for another Democrat). So these critiques aren't coming from someone who normally disagrees with you on everything so that I can be conveniently ignored.
A couple issues have me so worked up, I've decided to email every Democratic CCC member that has an email address. 1) The (for lack of a better term) wanking about this car deal, 2) Cutting the COIT to give us a WHOLE $12!! and 3) Paying the Assessors WAY TOO MUCH to do nothing for two years.
1) I'll be honest, on this first one I don't know who exactly has been making this an issue and who has thankfully been silent on it. But this whole thing about Toyota vs Chevy and the little round of faux xenophobia and manufacturing nationalism gets us nowhere. The fact is the upkeep costs on the Toyotas are cheaper than the upkeep costs on the Chevys. The long run savings go to the Toyota. Boxing in our city to only be able to buy goods from a certain locale hamstrings us being able to watch our expenses. You want to cut taxes (see #2), you gotta pay for it somehow. But cutting taxes AND forcing the city to buy more expensive to maintain cars out of some sort of nationalistic ideal is a double whammy on the city budget. But I'm sure the Democratic members of the CCC aren't just on this issue as a political stunt, right? Yeah. Right. I know it's easy in an economic downturn for people to turn to xenophobia and nationalism. It's happened during every economic downturn, and will continue to happen. But that doesn't mean you have to play into that trap, even mildly.
2) I want to start this issue off by saying that *thankfully* Councilors Bateman, Mansfield, Gray, Oliver, Nytes and Sanders are exempt from this criticism. Thank you for acknowledging that it actually takes money to run a successful city. But to the others, Councilors Evans, Pryor, Minton-McNeil, both Maherns, Adams and Brown, really what were you thinking? Cutting the COIT will give the average Marion County resident $12. *TWELVE DOLLARS*. I'll try not to spend it all in one place. Meanwhile the city is having to cut back on services, our public transit infrastructure is terrifyingly bad and we can't even salt the roads. Is giving people $12 just so you can say you cut taxes during the next election really worth the deterioration of our city? Cities, especially world class cities (which Indy tries so hard to be) need money to be run. I know some voters don't like to hear that, but it's not like we can salt the roads and lock up criminals with free fairy dust and wishes.
3) And finally, the Assessor thing. No idea how the vote broke down. But I know a number of you supported this ortherwise it wouldn't have passed with only 2 dissenters. I understand that some Democrats didn't feel it was necessary to do away with the Assessors position at the township level. I happen to think it was necessary, but I understand you disagreeing with that. But that's no excuse to pay $54,000 and benefits to public servants whom the public essentially FIRED in November. If I am laid off from my job I don't continue to get paid. It sucks, but I don't get paid. Now I get that under state law you couldn't pay them *nothing*, but why not go with a cheaper option? Again, you cut revenue to the city with the COIT decision, but then you give money away like this. Just because you feel sorry for them doesn't mean you should give away your constituents' money to them. I've heard some thought "compassion" was needed for them. Compassion? How about compassion for your constituents who rely on you to use our money efficiently to provide us with essential services and a growing city? That is the concern of an elected representative, not compassion for civil servants who have lost their job by the will of the people.
Sadly, I am beyond expecting much in the way of principled stands from the Democrats on the CCC. Yet I keep voting for you.
We'll see.
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