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Abdul-Hakim Shabazz, a conservative talk show host turned-mayoral candidate, announced more detailed plans Tuesday that he said would help address Indianapolis’ infrastructure funding woes and create more trust in city government.
The city faces a $1 billion road and infrastructure funding shortfall. To help fill the gap and potholes, Shabazz’s plan suggests the reallocation of 2% of the city’s non-public safety funds toward roads and infrastructure and the creation of road tax-increment financing districts.
The idea of an “infrastructure TIF” district has been part of Shabazz’s plan since the start of his campaign. In a written statement released Tuesday, the candidate proposed using one cent of the gas tax for road and sidewalk repairs in the surrounding area. Those areas could be within a certain radius of a gas station or just within a township, the release said.
Incumbent Mayor Joe Hogsett has attempted to shift the state’s road-funding formula with a coalition of central Indiana mayors at the Indiana Statehouse. An approximately $8 million increase is expected from legislation likely to pass this year.
Shabazz, a Republican, has promoted his close relationships with Statehouse leaders from decades of covering state government. But Shabazz did not express hope in his statement that Republican state leaders would address Indy’s road-funding woes.
“Indianapolis will unlikely get much financial help from the other end of Market Street, so all options must be on the table,” he said in his statement.
Shabazz’s release includes a nod to a potential ally, City-County Council member Josh Bain.
“I’ve learned a lot from Josh as I’ve sought out new, creative ways we can begin to address our city’s infrastructure needs,” Shabazz said. “I look forward to partnering with him should I be elected mayor.”
Bain was selected to fill a council vacancy in 2020 and faces no opponents this year for the new Council District 21.
During his time on the council, Bain has been part of a Republican-led push for city departments to give annual reports on American Rescue Plan Act spending and authored an agreement between Johnson County and the city for construction and improvements to County Line Road.
To help restore public trust in city government, Shabazz said he would create a “government-efficiency task force.” The task force would examine city rules, regulations and fees to slim down costs and procedures.
The task force would have either six months or a year to compile recommendations, Shabazz said.
Shabazz will face businessman Jefferson Shreve, the Rev. James W. Jackson and John Couch in the Republican primary for mayor. The primary election is May 2 and early voting has begun.
On the Democratic side, incumbent Hogsett is running against State Rep. Robin Shackleford, Bob Kern and Larry Vaughn. Two candidates, Clif Marsiglio and Gregory Meriweather, have ended their campaigns to support Shackleford but will still appear on the ballot.
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When it doubt, the “conservative” party knee-jerks to its favorite, TIF. Instead, he should propose working to end Unigov. TIF just gives centralized government more power; dis-annexation brings actual smaller government.
I’ve thought a lot about this recently. Ultimately, I don’t think that I am for ending Unigov completely. There are benefits to consolidation, and if Marion County hadn’t consolidated, there is a good chance that Central Indiana would’ve ended up like NWI. Gary was never allowed to consolidate with Lake County, and it ended up hurting the entire part of the state.
However, I do recognize the need for more local control. It would – at the very least – get people more involved in local politics, which is a great thing. I think that the best way to do this is to transfer some power back to the townships, while keeping Unigov intact in a more limited capacity.
The biggest business in Gary, steel, requires far fewer people than it did in its heyday. I don’t think it is an apt comparison. Reducing the size of city and state government, now I can get on board with that. Commuters pay property tax through the buildings the commerical buildings they occupy, and at 3% to boot, excpet, they are all TIFfed, bringing me back to my original point.
Eric, I don’t understand the benefit of returning to the pre-Unigov state. How do you not end up with the same number of government employees, just distributed differently?
A TIF is an attempt to find more road funding despite the state of Indiana stealing money from Marion County residents and using it elsewhere in the state of Indiana in the places no one wants to live in. At least Abdul didn’t propose selling off city infrastructure, an equally bad idea.
Eric – Gary and Center Township are nearly the same size in area, but you’re right that their industrial makeups were different: Indianapolis had a lot of manufacturing and corporate office space. Gary had a lot of heavy industry, but also a lot of hospitality. Remember, Gary was a destination for people living in Chicago.
However, the declines of Gary and Center Township followed a very similar curve. They were each fueled by sub-urbanization, white flight, and – more recently – a loss of manufacturing jobs.
->Center Township peaked in 1950 with 337,000 people, only to decline to less than 143,000 people in 2010
->Gary peaked in 1960 with 178,000 people, only to decline to less than 70,000 people in 2020
In the last 13 years, Center Township’s population has started to recover. The same cannot be said about Gary, but its timeline is ~10 years behind.
Now, if you zoom out a little bit, you’ll find that Lake County’s population started to stagnate in the 70s whereas Marion County’s population growth has remained strong into the present. One of the biggest differences between the two counties is Gary was not allowed to consolidate with Lake County whereas Indianapolis was allowed to consolidate with Marion County. Consolidation of city & county in the case of Indianapolis stabilized the city, and thus all of Central Indiana. In contrast, Lake County became very divided, Gary was left to sink, and it likely contributed to the stagnation of the county.
There are other covariates in play as well, but we shouldn’t overlook city-county consolidation.
Infrastructure TIFs sound like a great way to end up in a ton of debt. I’d rather make The State pay us our fair share of gas tax redistribution. Our gas tax money subsidies rural and suburban counties. Meanwhile, we host the state government and many other large, land-owning nonprofit and government entities that pay no property taxes. We also have a disproportionate number of commuters who pay no property taxes.
There is no good way for an Indianapolis mayor to solve this issue, except for testifying to The General Assembly or lobbying the governor. Maybe a political stunt – like refusing to pave the roads leading to the statehouse – would get some attention too.
Try voting out the Indianapolis area Republicans who can’t deliver at the Statehouse. A few senators going home would change attitudes right quick.
Great comments. One of my biggest complaints about Hogsett is that he refuses to even try with the Legislature. Sure, it’s a tough crowd and success is unlikely, but his administration has just given up.