It would be easy for some of the leading politicians in the wealthy northern suburbs to interpret their handy wins in the May 5 primary elections as resounding mandates to take on more debt in the interest of spurring additional private development.
The city of Indianapolis needs to craft a thoughtful strategy for how to spend millions of dollars in anticipated surplus downtown TIF funds over the next three years, and that strategy should include input from stakeholders outside the mayor’s circle.
Opponents of the controversial justice complex proposal pushed by Mayor Greg Ballard might have killed the project when the City-County Council’s Rules and Public Policy Committee voted against it April 14, but that victory shouldn’t be confused with solving the problem. The city is still burdened with inefficient, unsafe jails and courtrooms.
Lawmakers should pass legislation to tax services ranging from legal fees to hair cuts in addition to the cars, shoes and other items the state has taxed for decades.
Let’s hope Indiana’s Republican leadership has learned a valuable lesson about hubris from the imbroglio they created over the Religious Freedom Restoration Act.
Indiana’s Republican-led General Assembly—refusing to cede a losing battle against the tide of history—has sullied Indiana’s reputation again, sending one more message of divisiveness.
St. John United Church of Christ should be allowed to exercise its right to sell the property it owns even if the buyer plans to tear it down.
Prohibition died 82 years ago. Indiana’s maddening blue laws live on.
The city should lead stakeholders to turn around one of the downtown’s jewels.
The genie of service businesses consumers can connect with on their smartphones—like ride-sharing and room-sharing—can’t be put back in the bottle. Particularly popular with millennials, such services are here to stay. Indiana would be wise to create a welcome business climate for them, while protecting the safety of local residents. Legislation wending its way through the General Assembly looks on track to maintain that balance.
Critics of Gov. Mike Pence’s proposed news service, Just IN, should now redirect their energy in support of three bills in the Legislature that would encourage government agencies to operate in the open—a critical ingredient for a factual, fair and independent press.
The governor is putting money behind his rhetoric, proposing a $40 million increase in funding for career and vocational programs. By 2020, he wants to see a fivefold increase in students graduating with industry-recognized credentials.
Indianapolis election laws need a couple of major revisions, and both come down to ensuring integrity in local politics.
Local government in Indiana is still bloated, but governor and legislators look the other way.
The Indianapolis Museum of Art has had a rough month, and the arrows it is taking are self-inflicted.
Marion County Prosecutor Terry Curry and state Inspector General David Thomas should acknowledge the mysteries swirling around an investigation into former state schools chief Tony Bennett and explain to Hoosiers exactly what happened, and how it won’t happen again.
The governor should appoint the education chief, making the state’s top elected official responsible for public education—in 2020.
No one will win the desperate arms race for out-of-state students.
Mayor Greg Ballard may have begun his tenure as Indy’s top elected official with the label “accidental mayor.” But Ballard’s legacy will go well beyond the circumstances of his upset victory in 2007.
With the election of three reform-minded candidates to the board of Indianapolis Public Schools, hope is renewed—once again—that the long-struggling district will become a city asset.
