EDITORIAL: ISO gets lift, needs leader
Thanks to the generosity of donors, the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra has cleared one major hurdle on its path to financial stability. But the biggest challenges lie ahead.
Editorials
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EDITORIAL: Legislature isn’t in protection game
Try as we might, we just don't get it. Oh, we understand why liquor store owners don't want Indiana lawmakers to lift long-standing restrictions on Sunday alcohol sales. There's little doubt the state's ban on most carryout sales helps them manage costs and stave off competition from big-box retailers. They admit as much (among other rationale).
EDITORIAL: If it’s a priority, fund accordingly
Gov. Mike Pence insists Indiana can cut taxes, maintain its strong financial position, and fund its priorities, and that the tax cut will stimulate spending and put businesses in a position to add jobs. Whether that’s realistic depends to a great extent on how the state’s priorities are defined and how much should be spent on them.
EDITORIAL: IPS chief leaves mixed legacy
Eugene White is a towering man with an outsized personality to match. When he took the helm of the troubled Indianapolis Public Schools seven years ago, he seemed to have the confidence and determination to steamroll through the changes the district badly needed.
EDITORIAL: City government’s good vibrations
The Indianapolis budget accord announced Jan. 7 by Mayor Greg Ballard and City-County Council leaders is worth at least some polite applause.
Daniels did his job
To put in perspective the flurry of activity that has been the eight years of the Daniels administration, one must think back to the state he inherited following a succession of solid, but caretaker, governors.
EDITORIAL: Time for Pence to ditch tax cut
Incoming Indiana Gov. Mike Pence may have spent a decade as a U.S. representative. But he is a neophyte when it comes to managing the state budget—unlike legislative warhorses such as Speaker of the House Brian Bosma and Sens. David Long and Luke Kenley.
EDITORIAL: Doubling down on life sciences is right idea
The Indiana Economic Development Corp.’s proposal to create a $30 million venture fund dedicated to life sciences startups is good news for a valuable sector of our state economy that has been losing out to the more investor-friendly high-tech sector.
EDITORIAL: Highways, transit not either/or choice
Any discussion of the state’s transportation priorities would be incomplete without including the one topic legislators have been reluctant to take on: mass transit.
EDITORIAL: Praise for entrepreneurs who seize the moment
The three real estate developers profiled in our Commercial Real Estate Focus section this week personify that maxim—wisdom that we often lose sight of in the midst of economic hardship.
EDITORIAL: Holiday giving should last all year
Tis the season to give—and we’re not talking about the shop-till-you-drop display of conspicuous consumption that started before the Thanksgiving leftovers were even cold.
EDITORIAL: Transit question is ‘how,’ not ‘if’
Mass transit advocates held a rally here to kick off Indy Connect Now, their latest attempt to convince state legislators that voters in Marion and Hamilton counties should be allowed to decide whether to fund creation of a $1.3 billion bus and light rail system in central Indiana.
EDITORIAL: University bloat ripe for review
The number of administrative workers at Purdue shot up 54 percent in the past decade, nearly eight times the increase in tenured and non-tenured faculty, Bloomberg reported. Meanwhile, the cost for room, board and other expenses for attending the university swelled 60 percent.
EDITORIAL: Pence should stick with business game plan
It will soon be time for newly elected governor Mike Pence to prove his critics wrong. Pence beat challenger John Gregg in a closer-than-expected race in which he was accused of using his campaign’s major themes—jobs and the economy—to hide his conservative social agenda from Hoosier voters.
EDITORIAL: IndyCar board overreacted
The board’s dismissal of CEO Randy Bernard seemed to cut a change agent off at the knees, and that could come back to haunt them.
EDITORIAL: Convention biz needs quick solution to flight woes
Last week’s IBJ reported on an entirely different consequence of the direct-flight problem that should—must—break us out of our stupor and get something done.
EDITORIAL: Council’s $15M CIB raid is shortsighted
Democrats on the Indianapolis City-County Council who voted to plug a hole in the city budget by charging the Capital Improvement Board $15 million risk creating more problems than they solved.
EDITORIAL: City waterways plan awash in promise
It’s invigorating to see the big potential of grass-roots economic development efforts. Take, for example, the Reconnecting to Our Waterways initiative, a mammoth plan to use six waterways in the city to attract investment and improve the neighborhoods that surround them.
EDITORIAL: Residents’ health a weighty issue
The projections released last month by Trust for America’s Health were sobering: By 2030, more than half of Hoosiers will be obese.
EDITORIAL: It’s time for Mayor Ballard to take the baton
A few weeks ago in this space, we called for someone—anyone—to step forward to take a leadership role in resolving the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra’s labor dispute. The silence has been deafening.