IS IT TRUE MARCH 4, 2015

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IS IT TRUE the City of Evansville gets approximately 60% of its revenue from property taxes? ….our property tax installments come twice a year in June and December? ….although the normal distribution months are June and December, the Vanderburgh County Auditor can start giving advances on the money in late October/November and late April/May once they have a good idea of what kind of revenue is coming in?….the City of Evansville starts taking advances as soon as it can twice a year, because it has no choice?….the rule of thumb for City Controllers is to maintain 15% of a fund’s annual budget in the fund at all times? ….the State Board of Accounts enforces municipal accounting rules, and it is against those rules to overdraw a fund?….the City of Evansville spends most of any given year with its General Fund, which is the operating fund for the City, in the red?….When the time for advances rolls around, our Controller has been robbing Peter to pay Paul for 4½ months?….when City government formally receives an installment, it can only pay bills into the future for 6 weeks because 4½ months of IOUs have to be paid?….our local government is almost a full 6 months behind in its tax and spend procedure?

IS IT TRUE Central Dispatch, which is a combined city/county department is facing a financial crisis created by local government?….the lifespan, or true effectiveness, of its current technology will end next year?….the Central Dispatch Board has known since it installed and implemented its current technology that there was an end to its productive usefulness, and they created a plan to upgrade and expand the technology years ago?….the first stage of the plan, which they had hoped to complete this year, is to build a new tower in the north end of Vanderburgh County to address signal dead spots?…..the second stage would have occurred next year and includes new hardware and software for the office and first responders?….the cost for the nondiscretionary upgrades is approximately $5.4 million dollars with the county and City splitting the cost at 25% for the County and 75% for the City?….by putting the costs in just one year, City government will need to find $3.9 million dollars for 2016?….the alternative is to push the envelope of our current technology, which may work if we all cross our fingers?….insiders complain the Mayor himself is kicking this unsexy project can down the road?….this is a great example of form over substance, as government cronies plan for a downtown motel while public services suffer and the infrastructure literally crumbles around us?

IS IT TRUE the City of Evansville passed an ordinance requiring property owners to clear their sidewalks of ice and snow in the 1970s?….one would not know such an ordinance exists if they attempted to navigate sidewalks all over the City the last couple of weeks?….federal and state agencies, churches, nonprofit organizations, the City of Evansville, Vanderburgh County, residents and business like our own Courier & Press didn’t feel the need to make sidewalks adjoining their property passable?…..it was a sad sight to see pedestrians navigating Walnut Street on their way to the Rescue Mission and Ruth’s House walking in the street?….more so than the failure to clear the sidewalks in the first few days of snowfall, it was the continued failure to send someone outside or hire someone even ten days later that was most disturbing?….just as litter removal has a goal of training citizens to not throw it on the ground in the first place, clearing our sidewalks has the same impact?….there’s nothing like neighbor shaming when it comes to Christmas lights, a well-manicured lawn and snow removal?….Bloomington, Indiana has a similar ordinance for the removal of snow and ice from sidewalks, and it was a pleasure to see their ordinance working?….all of this begs the question of how can Evansville truly be a pedestrian and bicycle friendly community when we have such low regard for anyone who’s not driving a car?….as we face the potential for more snow today, we should all take care of our sidewalks and potentially help a friend who isn’t physically able to do the work?

IS IT TRUE we thank you for your support and look forward to bringing you the news in a way that not only brings you into the discussion but makes you feel compelled to participate?

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111 COMMENTS

  1. Have I been paying my property taxes to early? That Bloomington why can’t more cities be like them? I’ll be sure to take care of my sidewalk so my neighbors can cycle to get their free cheese.

    It seems to me a smart solution to the revenue cycle would be to pay property taxes quarterly.

    • If it motorized, it is not suppose to be on “your” sidewalk. Your neighbor is likely heading to their
      new minimum wage job created by your local government giving “corporate welfare” to a company
      who was panhandling several cities with the most freebies!

      • Bicycle.

        Most of my neighbors are sleeping when I leave. About four of us on the block actually work The rest are retired, students, or disabled. Coming home from work the day it snowed I witnessed a bona fide miracle . Our disabled 30 something male neighbor ran from his handicapped parking spot and jumped up on his porch. I only wish I had had a video camera so I could share his miraculous healing with the world so everyone would know how great these entitlements work. He even got his children back from social services. It was heartwarming to see him yelling at them in the Walgreens parking until they cried. I bet he keeps his sidewalk clean.

          • Sure, but this miracle was one of government entitlement healing this poor unfortunate 30 something.

        • IE , I know there are quite a lot of people that do fake their disability but not all do
          some people have a disability from within , I’m talking about lung,heart issues,,I was put on disability when I was 47 , some people really want to work but cannot afford to when meds may cost $500 a month and you only bring home $1000 a month
          ,,,just saying not everyone on disability is a bum ,,,,I know I’m not ,,,I had a full time job for over 30+ and was told by my employer I was gonna be put on disability and that I deserved it and had put my time in.

          • They have no idea what it’s like to be disabled and poor. If they were in that position they would be tooting a different horn.

            You are so right about the cost of medicine. I know of some meds that cost $800 for a weeks supply.

    • I don’t understand your idea. That won’t make anymore money available. It would just cost more to collect it.

  2. Should those local governments been collecting 911 phone fees from land lines these past years, and
    of late, with our cell phones billings? Maybe we should “sexy” this upgrade with a promise of “skyboxes
    and wet bar” for the elites overlooking central dispatch operations?

    Were all of the local governments property sidewalks cleared? Should local government tag property
    owners like they do for tall weeds/grass? Should the city create snow routes for sidewalks like they do for roadways? Maybe the city should clear these sidewalks and bill the property owners through their property
    taxes?

    • I am 72 yrs. old and was able to keep my sidewalk clear. I have lived in this house for 60 yrs. and I have seen how years ago when most of my neighbors owned their homes all the walks were clear. I think people took a little more pride in their surroundings back then. Same goes for all the litter.

      • You have witness the change when those “think tanks” changed over our economy from being
        a producer (creating wealth) to a consumer (draining wealth). There was pride in those days when
        you, and your neighbors were working, buying those local made products that kept us all employed.

        What we now have is the results of greed by CEO’s, stock holders that did not have “hands on” of
        the products/services produced. For globalization to work, our economy has to be pulled down to
        the other third world countries. We are well on our way there!

        • Yes we are. This is about social justice. Those folks in the 3rd world are human beings and entitled to the same life’s chances as white folks. The way to lift them up is to share our wealth and the means of creating wealth. The liberal elite works hard to ensure diversity and equal access to healthcare, jobs and the earned wealth of all except themselves. This sharing will not come from the super rich, as Romney said, the rich don’t pay tax. Both parties would like to tax the rich, but the catch is how can we tax the other parties rich and save our big donors. Social justice will be realized on the backs of those with a family income of under $150,000 a year. The liberal elite currently creates a message that the unions like to hear, get their votes and then do something else. The liberal elite despises unions and their members because of the pay disparity. A member of the liberal elite with a bachelors, masters or Phd with 6+ Years of hard studying in some sort of liberal arts will make less money than a union laborer with little or no training with a GED. You know that chaps their rears. I expect before Obama is out of office he will do a couple of more amnesties and raise them up by pulling us down. Most of us 50 or above will do well and hope the same for children. What can be expected for our grandchildren is questionable, but lucky for most of us we might not be around to see it. Think Ferguson with no police.

          • Some of those college degrees are not worth the paper their degree is
            written on. Just because someone goes to college does not makes them
            intelligent. They be book smart, but they lack in common sense. Look at
            what gets voted into government positions.

            As far as social justice, justice should be here stateside as it once was.
            Globalization has killed this country from the seekers of more greed.

  3. The condition of the sidewalk outside my house would make it very difficult to shovel. Also, the sub zero temps turned it into more like ice which would not have easily been shoveled. What if somebody is out of town? Do they get fined, too? Oh and as always, IE uses this is an opportunity to take a shot at the less fortunate.

    • No, I help the less fortunate by giving them a ride rather than making them walk in the snow and ice, but not those who milk the system for cheese.

      • The less fortunate would rather have a better paying job, but it appears your
        party, under the chamber of commerce orders, are beating those wages
        down farther. Maybe you need to give that person a good paying job?

        • What is the less fortunate stuff? If these people are less fortunate than you or I that would mean we are more fortunate. That is just not he case. Success is not a random occurrence, it is earned through responsible living and by making excellent choices. Using that term feeds the entitlement mentality and promotes the myth that life is a game of chance. These folks are for the most part not less fortunate, they are less capable, less prepared, and less motivated.

          • What your parents did, created/hindered the chance you have. The “haves” never had to lived off of minimum wage job as their only source of money their whole life. There are cases that one can pull themselves up to those higher earnings. That I don’t deny. But there are many that look down their nose at the one’s that try but can’t, but don’t admit they had help getting theirs!

          • Mega, if hard work is the key, then all ancestors of slavery
            would had good fortune from their hard work. Hard work is
            just a “buzz word” used. You need connections!

          • You’ll have to ask ghost what who the less fortunate, but I think it’s people stuck on government entitlements who can not break free from the dependent class.

          • IE, with your party and the chamber of commerce beating
            wages lower and lower, there will be more on that government
            assistance which may/may not be no fault of their own.
            Gone are the days from 50-60 years ago when we all
            worked and made what we consume. Granted that there was
            still a small sector that didn’t/could not.

          • @Adam Smith (9:17) – I resent the fact that you state that making bad choices is the only reason that some folks are less successful, less capable, less prepared, less motivated and less “fortunate” than others. There are reasons why some cannot do what others can do by virtue of their physical limitations. Many people milk the system I am sure but to say that all do so is insulting and ignorant. I have multiple sclerosis and have worked hard all my life just ending my career at age 66 this past Jan. But I know that I could have done more with my life than I was able to due to various physical shortcomings. I realized that I could not have done justice to the careers that I was really interested in pursuing and could not have tolerated doing less than the best work possible. I know many others with this same demand for excellence in themselves. Please think before you aggrandize your accomplishments, as good as I am sure they were, over the lives of others.

          • Arms, I have no party and little confidence in the CofC being effective in their purpose of increasing commerce. Market forces a beating wages down for those who have little value to contribute to the market. No, I am not looking to “give” someone a good paying job, but I am looking to hire someone who can offer me a return on his or her value, and it’s no shoveling snow.

          • IE, Depending on what you do, I’m available
            from mid November to end of March every year!
            I’m needing something to do during the winter.

            I may not be what you want,
            but I’m what you need!

          • Well now you tell me Arms! I am in manufacturing not construction. You’re pipefitter aren’t you?

          • Nope, building foundation layout, concrete form work
            for all sorts, walls, foundations and their anchor bolts,
            state and county bridges, wastewater treatment plants,
            etc. was my specialty. Worked these early in my career,
            then took care of them jobs the past 25 years.

            Garvin Park flood wall with the barn siding look was some
            of the earlier work.

        • I am a good example for you. I grew up in a lower middle class home. My first job at at 16 in fast food paid 75cents an hour. I got a raise to minimum wage of $1.60 when I turned 18 and pushed that to $5 by the time I was 21 by bettering my skills. Then I woke up and went to college and graduated with honors. I had minimal support from family and took out student loans. I have a career of showing up on time, doing good work, continuing to learn, and today I make over $100,000 working part time. There were plenty of my classmates who were more fortunate as you may call it. They all blame everything but themselves for their limited success. Blaming others for your own failures is the trademark of the less fortunate. Wanna be fortunate? Work for it and make good decisions. It works every time for every body who is willing to stay the course.

          • What were your parents occupations? Were they in unions? Did they make at least minimum wage? Did you attend public schools? Did you drive on public roads to get to school? Did you ever use a public library to learn? Did you breath clean air and drink clean water so you’d be alive to use that fancy pants libetal hoity toity education? Somehow you avoided all the liberals who intended to brainwash you at that fancy lernun bildin?

          • Mr. Smith – excellent example.

            Mr. Ghost – thanks for sharing that inane diatribe. It certainly shed the spot light on the true definition of “less fortunate”. God love you.

          • Enoch made an interesting observation. When I made my decision to go to college there was no cornucopia of entitlements to prop up my $5 per hour wage. I wonder if enough entitlements would have kept me comfortable enough to have avoid the education road and keep on doing menial tasks for menial pay. Dang, I coulda been a mooch.

            Ghost, certainly I drove on public roads, went to public schools etc. I realize that I did not breathe life into my own carcass and pull myself up by my own bootstraps. My buddies growing up who cast blame on everything else had access to those same public improvements and chose not to use them as effectively. I pay my taxes and do not begrudge doing so. I want to see the next generation have good opportunities. Coddling them with life’s needs through entitlement programs just cripples their ambition for independence.

            My parents both became managers. One was from a union background the other did not. They both were excellent examples for good life skills and lived within their means.

          • Parents actions do prep their children for their future.
            You were lucky that both parents provide for the good
            of your family. Many out there was not as fortunate,
            both financial and/or otherwise. My parents were raised
            during the Depression and their teens life was during WW2.
            Their upbringing made who I’m am today!

            Many have money, but do not enjoy life. Seems they are always
            hungry for more money then what they really need. Others enjoy
            life, while not having much.

          • Arms, I hope we get past these winter days soon because you seem to be running low on vitamin D.

            I was fortunate enough to be born to a rich family or parents who understood money, economics, or business. I have fought from a hole most of my life, but through sheer tenacity, denying instant gratification, and a focused effort of hard work, I learned better. I don’t sit at home in an off season sobbing over unions or the CofC. In fact, I provided some work for two off season union workers to help them bridge the gap. Good workers, great guys.

            If you have the good fortune to hire one of my children, you will hire someone with a good work ethic who understand sand respects money and will not turn their hard earn income over to a bank for a snazzy paint job on wheels.

            So here’s what I think of the less fortunate. They are fortunate that there are families like mine who produce enough value to help those who can’t help themselves and provide opportunities to those who can.

            Seriously my friend, China is not your enemy. It’s just the way the world is. We can’t change that, so we must learn to adapt. With all respect, and I really really like you, your worst enemy may be the person who gets the mail out of your mailbox. I know once I figured that out, I got a lot more fortunate.

          • IE, you may be right about the enemy being the one who brings in my mail.
            I have an old die hard voting republican bringing in my mail for 10 cents a day.
            I think I’ll get that Undocumented Mexican down the road do it for a nickel.
            Karma is hell!

          • Some times a antidote is needed to offset the partisanship from the
            large base here. Just a little balance overall. Killing a little time for
            paint to dry before another coat!

        • We have 5 million new citizens coming into this country and they are going to need help. Where is this help going to come from? The state of Indiana is one up on this, create more jobs with the same amount of tax dollars. This is liberal talk for share the wealth. These new Americans are entitled to this opportunity, what is happening is called parity. This is an opportunity to take those high paying union jobs and create 3 non union jobs. Beans, rice, a piece of pork with 5 families living in the same house is the dream Obama visualizes for us. Of course he had a lot of help from Clinton, remember NAFTA.

          • NAFTA was a Reagan idea and passed by a Republican congress. Clinton was railroaded into signing it.

          • NAFTA was signed by George H Bush and the Canadian, and the Mexican presidents.
            Congress had to pass the treaty, which was during Clinton’s first term.

          • Arm, the way i remember it NAFTA was a bi-partisan effort. You had some on both sides pushing it. People tie NAFTA an immigration together but they are diff. problems.

          • Cowboy, Ghost was correct on Reagan initiating the concept.
            Also that the republicans had the majority of votes.
            Apparently, Clinton did some bartering with those congress
            people to have those votes needed. In the end, G H Bush
            was the president that signed with the other two nations.

    • We observed certain so called bike lanes that were not cleared as well as the roadway’s snow and frozen slush shoved into them by the snow plows. Of course the same for most sidewalks.
      Its winter you’ll have that.

  4. Can we tag the City for its failure to provide routine care and maintenance for Mesker Amphitheater and for its failure to plow most side streets in the City?

  5. 8 to 10 inches of snow predicted. I hope that the weatherman is wrong this time and we only get rain. The rain is washing away all the “Beet Juice/Salt” before the snow and ice even arrives. So expect the streets to be extremely icy for a while.

    On a good note: The CCO seems to be up to speed today and working great. It was slow yesterday morning but by the afternoon things appeared to have been fixed.

    I wonder if the workers raised the Houseboat yesterday and have had a chance to examine the boat for evidence of where the fire started. It’s been a few weeks since the fire now. I missed the evening news TV broadcast last night.

    • The 14 TV news said that the Serenity Yacht has been lifted out of the water and put on a barge at the Marina. The police will be guarding the boat 24 hrs a day until it can be moved to a safe dry place to examine.

      The problem is that the fire started in the House boat not the yacht from what I have read in the media so far. The boat that they want to examine to see how the fire started is the Houseboat owned by Mr Marver. No? Yes?

  6. “The condition of the sidewalk outside my house would make it very difficult to shovel.”

    TYPICAL,,,,,EXCUSES,,,EXCUSES,,EXCUSES,,,,,Sounds like a union man to me,,,NOT MY JOB.

  7. I’m glad that I live out in the country side where I don’t have any sidewalks to shovel that are not my own.

    • I second that as well. Just as my ancestors have done these past 165 plus years!

    • I live in the city, but don’t have sidewalks. Kids walking to bus stops have to walk and stand on peoples lawns or in the street.

      • We’ve seen that , you’d think your city would do a better job with that, “everybody knows that”. especially on the south east side around that Pollack / covert and out too green river road mess. Who the hells that wards council member that’s a huge fail. Another issue is when your neighbors walk ole pooch they shit’em in the street or your yard? Poop
        loafing in Evansville what a mess……………….whether it’s the neighbors dog crap or the neighbors crap via CSO, its all pretty third world for this century. And “everybody knows that”, as well.

  8. If the city folks are responsible for maintaining a clean sidewalk when it snows, is the county out folks responsible for cleaning the ditches so that water flows freely and stays out of the road. Or is that the County Government’s responsibility to keep the ditches clear and flowing.

    • We do pay ditch assessments on those legal drainage ditches with our property taxes.
      Our county drainage board does a fine job in assuring that they are maintained that allows
      water to move without restrictions. Our county highway department should be included as
      well as doing a good job for ditch maintenance and mowing road right of ways.

      • Thanks Armstrongres. I thought that was how it worked but wanted to ask and try to make sure.
        Do they clean out the drains that run under gravel driveways or is that the home owners responsibility?

        • Don’t know your living arrangement, but us farmer/landowners usually
          just do it because we can. Give the county garage a call and ask. Several
          years back had to replace a drive culvert and increase the length to 40 feet
          on state right of way. Had to apply for a permit and install it to their spects.
          No big deal. Had I install it without the permit, they would eventually found
          the change and would had dug the illegal culvert out.

        • Move, I don’t know about cleaning one but in some counties if you want one put in the county will do it if you pay for the pipe.

  9. Is it true that Pigeon Creek and the Ohio River is receiving “organic matter” from the current
    rain thanks to city sewers? That this organic matter never reach these water ways with every
    day normal usage of water/sewage? That it takes rainfall/snow to created these CSO’s?
    That it is a farce to tie CSO corrections exclusively to the customers water/sewer bill, instead of
    through property owners taxes where it should had been?

    • I think a development fee is inevitable. It’s unlikely that sewer and water rate increases can be raised enough to pay for the projects without widespread issues with disconnection. We’ll probably have to follow the social security model where the new pay for the old. A one time fee or as you suggest, an add on to property taxes, would shift responsibility to property and away from taxes on consumers. Those taxes though will certainly be high enough as we theoretically progress through correcting our problems.

      • I say this because of this. There are a lot of property inside of Evansville
        that has no water/sewer connections, but are dumping the same amount
        of rainwater into those combine sewers. Is it fair for one block of 10 houses
        paying $100 per house water/sewer bill, while the next block is parking that
        pays $0? The only thing different is that parking lot is own by some one with
        the resources to pay, but don’t. Manipulation at it’s best!

    • Maybe I ought to go ahead and put my house up for sale. We can rent in another county till my wife retires.

  10. Is it true that during the last snow storm that a employee for a downtown hedge fund software company slipped and fell on the snow and ice while trying to walk from a city parking garage to his office and broke his ankle? Is it true that break was a compound fracture that required surgery to correct?

  11. Property Tax Receipts–Payday Advances received by City Controller:

    What a batch of BS ! A spending freeze and layoffs need to be enacted to right the SS Evansville, she is listing and may go down next to the yachts in Inland Marina very soon.

    As per usual, the City Council dithers while Rome burns. It’s great that after 3 years of watching deficit spending, Conor O’ Daniel can play Barney Fife and say ” golly Andy, we’re spending too much!”. And Friend, Mr. Weapons of Mass Distraction, gets to try to micromanage the transfers (which enable the City to survive, rob peter/paul).

    Boys, the answer is to shoot it right between the eyes. Cut the head off the snake. The hapless City Administration decries the “property tax caps”. It is settled that that was $ 2 Million/Year. Yet, Gail Riecken’s letter in reply to State of the City says the overspending is around $ 7 Million for the last 3 years; plus the $ 8 Million annual boondoggle Fraud Center, plus another $ 600K operating loss each year at the Fraud.

    More dithering won’t solve the problem, men. Friend is a lame duck, but O’Daniel won’t get reelected barring drastic measures.

    • Exactly who did the property tax cap benefit? The assessment on homes continues to rise and the amount of tax automatically increases. The city and county need to take a look at the number of offices and personnel they’re trying to maintain. There are offices that no longer have a real function but are kept active for political reasons. The HRC could go away and would be unnoticed and save the city/county close to $500,000 a year. Another area needs to be looked at is the criminal justice system and I don’t mean the police, look at mandated court programs. We simply have more programs and obligations than our tax base can support. With 10,000 abandoned houses and large employers leaving this area should be a wake up call to politicians. I don’t think we have recovered from the loss of Whirlpool or Roberts for that matter. Democrats have historically left cities looking like aftermath of a cyclone. Winnecke needs to come clean about the real state of our city. It’s also becoming clear why winnecke/wienzapfel pulled the homestead exemption theft, it was necessary to pay the bills.

      • Again, you’d blame democrats and Obama if a bird shit on your head.

      • Pov, C&P had a Morton Marcus article on this. Vanderburgh County dropped
        $846 million (6.9 percent) in Gross Assessed Value between 2011 and 2012.
        State wide it had dropped $4.1 billion (0.9 percent).

        Old National Bank reassessment is going to create another big void in funds!

        • Think that might be from people leaving and abandoned houses. I know a few people that sold homes during the late 90’s and then moved out of state or to neighboring counties. I think there are 78000 houses in Vanderburgh county and 10000 are abandoned, a good indication of where our problems lie. The increase in sales tax was suppose to pick up any slack, what happen to that? I do know there’s been a slight annual increase in my property tax but not worth fighting for and then there’s that voted for tax that we got fooled with. We need some folks in local government who recognize that we have an aging population, the young people we want to stay are leaving, the young people we want to leave are staying and employers are leaving.

  12. It’s really bad that the city is so broke that they spend their money before it comes in, but it scares me to think about having problems with our 911 service. It seems like that should be put before everything else. We have too much crime and a lot of older people here. We need that more than the things the mayor thinks are important.

  13. More election strategy from our Dear Leader’s party:

    The Obama Democrats have an audacious scheme for winning future elections. They just plan to import 5 million non-citizens and credential them as voters who will, in gratitude, vote Democratic.

    The way this devious formula works is stunningly simple. Just get the new Republican Congress (under Speaker John Boehner and Sen. Mitch McConnell) to pass a full-funding bill for Homeland Security without any exception for the funding of Obama’s illegal executive amnesty, which will allow Obama to give work permits, Social Security numbers and driver’s licenses to 5 million illegal aliens.

    Once the 5 million so-called undocumented persons are given those valuable documents, there is no way to stop them from voting. That conclusion is drawn from the testimony of voting experts such as Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach, who told the U.S. House Oversight Committee on Feb. 12, “It’s a guarantee it will happen.”

    The Obama Democrats have an audacious scheme for winning future elections. They just plan to import 5 million non-citizens and credential them as voters who will, in gratitude, vote Democratic.

    The way this devious formula works is stunningly simple. Just get the new Republican Congress (under Speaker John Boehner and Sen. Mitch McConnell) to pass a full-funding bill for Homeland Security without any exception for the funding of Obama’s illegal executive amnesty, which will allow Obama to give work permits, Social Security numbers and driver’s licenses to 5 million illegal aliens.

    Once the 5 million so-called undocumented persons are given those valuable documents, there is no way to stop them from voting. That conclusion is drawn from the testimony of voting experts such as Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach, who told the U.S. House Oversight Committee on Feb. 12, “It’s a guarantee it will happen.”

    Read More At Investor’s Business Daily: http://news.investors.com/ibd-editorials/030215-741519-illegal-immigrants-will-elect-democrats-under-obama-plan.htm#ixzz3TQXwLDfe
    Follow us: @IBDinvestors on Twitter | InvestorsBusinessDaily on Facebook

    • Or the Republican plan, keep them here illegally, working for slave wages, and not paying taxes.

      • And let the reliable half-witted xenophobes take to the megaphones to defend their master’s slave worker schemes, while working for crumbs themselves. Nobody ever said they were smart, just reliable.

        • Those people aren’t going anywhere. We couldn’t send them back if we tried. Employers who don’t use e-verify ought to pay big fines, do time, and be shut down if they get caught more than twice.
          You’re right about how the people without papers have to live, and who’s making it that way.

        • After reading your post I think you are a hetrophobe and that seems to be a malady of the sexually ambivalent. The master is Obama and the democrat party is the slave owner. The big democrats live on the plantation and little democrats vote once a year and get paid for a life time. Happiness is a refilled ebt card for food and tanf. Life is good when you can be happy with public schools, public housing and public assistance.

          • Nothing ambivalent about you. As was noted before, you rant and whine like a pathetic little penetentiary punk. Your ill-formed posts also indicate you are an inveterate and unrepentant racist, typically poorly educated. I really wish you’d quit with your sexually fixated attacks on me and others because I do at times have a low steam threshhold and feel obliged to respond, punk. You have probably dragged these boards down more than any one person.

  14. I would have thought that today’s IIT would focus like a laser on the Springleaf news. This is a prime example of how taxpayers are repaid for hundreds of thousands of dollars for “economic incentives” that have failed miserably.

    This Springleaf project that was shepherded through the Evansville Redevelopment Commission by the Weinzapfel administration at tremendous cost to local taxpayers has returned NOTHING for the taxpayer’s investment.

    Taxpayers purchased the ground for them, cleared the lots, paid for infrastructure necessary for the new structures, and most likely also made SL a low interest or no interest construction loan at the time.

    • With stocks at a all time high, this form of “corporate welfare” needs to be “nipped in the bud” country wide!

    • Press, the CCO had this in IIT on 2/16/12. Did AIG/Springleaf comply with the commitments for the tax abatements? Has anyone bothered to check? I already miss Joe Wallace’s business acumen in the old IITs.

      “IS IT TRUE that one thing the CCO is curious about is just what the status of compliance with the commitments made at the time that AIG was awarded tax abatements on the AIG Headquarters overlooking Scores were granted?…that there were a certain number of jobs that had to be created to get the incentives and abatements granted by the City of Evansville back in 2007 when the headquarters was built?…that we do not know the exact details but we are sure that the job creation numbers were not negative?…that if the Evansville City Council that granted these incentives and tax abatements wants to do something to redeem themselves for their recent Bacchanalian BoozeFest that reviewing the compliance with the AIG tax abatements and assessing some revenue generating taxes that have been abated yet not earned?”

      https://city-countyobserver.com/?s=springleaf+tax+abatement

      • It would be great if Cheryl would provide local citizens with the data showing just how much in the way of tax dollars have been pumped into the American General/ Springleaf Headquarters project for the ten year period 2005 to 2015. I believe most all of the funds were run through the Evansville Redevelopment Commission, with the Evansville City Council’s approval.

    • Press, Wasn’t it done to keep the jobs or for them to hire more ? What has changed about that ?

      • Either way it was corporate welfare. The practice needs to be banned nation wide.
        Tax abatements as well. Cost local government unneeded expense. Stock markets
        are at record highs. Corporations need no help. Never will change with the largest
        lobbyist group in charge!

        • Arm, Who wants to be the first city/state to stop. What if others don’t stop ? Whoever thought of it had a great idea if it would have stopped with one comp. Now they have a monster on their hands.

        • Armstrong = Ghost, the simple question is whether AIG/Springleaf lived up to their end of the tax abatement deal. If not, they owe money to the City. To the rest of your comments, you may enjoy visiting North Korea or the ISIS territory. There you will bask in a utopia of no tax abatement, no stock markets and no lobbyists. Bon voyage.

          • Sorry the truth hits a sore spot on you. Are you a beneficiary
            of this type government welfare, while condemning individuals
            on this site of the same type of practice?

        • Didn’t union labor build their headquarters? I know union labor built everything for the casino. See a pattern here. Local democrats and union bosses have been good to the union. Votes paid for by the citizens of this fine city but the vote buying days for this city are numbered.

  15. Re: Central Dispatch:
    ❛….by putting the costs in just one year, City government will need to find $3.9 million dollars for 2016?…❜
    〜 Send it to Local Personality’s desk, he’ll find the money.

    ❛….insiders complain the Mayor himself is kicking this unsexy project can down the road?…❜
    〜 Winnecke has done enough damage. He has earned a summary dethroning. By any metric he has failed as mayor.
    ―――
    ❛… and business [sic] like our own Courier & Press didn’t feel the need to make sidewalks adjoining their property passable? …❜
    〜 There’s an editor for that.

    • Hold on, Dr. Adams is talking through both sides of his mouth. He was ADAMANT that he would not spend one dime on the Hotel until the Medical School was already in progress.

      Premature fundulation !

    • And I repeat, why hasn’t the city council retracted the $20 million for the former hotel plan and reassessed the new hotel plan to see if they want to put any money down on it? Seems like a no-brainer——– But I am redundant.

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