IS IT TRUE that Evansville City Council Finance Chairman Dan McGinn requested that City Attorney Josh Claybourn research State law governing the Indiana Local Option Income Tax and Homestead Tax Credits? …the reason for the Mr. Claybourn research is to help Council to find extra money to help reduce the 2016 employee health insurance shortfall?…actions like this become urgent because of years of doing the wrong thing?…if present and past City Council members made the appropriate allocations of local tax dollars to cover our contractual obligations during the last decade, the urgency of today would not be an urgency at all?…the same mindset that sits back and allows the infrastructure to decay while spending freely on fun and games was hard at work in deferring these legitimate expenses?
IS IT TRUE that Council President Missy Mosby and Finance Chairman Dan McGinn have not only been collaborating to eliminate our Homestead Tax Credit but to increase our Local Option Income Tax in order to catch up on unpaid General Fund debt for 2016 and 2017?…this is another urgency that was years in the making?…tax increases happen naturally with reassessment on an annual basis?…at least they do in a growing thriving economy?…both of these tax increases will be permanent and both are urgent because the City Council’s of the past have failed in the budgeting obligations?
IS IT TRUE we wonder if Mayor Winnecke, Council President Missy Mosby and Councilman Jonathan Weaver are going to sponsor another “we love our law enforcement” rally on the Civic Center steps this coming March?  …considering how they treated members of our local law enforcement during the last budget cycle we recommend that they don’t?
IS IT TRUE that after the unauthorized transfer of the Tropicana’s future income advance of $12,500,000 from the Riverboat fund to deposit into General Fund? …once again this is a case of mortgaging the future to cover the perceived need to fund fun and games initiatives today?…the legacy of buying a new car on credit while letting the toilet leak inside the trailer with a hole in the roof has caught up with the Evansville City Council of 2017?
IS IT TRUE that shortfalls of cash are exacerbated by the failure of the sports teams that play in Ford Center to draw the crowds they were budgeted to draw?..the quality of hockey has degraded and the wins have been few and far between since the Evansville Icemen left town? …the attendance is predictably down as happens when the home team can manage to win?…the Evansville Purple Aces after having a great year in 2016 are back to the cellar of the Missouri Valley Conference with one win and eight losses?…what is true about ticket sales is that winning sells tickets?…it does not matter if the winning team plays in Ford Center, Roberts Stadium, or a big pole barn, winning is the only way to fill large arenas?
IS IT TRUE that last week former City Councilman President and Finance Chairman  John Friend-CPA stated “if you think that City of Evansville experienced major financial shortfalls in 2016 just wait and see what the 2017 budget year has in store for them”?   …he told us that the 2017 budget year will be a financial disaster?  …in case you need to be reminded that Mr. Friend was spot on about his predictions about the budget shortfall for the budget years 2015 and 2016?
IS IT TRUE considering  the financial crisis facing the City of Evansville would you have voted to fund a new and expensive “penguin” display at the Zoo this year?
IS IT TRUE that the majority of our present City Council members and the Mayor are nothing more than  ‘Tax and Spend” libels?
FOOTNOTE: Todays “Readers Poll” question is: Â Do you support Evansville City Council increasing our Local Option Income Tax?