IS IT TRUE the saga of raising tax rate on the citizens of Evansville and Vanderburgh County is one of those sad things that happens when property values do not increase to go along with the general cost of living?…expenses tend to rise in the Midwest along with the rest of the country with the odd exception of housing?…that is why a flat percentage tax fuels the coffers of government in areas where housing values increase without needing to raise the rates?…over a ten year period of a moderate inflation on goods and services of say 2.5% leads to an overall cost of living or business operation of roughly 30%?…when the municipal employees are granted annual increases based on cost of living statistics, and the assets used to run a government increase the sobering truth is that a $300 Million budget in 2007 would naturally turn into a $390 Million budget in 2017?.

IS IT TRUE in a situation where incomes and properties are not going up for the bulk of the taxpayers the City or County will not see their tax revenues increase over the same period of time?…the result is a need to raise taxes collected by the 30% increase in operating expenses just to keep doing the same things?…the City of Evansville and Vanderburgh County are both caught between a rock and a hard place due to the phenomena of rising prices in a stagnant economy?

IS IT TRUE in most situations where one is not getting any raises the correct action would be to cut back on consumption?…the City of Evansville in particular has not only kept up the spending, they have doubled down on fun and games under the irrational assumption that the fun and games would make the cash register ring?…the reality could not have been further from the truth?…with the combination of the Ford Center ($127 Million), the Doubletree Hotel ($21 Million), and the Indiana University Medical School ($57 Million), the trustees of the fair City of Evansville have borrowed over $205 Million that consume interest payments of over $10 Million per year?…not a one of these expensive baubles has come even close to paying for itself and the end is nowhere in sight?…all of this spending excludes bike paths, ball fields, penguin exhibits, and that shiny new home for a couple of jaguars all of which adds nearly another $50 Million to the party tab?…the future may well have been mortgaged to the fun and games obsession of the present?

IS IT TRUE the crime statistics for large American cities were just released and contrary to popular belief Chicago is not the murder capital of America?…that distinction goes to St. Louis where 59.6 people out of every 100,000 are murdered in any given year?…Chicago is a distant 8th place on the murder capital list?…some Indiana towns did make the list?…Indianapolis comes in at #21 with a murder rate of 17.6 per 100,000 while Fort Wayne debuts on the murder capital list at #24 at 16.5 out of 100,000?…little Evansville by the Ohio fares much better than any of them with a murder rate of 7.5 per 100,000?…the article went on to state that the driving force behind this crime spree in major US cities is the resurgence of heroin as the drug of choice for opiate users, many of whom are in the Midwest?…a couple of years ago Indiana had more prescriptions for opiates than it had people?…when the feds cracked down on the legal distribution of opiates, the heroin scourge that had been underground for many years came roaring back?…this is a tragedy that is just beginning to get traction so expect things in the mega cities to get worse before they get better?

IS IT TRUE a coffee shop in San Francisco now has a robot that will take your coffee order, prepare it for you, and put it into a cup for 40 cents less than Starbucks charges?…this innovation uses 30 year old robotic technology that was pioneered by the auto industry?…it was the excessive wage demands of people who think they deserve $15 per hour for pouring coffee in a cup that inspired this adaption of robotic technology?…someday soon the day of the barista will end due to yet another machine that does a better job for a better price than a human being?

IS IT TRUE that around 75 City of Evansville employees are being sued for unpaid medical bills?  …we hear that the City Controller had to find about $4 million dollars to pay towards past medical bills? …the City still owes many more million of dollars on unpaid medical bills?  …we wonder where the City Controller got the $4 million dollars to pay the past unpaid City employees medical bills?

IS IT TRUE we would like members of City Council to ask Finance Chairman Dan McGinn to give them a detailed recap concerning the real status of 2016 and 2017 unpaid employees medical bills?  …we also would like for him to explain where he going to get the money to make unpaid medical bills current?

FOOTNOTE: Todays “Readers Poll” question is: Do you feel that our elected officials should force the State to include Ivy Tech in the IU-Evansville Medical school project?