IS IT TRUE June 21, 2013

IS IT TRUE, according to the most recent published financial report for the month of April, the City of Evansville, the General Fund from where most all of the police, firefighters, and city employees receive their paychecks, has a negative balance of $11,867,621?…according to official reports, on January 1, 2013 the paycheck fund [General Fund] was $3,989,712 to the positive?…the drop in deposits in the paycheck fund was only a mere difference of $15,857,333 from New Year’s Day until the end of April?… we are on the edge of our seats awaiting the Winnecke Administration results for May 2013?…we wonder about the logic of the Winnecke Administration concerning discretionary spending when City of Evansville employee’s payroll checks may be effected, unless, their idea is to offset by property tax increases?

IS IT TRUE that we are expecting an announcement any day now regarding a finalized agreement with the Branson, Missouri based business to build a new convention hotel complex complete with retail space, restaurants, and apartments?…this may seem cynical but we expect this to happen before the results of the 2012 audit and the McGladry study are made public?…the CCO Moles tell us that neither of these official opinions of the stewardship of the coffers of the City of Evansville will be complementary?…the inconvenient reality is that these studies need to be completed and published before any $37.5 Million gift of corporate welfare in the form of a subsidy can be debated with knowledge?…if the Winnecke Administration and Controller Russ Lloyd have indeed completed cleaning the accounting nightmare left for them by the Weinzapfel Administration they may just garner a bit of respect from the community?…that does not change the fact that corporate welfare should not be handed out to private businesses at all much less on a preferential basis but if the books reconcile and the accounts are full we will offer a high five to Controller Lloyd for his hard work and competence?…if this is not the case then the City Council needs to step in and force competence in a way that Evansville has not seen in many years?

IS IT TRUE it was painful to learn of the intentional vandalism that a handful of dirt bags inflicted on the swimming pool at Garvin Park?…it is shenanigans like this and the slothful living of what we hope is a small percentage of the population that makes keeping anything nice in the City of Evansville?…even with Mayor Winnecke doing a fantastic job of enlisting volunteers to wage a war on litter a casual drive around nearly every part of Evansville does not have a visible difference than how it was before the Mayor fulfilled his campaign promise to clean the streets?…in this respect Mayor Winnecke has worked his fingers to the bone and many others have chipped in to help only to have it thrown back in their face by dirt bags and sloths?…the CCO encourages any witness to this mindless act of destruction to come forward with testimony so justice can be done?…summer in Evansville is hot and everyone is not wealthy enough to have a backyard pool so public swimming pools are an important part of growing up?…with the closure of the Garvin Park pool and Lorraine Pool that leaves the children of two neighborhoods without a pool they can access on their bicycles?…we hope both pools are back in operation soon and that these morons are caught and punished?…it sometimes seems like trying to beautify Evansville is like trying to pour boiling water in the Ohio River to warm it up?…until the little things like litter and parks can be kept clean and functional the big things will not make up for the visible filth in the quality of life department?

IS IT TRUE we wish all of our readers and friends a joyful weekend?…we beg you all not to litter at all and never to do any vandalism to public property or give your silent approval to any who do?

IS IT TRUE June 20, 2013

IS IT TRUE when the Winnecke Administration took over the financial helm of the City, the hospitalization fund had $5,700,000, and now, after eighteen short months of their stewardship the fund has a negative balance of $1,300,000, a difference of $7,000,000?… we wonder how the Winnecke administration is going to replenish the fund balance and whether or not having the right balances in the proper accounts even matters anymore?

IS IT TRUE that the part in yesterday’s IS IT TRUE about the fair haired golden hotel being handed $37.5 Million in tax dollars and the refurbishment of the Riverhouse being denied even a basic tax abatement really struck a chord with many of our readers?…these hotels are only 5 blocks apart and the Riverhouse is only a block from the ONB Building that received a very generous tax abatement and proceeded to sell the building at a profit and lease it back?…our readers are nearly in unanimous agreement that equal treatment should be given to these two hotels if there is even a shred of fairness in the tax abatement system practiced by the Winnecke Administration?…a tax abatement recommendation starts with a graded score sheet and then proceeds to a vote of the City Council with a supposedly unbiased score?…only when an application for tax abatement reaches the City Council can “the games begin” of “gee guys that scored only four years but we really like this one so let’s give em 10 years” or even “I know this thing scored for 10 years but we don’t like this dude so let’s send him home empty handed”?…the shenanigans and good old boy nonsense with respect to tax abatements are not supposed to happen in the grading process but it would seem like there may just be some closed door deals being made before the scoring process is made public?…certain members of the City Council should have a keen interest in how this scoring process is kept free of outsider influence and how these applications scored relative to one another?

IS IT TRUE both the Indiana University Hoosiers and the Louisville Cardinals have now been eliminated from the College World Series?…the Cardinals were eliminated in two games without recording a single win and finish the year tied with LSU for 7th Place in the College World Series?…yesterday’s loss to Oregon State will place the Hoosiers into a tie for 5th Place in the College World Series with the loser of the North Carolina vs. North Carolina State game today?…the CCO is proud to be supporters of both the Hoosiers and the Cardinals and hope they both become fixtures in future College World Series?

IS IT TRUE it has now been roughly five years (1,825 days) since that fateful summer of disaster bound decisions made by the Weinzapfel Administration with regard to announcing projects that had no real substantive developers engaged to make them happen?…the projects that have been dying on the vine for 5 years now include both the McCurdy Hotel and the new downtown convention hotel?…it would really be ironic if Mayor Winnecke holds a big kick off announcement for an amped up convention hotel project on the exact 5th anniversary of the Weinzapfel announcement?…we would not even be surprised to see the former mayor show up and smile for the cameras when an announcement finally comes and when the golden shovels and gilded hard hats are dusted off for the obligatory picture of silly politicians digging the first shovel of dirt?…we wonder what private investors who are competitors of subsidized projects think of government welfare fueling their competitors businesses?