IS IT TRUE last night’s meeting of the Evansville City Council was both inspirational and comical?…that when some of our citizens rose to admonish the Council regarding the dilapidated state of the James Bethel Gresham house that it was inspiring to see for the first time in a while that the Evansville City Council finally gets it that the City of Evansville is doing an unacceptable job of taking care of things?…that a trip to the Oak Hill Cemetery yesterday by a CCO associate confirmed that not a darn thing has been done about the state of the cemetery that was exposed during Memorial Day weekend?…it is truly time for the City of Evansville to at least learn to sweep it’s front porch as the neglect of this city is completely offensive?

IS IT TRUE that the comical part came at the end when Evansville City Controller Russ Lloyd Jr. was trying to schedule a time when the members of the City Council could attend the necessary budget hearings?…the target month for meetings is August?…that day after day was rejected because some member of the Council could not attend for personal reasons?…it was reminiscent of trying to get an appointment with a business leader in Europe during August when the continent basically shuts down so everyone can have the holiday that they have voted themselves an entitlement too?…now we know why things can’t seem to get done in Evansville?…Evansville or at least our City Council seems to have turned into France when it comes to working in August?…they should just have the budget hearing in May if it is really necessary to be gone during August?

IS IT TRUE the battle for taxation has started in a big way between President Obama and Republican candidate for president Mitt Romney?…that most of the numbers are not very different than they were in the face off between President Obama and Congress in 2010 with the President wanting to raise taxes on those whose annual earnings are over $200,000 and Romney basically favoring keeping the rates on earnings where they are now with a few exceptions?…the two exceptions that are not getting much airplay but will take the biggest bite from peoples personal money are the death tax and the tax in dividends?

IS IT TRUE it has long been expected that the next 10 or 15 years would result in the biggest generational transfer of wealth as the baby-boomers started to inherit the wealth that their thrifty generation parents saved the old fashioned way?…that ABC has estimated that the total inheritance that the baby-boomers are likely to see is about $11.6 Trillion?…that number has decreased by roughly $1 Trillion during the last 2 years?…that Governor Romney’s tax proposal is to eliminate the death tax altogether but that President Obama’s plan is to raise the death tax to 45% with a yet to be disclosed threshold?…that President Obama’s tax plan if passed will take roughly 40% of the soon to be inherited money (after threshold) and confiscate it for the federal government?…that amounts to nearly $5 Trillion that should go to the heirs of the generation that saved that will go to the IRS if President Obama gets his way on taxes?

IS IT TRUE that when it comes to dividends which are a necessary part of the equation used to attract investment dollars to utility and blue chip stocks President Obama wants to raise the tax to triple what Governor Romney is proposing?…that raising the tax on dividend will make the build out of critical infrastructure by private utilities nearly impossible because investment dollars from retirees who depend on the dividend income will be going elsewhere?…these two devastating and confiscatory taxation differences are being completely ignored by mainstream media but that these two taxes will have a much higher impact on life in the USA than whether or not Bill Gates pays 39.6% or 35% on current earnings?

IS IT TRUE James Bethel Gresham of Evansville, Indiana was the first American to give his life for his country in World War I?…his home in Garvin Park that was dedicated to his mother is under the care of the City of Evansville Parks Department?…the Parks Department as it seems to do with nearly everything it has stewardship of has allowed the James Bethel Gresham house to fall into a state of disrepair and that the ceiling has fallen in at least one room?…this is the same Parks Department that is about to be burdened with an new Roberts Park to maintain and maybe even the Weinzapfel Administration’s final civic delusion of Centennial Park in the lot behind the Greyhound Bus Station?…the first step of recovery and refocus is to RIGHTSIZE things until they are manageable?…we do not know how what the Evansville Parks Department can actually manage in an exemplary manner but we do know it is much less than they have now?…handing more and more property and responsibility to the Evansville Parks Department given their performance of the last several years makes about as much sense as asking a four year old to babysit?

IS IT TRUE another new park that was to have been built with private money was announced last year after much negotiation at the corner of Main Street and 4th Street?…this lot was mostly owned by Old National Bank that was in the mood to divest of the land so they could stop having to keep it up?…that the Kempf family owned part of it and were the drivers behind the new park?…as we recall a dedicated maintenance fund was to have been set up for that particular park?…we wonder if that privately financed park has slipped through the cracks in the transition from Weinzapfel and Winnecke?…we also wonder why Evansville is hell bent to spend money on parks they will not be able to maintain when a perfectly good downtown park has been offered from private sources?

IS IT TRUE that a new nepotism law went into effect in the State of Indiana on July 1st?…what that means is after July 1st it became illegal to hire family members and cronies onto the public payroll?…it would be interesting to learn just who was hired during the month of June by the City of Evansville, Vanderburgh County, and other government entities just ahead of the ban on nepotism to see if any last minute cronies and family members were signed on to the public payroll in the last month to be able to do so?…we also wonder why Mole #32 tells the CCO that there have been no new conflict of interest statements or amendments to existing statements made this year?…that must mean that none of the new elected officials have any conflicts of interest to disclose?

IS IT TRUE that Evansville City Council President Connie Robinson is now whining about the absence of minority entertainment acts being brought into the Ford Center?…Councilwoman Robinson is even going public in search of a subsidy for bringing such an act in?…she did not state any particular act she is interested in seeing?…Evansville’s promoters have always gone for the guaranteed drawing power of classic rock and country as those demographics always seem to reward the promoter?…that neither VenuWorks nor SMG are promoters?…what they do is manage facilities while promoters like the late Larry Aiken choose the acts they are willing to risk their own money to bring to town?…President Robinson is a business owner that is fully capable of running the numbers and promoting a musical event without a subsidy?…there is no reason whatsoever for the public to bear the cost of any subsidy for such an event and that the fastest way for Council President Robinson to realize her dream of bringing a minority act that she approves of (sorry Darius, you are Republican so you don’t count) to the Ford Center is to take on the role of promoter herself?…that she would be well served to make note that Snoop Dogg only drew 2,000 people to Roberts Stadium yet played this spring in front of 75,000 at Coachella Fest?…promoters can easily ignore demographics and lose their backside by promoting an act that does not sell tickets?…Councilwoman Robertson should do this if she likes on her own and knock off the panhandling?