IS IT TRUE there is a legal ad in today’s Courier and Press that discloses the city council will hold a public hearing on June 25 to discuss additional appropriations in excess of the budget for 2012?…the excess amounts include $1M for the general fund, $1M for parks, $2M from county option income tax, and $1M from riverboat?…thus makes the City County Observer wonder about the budget process of the past administration but also piques our interests about the spending habits of the current administration?…it is only June and $5 Million is being discussed that would cause adjustments to the budget that Mayor Winnecke inherited from Mayor Weinzapfel?

IS IT TRUE that Mayor Winnecke is having his 52nd birthday party on Saturday night the 16th of June at the Mesker Park Zoo?…this milestone is a fundraiser for Mayor Winnecke being held on City of Evansville property that is being hosted by a multitude of local movers and shakers?

IS IT TRUE that the City of Evansville received a favorable credit rating on some parks bonds that is enabling the refinance of some old debt?…the savings over the next 10 years from this positive move will amount to about $800,000?…while saving $800,000 is a frugal and A+ step on the part of the Winnecke Administration and Controller Russ Lloyd Jr. this should not be a license to go out and spend $800,000 on frivolous things?…these savings and other saving opportunities should be used to establish a fund to start the work on the combined sewer overflow problem that the EPA is still breathing down the City of Evansville’s neck to correct?…the responsible thing right now is for all found money to go toward these repairs which are needed to get Evansville back from the brink of being a 3rd World City?

IS IT TRUE that we are pleased to see that the old Hilliard and Lyons Building seems to be reopened?…that we are wondering however what is going on with the McCurdy Hotel project as the Vanderburgh County Assessor’s website still shows that it is owned by City Centre Properties and that two tax installments are now overdue and penalties have been assessed?…the windows are still open, the grass is beginning to grow, and the bats, pigeons, rats, and snakes are taking over for another summer of jungle life?…that Mayor Weinzapfel’s beanstalk even looks to be making a comeback?…if old buildings like this are to be returned to any functional usefulness that time is of the essence?…the longer the McCurdy sits there in an abandoned state that the more expensive the eventual repair bill will be and the less likely the prospects for a full refurbishment become.

IS IT TRUE that there is a pretty clever description of the state of today’s economy in a column authored by Edward Lazear?…he compares the economy of the last several years to a baseball game in which two pitchers named Bush and Obama have occupied the pitcher’s mound?…that President Bush was pulled from the game after only a few innings after giving up 4 runs largely due to pitching mistakes?…that the manager (the American people) handed the ball to President Obama who vigorously took the mound and threw his best pitches?…that President Obama got knocked out of the park and has given up 5 runs in 3 innings and is now under management scrutiny?…at a conference on the mound that President Obama told the manager the only reason he has pitched so poorly is because that Bush fellow had him in a 4 run hole when he started pitching?…the manager is now faced with the decision of whether or not to change pitchers again as there are only a few innings left in this game?…it seems as though we need both better pitching and some decent batting to get out of the jam we are in?

IS IT TRUE sometime during the next week depending on a couple of outside factors the City County Observer will pass another internet traffic barrier?…that it is inevitable that the CCO will enter the realm of the top 300,000 trafficked websites in the world?…that the number of websites out there worldwide recently topped 400 Million?…that places the CCO in the top 0.08% of websites worldwide with respect to traffic?

IS IT TRUE that the whole Johnson Controls line of questioning has us wondering just what can be done when an outgoing administration signs a legal contract during its final hours that turns out to be enough different than it was represented to be at the time of signing that the best solution is to tear up the contract and start over?…we are not saying that is the case with the Johnson Controls deal?…what we are encouraging is for a complete VETTING job including a rigorous financial analysis to be done to see if the numbers in the contract stand up to scrutiny and practical assumptions?…if they do then Mayor Weinzapfel did a good job (in a vacuum) and we can all look forward to having our water meters read through the internet?…the real question becomes what happens if this turns out to be a dud that the Winnecke Administration really prefers not to go forward with?…we think there should be some kind of mechanism to automatically require VETTING of everything that is passed above a certain price threshold in the lame duck days of any administration?…that this $50 Million plus deal would certainly exceed that threshold?…if it really is not a contract that solidly pays for itself with tangible and measurable savings that it should be subject to cancellation?…that what has been shown thus far certainly look like there is a high potential for exactly that outcome?

IS IT TRUE that lame duck elected officials have often pulled plenty of stunts that are less financially impactful than the Johnson Controls deal may be to Evansville?…there was a real concerted effort by the Weinzapfel Administration to jam through yet another deal for the McCurdy in a last minute special meeting of the Evansville Redevelopment Commission?…that the ERC which took 4 years to learn their lesson blocked this effort and sent former DMD Director Tom Barnett stomping out of the room mad as a hornet?…we wonder what would happen if an outgoing President of the United States pardoned Charles Manson and others like him?…we hope that such an executive action could be overturned by saner minds?…that alas we do not think executive privilege has changed much since the words “give us Barabbas” were uttered in Jerusalem?…that does not say much for the advancement of governance?

IS IT TRUE that economist Milton Friedman predicted the fall of the Euro within 10 years at the time it was launched?…that while Friedman may have missed his timing it appears that the probability of Greece and other European countries with excessive debt is getting pretty high?…that when Greece runs out of Euros which they most certainly will that they may return to the Drachma to avoid a devolution into a barter system?…Cypress just requested a banking bailout similar to Greece for the same reasons and that Spain is on the same path?…we should take a lesson from these countries that are several years ahead of us on the debt to GDP curve and right the American ship now?…that counter to what pundits and extremist party hacks say, the escalation of debt started in 2007 under President Bush and has continued unabated under President Obama?…that while these two presidents have different ideologies they pretty much look the same to a financial analyst?