IS IT TRUE the dust up over the fact that 8 members of the Evansville City Council gave in to Mayor Winnecke’s demand that they come into his office for a one-on-one meeting and sign a non disclosure agreement in order to be given a copy of the proposal from HCW Development of Branson, MO to put up a convention hotel with all the trimmings including retail space of the lot next to the Ford Center?…the 9th member of the City Council Al Lindsey requested a copy of the proposal but was denied access because he has a fundamental belief that anything asking to get a $40 Million taxpayer handout should be done in an open forum?…the real cash value of the improvements are going to be what they are with little room for variance so the range of negotiation that will be acceptable to any developer will be small?…building a hotel in downtown Evansville is not the plans to the D-Day Invasion so the cloak of secrecy that the Mayor has demanded is pretty much political theatrics?…before the City Council will vote yay or nay on financing this hotel the details of any negotiation will be made public?…to do everything behind closed doors now under the threat of prosecution for talking is just fanning the fires of mistrust of the Winnecke Administration and oddly enough the fires are being fanned by the Winnecke Administration?…the secrecy has not kept the naysayers from complaining, it has not kept the speculators from speculating, and it will not likely change the eventual outcome?…if this was such a great proposal (as in a private investor is building a hotel with their own money) it would certainly already be made public?
IS IT TRUE that the CCO will not be surprised of a group of innkeepers already doing business in Evansville take the torch of discontent that was started by Mr. Nickolick who owns a local hotel last week?…there are indeed local innkeepers who have done their homework on the feasibility of a hotel in downtown Evansville as a prosperous investment and have determined that it is not one?…one developer is actually going forward with a Comfort Inn and has not come forward to ask for any government handout to do so?…for this or any other private investor to be forced to collect the taxes that are then given to their out-of-town competitor is about as destructive to free enterprise as the Gulags that made people dig their own graves?
IS IT TRUE that old curmudgeon Morton Marcus put what he intended to be a smack down on the state of the State of Indiana in his most recent column?…his factual observations of the trends in the economic progress, or lack thereof in Indiana are something that we all should take to mind and do a careful analysis of why the drip drip drip of prosperity has once again eluded the Hoosier state?… In 2003, Indiana’s per capita income was 9 percent below the national average?…in 2003 Indiana ranked 33rd among the 50 states in per capita income but in 8 short years our rank fell to 40th in the nation at 14 percent below the United States average?…Indiana’s average annual growth rate was only 2.4 percent, the fourth lowest in the nation?…the only states that Indiana seemed to be able to lead in economic categories chosen to profile by Marcus are Ohio and Michigan?…considering that Michigan was the only state in America to lose population from census to census it was only population losses that kept Michigan from leading Indiana?…economic decline is a tough problem to get to the bottom of and one that seldom finds the political will to make necessary changes to fix?…all of the states floating around the bottom of the growth rank have built temples to sport while ignoring critical infrastructure?…these states have also gone for the band-aid of job creation which is to subsidize and celebrate jobs that are lower on the food chain than the ones they replaced?…there are many institutionalized policies that are encouraging the decline of Indiana and other places?…the ranking will not start to rise again until the infatuation with games and fun are replaced in government by infrastructure, knowledge, and investment in intellectual property based business?
ROMEOVILLE, Ill. – The 10th-ranked University of Southern Indiana men’s basketball team withstood a second half rally by Lewis University to win, 65-64, Saturday afternoon in Romeoville, Illinois. USI rises to 14-3 overall and 7-2 in the GLVC, while Lewis goes to 12-5, 5-4 GLVC.
