Weinzapfel Disputes McGinn Remarks on City Spending Problem 

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    Former Mayor Jonathon Weinzapfel
    Former Mayor Jonathon Weinzapfel

    City Councilman Dan McGinn stated at an April 13, 2015 City Council meeting in response to complaints from other Councilmembers regarding the depletion of the City’s cash reserves, “I’m not at all surprised we have spent down our cash reserves, but look at what we now own that we did not have.” Councilman Dan McGinn, R-1st Ward, agreed that cash reserves have declined, but noted the city has bought large swaths of Downtown land for the Ford Center and future anticipated major developments (Courier & Press, City Council urges development of spending, revenue plan).

    Former Mayor Jonathan Weinzapfel took issue with McGinn’s statements on his personal Facebook Page the yesterday: “Once again, we hear the completely inaccurate assertion, this time from Councilman Dan McGinn, that funds used to purchase property and construct the Ford Center and, in this case, other downtown development projects, have caused a decrease in operating cash balances. Nothing could be further from the truth. TIF, Riverboat and the food and beverage tax…all funds used to build the Ford Center and/or finance downtown development…cannot be used for operating purposes. Over the past three years, it appears that expenses have exceeded revenues by about $27 million when you include the advance on PILT from the Utility and health care expenses from 2014 carried forward to 2015. This represents a spending problem in the operation of city government, not a problem with downtown development.”

    The comments from Weinzapfel come after repeated attempts by the Winnecke Administration to deflect observations that it is overspending on an annual basis to the tune of $6 million dollars and that the problem is getting worse. Deficit spending in 2013 was over $5 million, but deficit spending in 2014 was more than $10 million. The original estimate of $6 million in deficit spending for 2014 was determined before City officials acknowledged that at least $3 million in bills had been deferred to 2015 and a last minute infusion of $2.4 million in cash from the Utility, which was an advance on 2015 payments, was used to shore up revenue.

    This is a developing story so please stay turned.

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    12 COMMENTS

    1. Friendly groups of elites starting to turn on each other. Could this get ugly soon?

      • Why should one special area of the city have all it’s tax money (that it pays in) go back to only that tax district? I question how fair that is when the rest of the tax payers money can still be spent on things in that special tax district. Why would one area get such special treatment? This is directed to anyone who wants to try to answer the question. I just put the question under Tom’s post for convenience. And Tom I agree with you and hope that more vital information (beans) are spilled and the public finds out more about what’s been going on behind closed doors.

        Is it not true that if you take tax money away to spend on just one special area it takes that tax money away from all the other areas that would have maybe been funded using some of that special tax money. So there fore the general funds taxes are lowered for other operating expenses. I don’t buy the Weinzapfel spin game either.

    2. Is it not true that money is money no matter how you classify it’s purpose?
      The overall entity of the city is bleeding more money then coming in?

      Does it seem true that the article above makes it appear that there are two Evansville’s?

      One is downtown that appears to be the focus point of city hall and on life support mode.

      The other city is between downtown, and the city limits, which seems to be the donor of the two cities!

      • wow you said it better than anyone yet. Straight and right to the point without any fluff. And you nailed it 100%. The Downtown is sucking the life out of everything else. It’s like a big back hole sucking as much money as possible out of the rest of the city. Can people in a city decide they don’t want to be in that city anymore and get a divorce from the city?

    3. Is Weinzapfel attempting to make the statement that all the projects he ran through the ERC during his 8 years as mayor were financed by TIF, Riverboat and the food and beverage taxes?

      He still can not bring himself to admit that the city did not have a prayer of selling the arena bond issue until the city’s portion of the COIT was also pledged as a backstop. You will see the day when COIT is used to help meet the bond payments.

      Weinzapfel used the ERC to take care of those people who could in turn take care of him in his bid for higher office. He could not have cared less about the financial burden he placed on the taxpayers during his tenure.

      Financial reporting under his administration was abysmal. He never produced a single CAFR for any of the years for which his administration submitted budgets.

      His single most impressive feat was being able to walk out the door before all the bills came due.

    4. It has been alleged that that the Winnicke Administration is 6 months in arrears in forwarding approximately
      $2,500.000 owed to the State Pension fund for Police and FireFighters. At a interest rate of say only 1%/yr , that looks like a loss of $12,500 (not including compounding) to the Pension Fund in interest every 6 months as a result of the Shell game being played locally. The State Board of Directors overseeing the Pension funds needs to step up to the Plate of Responsibility–and ask,—–Where is the Money?

    5. Weinzapfel: what about the operating losses at The Ford and The Centre ? Surely you’re not claiming that these operating deficits are paid out of TIF/Casino/Food & Beverage ? These are paid by Joe Q. Property Owner.

    6. “Nothing could be further from the truth. TIF, Riverboat and the food and beverage tax…all funds used to build the Ford Center and/or finance downtown development…cannot be used for operating purposes.”

      They made me build it.

    7. Old downtown Evansville needs better logistical throughput and sustainability built into a new utilities base. No venue is going to see much black ink as long as the place deteriorates right out from under its foundation. We observed the mainstreams fluff, and the not so good with the usual stabbings and more shoot’em ups, and such. How’s the Johnson controls meter mess up going?
      There are some meters , I’d point out, If the city financial authorities could fund one or two of these maybe the recovery could begin to inch towards the black ink again.

      The picture provided looks as if someone carried it down main street Evansville, that, was clearly detected into the red as well….

      https://gaslamppost.files.wordpress.com/2012/07/bull-shit-e1341702495284.jpg

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