Indiana

Back to Reality

By Abdul Hakim-Shabazz

For the past couple of weeks I’ve been consumed with focusing on the Presidential race , my teaching duties, and progressive movement in my domestic situation, unfortunately to the detriment of keeping an eye on city hall.

No longer.

When I saw the news reports about Indianapolis Mayor Greg Ballard not being able to hire 100 more police officers due to budgetary restraints, and then the subsequent crocodile-tear laden outrage, I had to chuckle.

First of all, although the last Council passed the public safety tax with the promise/intent to hire 100 police officers, there was never anything expressly written in the legislation  to make that happen.  A certain pundit so much as said this last year, but apparently it fell on deaf ears.  Money could have been spend putting iPod players in police cars and it could have been considered public safety.  So now we sit here shocked when funds from the public safety tax, which only have to be spent on “public safety-related” items don’t go to hire more cops.

I don’t think the situation is as bad for Ballard as some might think.  It would be a lot worse if the city wasn’t starting out this year $26 million in the hole and the administration decided to spend the funds on something else.   I will reiterate my earlier arguments that a lot of this could have been mitigated by consistently driving home the message that the people in charge are cleaning up the prior administration’s mess.  So when there were no new police hires, the public would be a lot more understanding.  Be that as it may, it is what it is.

I argue what is crucial for the administration to do now is put out a clear, cohesive message reminding the public about the city’s financial situation.  And stress that the first order of business is getting the finances in order, because if you don’t nothing else will matter.  Secondly, the way to deal with the loyal opposition is two-fold; 1) They caused this mess in the first place.  2)If they aren’t bringing alternatives to the table, maybe it’s best they let grown folks do the talking, as my mother would say.   If they wanted to be crass they could also throw in a line that if the loyal opposition wanted to help with public safety, maybe they could tell some of their members to stay out of trouble with the law.  I doubt that will happen though.

I’m going to be spending the next few days getting caught up by reviewing budget testimony and finding out interesting little nuggets to bring to you.  Now that I can start to pay attention again, the least I can do is help you keep track of your money.

Full post as published by Indiana Barrister on September 07, 2008 (boomark / email).