Indiana

Dem Spin

By Abdul Hakim-Shabazz

Ever since being regulated to the minority, my Democratic friends on the City-County Council have been looking for an issue they think will resonate with voters and help put them back in the majority.

One of those issues they’re latching onto is the Capital Improvement Board bailout.  A vote is scheduled for Monday on increasing the hotel tax 1% which would allow the city to access millions of dollars which would address part of the funding shortfall.

And while this problem was caused by a Democratic Mayor and Democratic CIB Chairman and Democratic-appointed CIB who negotiated away the revenue stream for Lucas Oil Stadium to the Colts,  Democrats are saying they want no part of this solution.   And while they did offer a plan months ago to help address the shortfall, their plan did not include any contribution by the Pacers,  who are owned by the Simons,  who are also big Democratic contributors.

From what I’ve been able to gather, my Democratic friends want the Republicans to carry the burden alone of the CIB tax increase so the County party can put out a news release which reads “REPUBLICANS PASS TWELVE-PERCENT INCREASE IN THE HOTEL TAX.”  The logic being that turnabout is fair play because when Democrats raised the County Option Income Tax .65%, it was labelled as a 65-percent tax increase.   The Democrats hope to ding the GOP on taxes, because their arguments against the anti-panhandling ordinance, also scheduled for a Monday vote,  are falling flat since a woman got carjacked by a panhandler at the I-65 and Keystone exit ramp.

Their CIB plan would be a fine strategy, except it doesn’t work.  First, the COIT increase came at a time property taxes were going through the roof.   Second, the hotel tax is paid primarily by people outside of Indianapolis.  Third, it’s a little  late for some of my Democratic friends to be finding Jesus on taxes, because when they had the opportunity to vote to lower the COIT and return to the taxpayers a portion of their money, half the Democratic caucus voted “no.”   I could go on with more examples, but I think I proved my point.

Now I don’t blame my Democratic friends for giving this a shot, after all this is politics and you look for your victories where you can.  However, trying to get a majority of voters to get mad over a tax that many of them will never pay just seems like a rather odd strategy to engage in when your wins are so few and far between.

Full post as published by Indiana Barrister on August 05, 2009 (boomark / email).