Indiana

Mayor?s Mid-Term

By Abdul Hakim-Shabazz

Indianapolis Mayor Greg Ballard is entering the second half of his first term in office. And like any midterm it’s time for a grade.  Overall, I give the Mayor a solid B.  Listed below are some of the pluses and minuses…

Pluses

• Crime is down six percent since 2007.  The number of criminal homicides was 98, the first time murders have dropped below 100 since the late 1990s.
• Two balanced budgets in a row and a $200 million projected deficit in 2012 is now a $50 million surplus.  Of course that number could fall based on current state revenue forecasts which will impact local governments next year.
• The County Option Income Tax was reduced to 1.62% returning $7 million annually to the taxpayers.
• 20,000 jobs have been created or retained and Marion County’s unemployment rate has been lower than the state and national averages.
• Charter schools continue to expand.
• The city secured the 2012 Super Bowl.
• Hundreds of backlogged discrimination  complaints built up over the past years have been resolved.

Minuses

• Although the CIB issue was addressed without a broad based tax increase, the administration came across a adrift and without much direction.
• The battle over the proposed smoking ban wasted very valuable time and resources and should have never seen the light of day in the first place.
• Although murder, rape, and car jackings were down,  robbery, assault  and residential burglaries are up.

As I said, overall the Mayor gets a “B”.  While the administration has had some serious successes, their weaknesses have stifled some of their progress.  Most of that stems from the fact the Mayor is not a political creature, but more of a “bricks and mortar” kind of guy.    His big challenges will be how does he deal with the water company situation and how does he build his political organization and structure?

2010 should be pretty interesting.

Full post as published by Indiana Barrister on January 05, 2010 (boomark / email).