Council Shenanigans, Public Comment, and Pre-K

As reported by WRTV, a Indianapolis-Marion County City-County Council committee met last night. One of the items on the agenda was the proposed elimination of the county homestead tax credit. The meeting ended with tabling that proposal and public comment was not sought on it.

Now, I am a major proponent of public comment being allowed on all items that are heard before a governmental body. I have been critical in the past of policies that have been used to suppress or limit attendees from the general public from having their views heard, especially when proponents for whatever is being pushed often get several uninterrupted minutes as part of the meeting for a full blown presentation, complete with audio and visual and handing pamphlets to the committee, the full works. Sometimes public comment is limited to two minutes per person. Sometimes that limit is enforced with a loud buzzer.

But this is budget time. The time where every single agency comes before the respective council committees and does some really hard crunching. These meetings often looked packed when the committee first starts out, and as the budgets are worked through, the people leave after their budget was heard. This is not the sexy part of municipal governance. In fact, it can be very dry. But it is important and must be done.

The budgets should take priority. Policy proposals can take a backseat until then.

After reading over the outraged press release from the Marion County Republican Party and the reporting on WRTV, Jon Easter actually wrote the chair of the committee, Angela Mansfield. She responded saying that the constituents were disappointed but learned that tabling just means it can be dealt with at a different committee meeting. She also wrote that of the three that complained, two were against the elimination of the local homestead tax credit. She also pointed out the proposal in committee is strictly about the elimination and not what to do with the increase in revenue if it is to pass.

So kudos to Council Mansfield on running her committee with efficiency and prioritizing the important work of the committee and separating it from the garbage council Republicans and the 25th floor are pushing.

And just a quick link to Pat Andrews' blog, I'm liking Councilor Robinson more and more nowadays.