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Dear Editor:
A measure of the self-absorbed shortsightedness of Carmel’s ruling elite came last week when the director of the Carmel Redevelopment Commission railed against citizens who point out the city’s $1.4 billion debt and the account of the debt, itself.
“It’s absolutely ridiculous,” Henry Mestetsky is quoted as saying. “It’s completely misleading the way (Department of Local Government Finance) counts developer bonds as Carmel debt and it goes into the $1.4 billion signs you see in people’s front yards.”
In his defense, Mestetsky merely echoes statements made by Carmel’s mayor when confronted with debt data.
Both men illustrate self-absorbed importance. How the DLGF reports numbers the city reports is not their business. Every city, county, township, school district and library in the state report numbers the same way. It’s called a standard – something the self-absorbed abhor.
Their statements are shortsighted since, at bottom, they further erode any confidence the public might have in government at all, let alone one that has run up a $1.4 billion debt.
Perhaps we should salve their snowflake feelings by only reporting Carmel’s outrageous principal and interest – $478.8 million.
That won’t erase the $1.4 billion total outstanding debt obligation to which Mestetsky and the mayor are adding millions more even as you read this.
Bill Shaffer
Carmel