Shaffer: No fanfare as Carmel joins the ‘Billion Dollar Club’

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Dear Editor:

Carmel crossed another financial frontier last week, but failed to alert you and your readers. As a public service, I can provide the news.

Carmel officially crossed the $1 billion mark in the amount of rental income it needs to generate to pay its debts: $1,072,277,837, to be exact. That’s the lion’s share of its $1.6 billion total outstanding debt, according to data Carmel provides the Indiana Department of Local Government Finance.

True, Marion County has $1.2 billion in lease rental payments due – but they’re eight times Carmel’s size.

The Billion Dollar Club, however, is no idle achievement. The same week Carmel hit the latest milestone, it re-financed the Palladium, yet again, and other money-gobbling experiments in central planning.

I am no prophet, but Carmel’s finances don’t seem to be much on profit, either.

Bill Shaffer

Carmel