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Dear Editor:
As the Carmel City Council ponders the mayor’s request to borrow $125 million more (plus an unstated amount of interest), let us review recent history.
Late last year, under the guise of trying to get the lowest possible interest rates, city hall elitists issued two refinancing bonds.
In so doing, they increased debt $224 million to reduce debt $188 million.
Net increase in debt – $36 million. That is to say, it costs future taxpayers $36 million.
In the $125 million bond are requests regarding a new police headquarters annex to be built on land the city already owns – 998 Range Line Road South, according to Hamilton County records. It appears municipal minions bought the land before the money was approved for the annex.
Also in the $125 million plan is a request for $13.4 million for other land acquisition. Yet, the city’s own 2020 annual financial report lists $198 million in land assets.
No public discussion has addressed the obvious: Why not swap, sell, trade or barter some of the $198 million instead of borrowing $13.4 million more?
What in the wide, wide world of progressive utopian financial irresponsibility and public deceit is going on here?
Bill Shaffer
Carmel