The Hamilton County League of Women Voters wrapped up a series of municipal election candidate forums around the county at Fishers City Hall Tuesday night. Hamilton Southeastern High School teacher Janet Chandler once again moderated the discussion with nine of the 10 candidates for Fishers City Council. Council President Rich Block was out of town and unable to attend.
For those in attendance, there was some agreement, but Democrats suggested that Fishers is not always getting it right. Republicans put center stage the city’s No. 3 ranking in the most recent Money Magazine’s “best places to live in America” listing.
The GOP incumbent candidates also emphasized the AAA bond rating for city finances, the only city in Indiana with that high of a credit rating. They also pointed to the mayor’s Mental Health Initiative and development underway such as The Yard.
Democrats took the city to task for overusing Tax Increment Financing (TIFs) to finance economic development projects, while Republicans argued that downtown development would not have happened without TIFs.
There was a lot of talk about transparency and participation by the public in council decision-making, with Democrats and Republicans agreeing this is important, but parting ways on how to go about boosting transparency and citizen involvement.
A number of issues were discussed, including the 2 cents per $100 of assessed property tax valuation rate increase for 2020, and the council vote to approve the 0.1 percent increase in the county income tax, which will fund 911 emergency services.
This is the only forum scheduled with all council candidates invited. I am in the process of recording 30-minute podcast interviews with all the candidates; four are now online. Once all are complete, I will place a blog post online with links to all 10 candidate interviews.