Shaffer concludes Center for the Performing Arts has enough money

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Dear Editor:

I was inspired by the Nov. 30 letter to The Reporter soliciting money for the Center for the Performing Arts (“Help Center for the Performing Arts continue to make a difference”).

I consulted the donor’s online GuideStar website to examine the Center’s latest tax exemption compliance filing and learned:

• The Center took in $11.6 million of which $2.5 million was in ticket sales and $5.3 million in government grants;
• It paid $675,000 for an artistic director;
• It paid $239,555 for a CEO.

Then I consulted the Carmel city controller’s “accounts payable” website where I learned that last year taxpayers paid:

• $2.25 million in direct grants;
• $1.5 million in utility bills

• $1.2 million in Energy Center.

Finally, I checked the state’s Gateway Indiana website to learn Carmel taxpayers forked over:

• $2.6 million in debt service payment on the two Center bonds:
• $1.2 million more in debt service for the Energy Center that provides air conditioning and heat for the Center among other civic boondoggles.

I concluded the Center had enough of my money already.

Bill Shaffer
Carmel