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Shaffer makes correction to an earlier letter
Dear Editor:
Carmel’s outlandish finances force me to correct an earlier letter to the editor. (Reporter, Dec. 9, “Shaffer: What level of incompetence leads to $250M debt discrepancy?”)
Subsequent cooking of the books brings that to $318 million not $250 million.
Is that some serious money or what?
In December, the city told the Indiana Department of Local Government Finance (IDLGF) that the total municipal debt outstanding was $1.3 billion – down a quarter of a billion bucks from Nov. 18’s record high $1.6 billion. That triggered Letter No. 1.
Today, it’s just over $1.2 billion or $318.7 million less than the Nov. listing. So, here’s the update.
Asked about it, the city council’s finance committee chair said it was caused by two bond issues’ working their way through the system.
Plausible until you read the IDLGF bond statements for the two. They refinanced bonds worth $188 million at a total cost of $224 million. That would add $36 million and change to the total, not reduce it.
This is the same logic used by the city council finance committee in explaining the $18.5 million cost overrun on its Hotel Carmichael by blaming construction costs which increased about $3 million above estimates.
In both cases, taxpayers wonder where the $318 million came from and where the $15 million went.
Bill Shaffer
Carmel