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Dear Editor:
When it comes to Carmel’s tangled municipal finances, even good news is bad news.
Take for example Monday’s report to the city council on the city’s Bike Share program. The unfortunate chap assigned to give the report did his best to put a smiley face on the thing. He noted the program involved 50 bicycles at seven locations that last year generated $11,746 in revenue.
Under the leasing arrangement, the city pays $150 a month for the use of the two-wheelers.
As a fourth-grade story problem, boys and girls, multiply the number of bikes by the number of months by $150.
Anyone have the answer?
That’s right: $90,000.
Cyclists paid 13 percent of the cost of their wheels.
Alas, the balance fell to the humble taxpayers whose main role in the minds of city central planners is to shut up and pay up.
That’s what they’re peddling.
Bill Shaffer
Carmel
The city of Carmel will never have the population to support this program. It’s a great concept but shouldering
the tax payer’s with the expense is not right. Dump the program, it will never fly…..sadly
A novelty that some City planner envisioned & surprise ! , received approval for funding.
File under ; statues & roundabout decorations totaling millions of dollars siphoned from taxpayers.
Surely less essential than say, the postal service, which looses billions of taxpayer dollars each year mostly delivering junk mail & eBay packages.
Carmel has a well storied history of using taxpayer money to build/subsidize things that the Private (for which Profit sector ) had no interest as there was no market.
What amazes me is that a city that, on paper, has 100% Republican representatives operates like a 100% liberal democratic stronghold. Noblesville officials seem to now operate under the same faux Republican way.