In the waning hours of the legislative session and w/o public debate, Indiana’s General Assembly passed, and Governor Holcomb signed, a measure that creates a new tax district w/in the original one-mile square platted for the City of Indianapolis in 1821. Money is needed downtown. 1/5

Fewer jobs exist downtown. Of course, when the new Criminal Justice Center was built a couple of miles away, quite a few jobs were sucked out of downtown. At least none of the money from the new tax district will go someplace silly, like building another hotel. That’s part of 2/5

a $625 million bond issue will be voted on by the full City-County Council in June. A group that started a hotel, it was reported, could not find funding. Stated differently, banks that loan money for stuff like hotels saw too great of a risk of loss. Government often builds things that do not 3/5

generate profit, e.g., jails & prisons, which cannot be run on a profit basis. Hotels are an aspect of the private sector. Two reasons we should not be alarmed: 1) Revenue the hotel makes will pay the bonds, so, we are assured, there will be no new taxes, but only if the hotel makes a profit. 4/5

2) The full City-County Council votes on this measure at its session in June 5, at 7 p.m. You can let your councilor know how you feel & maybe stop this measure. We have problems downtown, but they aren’t solved by government-run hotels. We need coherent planning. 5/5