As much as I like Mayor Bart Peterson personally, his act is starting to wear a little thin. An ordinance has been introduced to eliminate take home cars for non-public safety city county employees. It was sponsored by several city-county Councilors. I have never understood why the ordinance was necessary because most of the departments that have take-home cars are under the Mayor’s control.

However when asked by my brothers in the press, the Mayor responded, that a council-backed ordinance would be easier to get that done. Because the city, up until two years ago, had no control over other office budgets and comptroller Bob Clifford says they have a hard enough time keeping track of what they have now.

The Mayor could have easily issued an executive order and clamped down on the practice. According to a list of employees who had take home cars, most were in public works, metropolitan development and parks and recreations. All those offices are under the direct control of the Mayor. And even he can use his influence with the sheriff to ask him to scale back on take-home cars for non-essential employees. And the last I checked the Mayor still runs the fire department so an executive order would work there also.

If this city can’t keep track of a few cars, it really makes me wonder what else they can’t keep track of? I’ll bet your share of Monday’s 65-percent tax increase it involves more of your hard-earned money. Like I said, I personally like the Mayor, but this is getting real old, real quick.

I’ve been looking at my calendar again, and I see nothing but bad news in it for the taxpayers. You see on Monday, October 1st that public safety tax increase goes into effect. The city is taking 65% more of your money to spend on public safety or anything that can be tied to public safety.

Now the city will use the money to hire 100 new cops, but because of the time it takes to train an officer they won’t show up until the spring of 2009, so mark that date on your calendar.

And speaking of 2000s, you won’t get your tax reconciliation bill until April 2008 and you might end up owing more once the reassessments come in. So be prepared.

Now you might be asking what about the lawsuit to throw out the tax hike because a member of the council should have never voted on it because he didn’t live in his district? Well at the earliest the court won’t hear arguments until Nov. 8.

Which oddly enough is two days after another important date, Nov 6: Election day.

You might want to mark that date on your calendar as well.

  “Breaker, breaker 1-9.”  Come back, good buddy.”  There’s a smoky in a plain wrapper ahead at mile 89.”

  Anybody who remembers those CB radio trucker songs from the late 70’s can translate that.  It means a state trooper in an unmarked car is waiting at mile marker 89, which in the case of the Super 70 project is the east end of the work zone where troopers wait for trucks to fall into their laps.

The question is, why do they still do it?  Don’t truckers still talk to each other on their radios and warn each other of problems?  If they do, many aren’t listening.  How else to account for the truckers still getting ticketed for driving in the work zone seven months after they were banned from the area? 

  The most recent figures, which cover March through August show nearly 12,000 tickets have been issued just to oversized trucks.

This morning on my way to work I counted five passing me eastbound.  Since I had already passed two police cars waiting at the east exit from the work zone, I knew that at least two of them, and probably all five, could count on getting really expensive tickets in just a few minutes.

  While on the Super 70 project, there will be a change tomorrow.  After rush hour tonight, workers will move the eastbound exit from 70 to I-465 and Shadeland Avenue about 500 feet west.  That means traffic exiting there will be driving on new pavement.  The old pavement they were using for the exit before will then be ripped up and replaced.

  Believe it or not, we’re close to the end of this project.  INDOT doesn’t want to give a date other than “November.”  But I’m told the good weather this summer (good at least for pouring concrete) could mean an early November date, not the end of the month we usually expect.  I’m also told there will be no phase-in this time.  Remember in July when INDOT crossed traffic over from the eastbound lanes to the newly finished westbound lanes in phases?  That won’t be done this time, because the new barrier walls won’t allow space to cross over.

Anyone who has ever watched “Star Trek: The Next Generation” knows that title is the standard line of the Borg, a cyborg-race of creatures who assimilate other cultures. I use that line to describe the excluded cities of Marion County. I moderated the city of Lawrence mayoral candidate’s forum last night.

They addressed a number of issues: crime, taxes, economic development, etc. However there was an underlying theme that Lawrence should be “separate” from Indianapolis. They wanted control of the major roads and zoning. I really don’t understand this need to be separate. If you look at a map of Indianapolis, it all looks the same. And if you drive through town, it all looks the same. Everyone looks like a resident of Indianapolis to me.

And if these people truly wanted to be “liberated” they would assume control of all their local functions and then smile when they got the bill. There is no reason that Beech Grove residents should pay for two library systems or Lawrence residents pay for three fire departments. Make them all one. Assimilate everyone. Resistance is futile.

There are a couple of interesting stories this morning out of the townships that are reflective of the current political climate here in Indiana.

A plan is being circulated amongst the Indiana Assessor’s Association to consolidate (yes, you read that correctly) all the assessor offices across the state and put them under the Indiana Department of Revenue (IDOR). Under the plan IDOR would have an assessment administrator who would oversee assessments and the state would be divided in 10 assessment districts of with roughly the same number of parcels. The Assessors say such a system would allow for greater consistency across the state, result in more fair and equitable assessments and remove politics from assessing. As big a critic as I am of township government, I have to give these guys for putting forward a thoughtful proposal and for deciding to get on the train as opposed to being under it.

I wish I could say the same thing for the Lawrence Township Board. The board voted Tuesday night 5-2 against consolidating the Lawrence Township fire department with the Indianapolis Fire Department. The vote was along party lines and opponents said they needed more time to study the plan. Lawrence Township Trustee Mike Hobbes says he doesn’t know what the board’s problem is as they were given all the consolidation information back in July and there have been two public hearings since then. The board says it wants another public hearing in late October. The township had to borrow $1.8 million in emergency loans to keep its fire department afloat and the Daniels administration has made it clear the days of emergency loans to keep township government afloat are pretty much over. I don’t know what the is going through the township board’s thought process, but in an age where taxpayers are clamoring for less government, this might be the time to give the people what they want.

And you thought township government outdated and boring. I agree it is outdating, but never boring.