By a vote of 51-47%, little known candidate Greg Ballard beat an incumbent with a lot of money and a lot of organization. Not only did voter anger sweep Bart Peterson out of office but most of his party on the City-County Council. What was a 15-14 Democratic majority now looks more like an 18-11 Republican majority. As of 10:47 p.m. tonight and 93 percent of the polls reporting, Republicans swept all but one of the at large council seats. It looks like Joanne Sanders was the surviving at-large seat.

Democrats did have some gains picking up the seat by held Scott Keller and Ike Randolph. But Republicans (with 95 percent of the polls reporting) picked up the seat held by Sherron Franklin as well as three of the at-large seats.

Mayor Bart Peterson gave a short concession speech and reminded everyone they will wake up tomorrow in the greatest city in the world.

Ballard says his first priority will be to get control of the police department from the Sheriff and with a Republican council that should be relatively easy to do. The hard part will be dealing with spending and tax issue.

I wish them luck.

I know this may sound a little awkward, but I’m going to ask some of you at home right now to not vote in Tuesday’s Municipal election. Say what? That’s right, don’t vote. Yes, I know you are mad about your property taxes, the 65 percent increase in the county income tax, the rising crime and a government that some days looks like it’s more in touch with your hard-earned money than you, the voter. With all that said, don’t vote, at least until you know all the facts.

No matter how mad you are, don’t go to the polls and just vote against every incumbent and for every challenger. Do some homework if you haven’t already. Go find out if they really cut $50 million in property taxes and held the line on spending. And while you’re at it, check and see if they really solved the jail overcrowding problem or just made it easier for people to walk. And don’t be afraid to ask yourself if you’re satisfied with quality of life in Indianapolis.

You’ve got all weekend to do your homework. Talk to your friends and neighbors, study up on the candidates and do research on the Internet and while you’re there read my commentary at the Capitol Watchblog, which I personally think is the best source of perspective you’ll find anywhere.

But this election isn’t about me. It’s about you and you making the right the decision. And the right decision is to get informed and then get to the polls.

I’ve just finished reading Peterson Plan III, incumbent Mayor Bart Peterson’s plan for the next four years. Having followed the Mayor closely for the past year, there isn’t much new in it. Many of the themes he’s talked about: property taxes, neighborhood building and economic development are nothing new.

The Mayor did however, hit a salient point when talking about education and high school dropouts. I have advocated giving the Mayor control of the schools in the past and make a new argument for it in my monthly column in this week’s upcoming edition of the Indianapolis Business Journal.

I wish the Mayor would have focused on this earlier. By addressing the schools, he could have totally changed the dynamic of this race because schools tie into economic development, crime and property taxes and he would not be in the situation he is today.

There are a few items from around town today that are worth mentioning…

What Property Tax Relief?

State Senator Luke Kenley tells me he hopes to have a list of recommendations to reform Indiana’s property tax system by the middle of November. One recommendation that won’t be on that list is the elimination of property taxes. Kenley says he doesn’t think it’s feasible to eliminate property taxes because all it will do is increase other taxes (sales, income). Kenley says he would like to cut local property taxes by 50 percent. Part of that would involve the state picking up some of the taxing authority, but also shifting the burden to other local taxes. Kenley says it’s best to keep the taxes at the local level because that is where the most accountability is. He also says he wants a more uniform system of tax assessment which translates into one assessor per county. He also wants to look at a local government circuit breaker that would cap tax increases and limit the rate of growth of local government.

First the Client, Now the Lawyer

City-County Council Republican leader Phil Borst says his party is not playing politics by filing an ethics complaint with the Indiana Supreme Court against Council attorney Aaron Haith. Borst along with several other Republicans filed the complaint saying Haith blocked and ethics investigation of Council President Monroe Gray as Council attorney, but Haith is also Gray’s private attorney who has represented him in some of the matters, which are the subject of the investigation. Borst says he did not want to file the complaint, but the integrity of the Council must be protected. He said he was going to file a compliant back in March, but decided against it. But since then, Borst says, there have been six to eight incidents where Haith has had a conflict of interest and willfully and purposely disobeyed city rules. If the Supreme Court’s disciplinary commission agrees to hear the matter and Haith is found to have acted unethically, he could be suspended or disbarred from practicing law. The Supreme Court disciplined Haith back in 2001 for unprofessional conduct concerning previous convictions for driving while intoxicated.

The Great (sort of) Debate, Part III

I watched the third Mayoral debate Sunday between incumbent Mayor Bart Peterson and challenger Greg Ballard. Neither candidate gave a real convincing performance nor said anything groundbreaking. It must have been the fact that it was Sunday morning and they were out partying on Saturday night. At least I hope so, because that would be an excuse I could live with.

Indianapolis Mayor Bart Peterson and Republican Challenger Greg Ballard debated the usual issues: taxes, crime and economic development. And while neither candidate lied, there were some yeah, but moments…

For example, the Mayor talked about cutting $50 million from next year’s property taxes. Yeah, but $43 million of that would have been eliminated anyway as the city paid off its child welfare debt and got some cash from a settlement with United Airlines.

When Greg Ballard made the claim the city raised taxes 19 times, that’s true, but that also includes increases for police, fire, courts and sewers.

When the Mayor says they’ve cut spending by millions of dollars, that’s true, but they’ve also increased spending in other areas.

When Ballard says he wants to eliminate property taxes, that’s true, but none of the alternative tax plans add up.

And when the Mayor says there’s a process in place that can determine whether City-County Council President Monroe Gray has engaged in unethical behavior, he’s right, but there already was a hearing and the city’s ethics board ruled Gray was unethical.

So what did we learn from this little exercise. The candidates did tell truth. But I tell you the WHOLE truth.