Published: October 31, 2009 10:26 pm      

PUBLIC EYE - Sunday, Nov. 1, 2009

A marked difference

Kokomo Firefighters Local 396 president Rick Daily and two city department heads gave state legislators their collective opinion of the property tax caps during a forum this week.

There’s no doubt the caps will cost the city of Kokomo $2.1 million in revenue between this year and the end of 2010. Kokomo Mayor Greg Goodnight responded by reducing the city payroll by about 16 percent. Dozens of city workers are no longer employed.

It’s been painful for the families affected, and the loudest complaints have come from Daily’s local union.

But another news item this week reminded The Public Eye that there was an alternative to laying off 16 firefighters.

Tuesday, the Lawrence Township board voted to cut Lawrence Township firefighters’ pay by 10.5 percent, eliminate holiday bonus pay and other bonuses, and require the Lawrence firefighters to increase their insurance contributions.

The remarkable thing is that the membership of Professional Firefighters Local 416 voted by a 2-1 margin to accept the pay cuts, rather than see any of their membership laid off.

In Kokomo, union leadership never gave the rank and file of Local 396 a chance to vote on concessions.



Goodnight enters the kitchen

Kokomo Mayor Greg Goodnight better hope he can stand the heat, after accepting the chairmanship of the Indiana Association of Cities and Towns’ legislative committee.

IACT, which represents municipal governments across the state, is firmly in favor of local government reforms proposed by the Kernan-Shepherd study and Gov. Mitch Daniels.

But IACT doesn’t support Daniels’ property tax caps, as long as cities are denied “home rule” — otherwise known as the authority to raise other taxes.

Goodnight has mainly sought a “middle way” on the tax caps. When property taxes in Kokomo were sky high in 2007, he voted (while a member of city council) to shift some of the burden onto a new local option income tax.

Since becoming mayor, however, he’s resisted all calls to raise additional revenues, apart from his attempt to annex 6,800 acres of Howard County. Even there, he’s argued the tax caps will protect those being annexed from big property tax increases.

Tuesday, Gov. Mitch Daniels thanked Goodnight for his staunch support of local government reform. It will be interesting to see if Daniels is singing Goodnight’s praises at the end of the upcoming Indiana General Assembly.



Roundabout goes poof

Last week’s shocker came when The Public Eye learned the city was no longer considering installing a roundabout at the intersection of Markland Avenue and Park Road.

Since Goodnight announced that decision, we’ve pondered what happened. For more than a year, city officials had stuck to the same story. A roundabout, they said, is one of the alternatives they’re considering. City council members knew it, and the possibility had been reported in local media.

There’s been no public explanation of why Goodnight suddenly announced he won’t even consider a roundabout, and that’s puzzling.

Privately, local elected officials say offering favorable mention of the word “roundabout” in Kokomo is the political equivalent of suicide.

Four years ago, a planned roundabout at Park Road and West Boulevard became a symbol for the battle brewing between the city council and the city administration of former Mayor Matt McKillip.

The fight was about more than the roundabout — it was really a power struggle between mayor and council. Goodnight, we recall, was on the council at the time.

Anyway, the city has federal money to redo the Markland/Park intersection, and a reconfigured, signalized intersection will cost almost as much and be much less safe than a roundabout.

None of that matters, however. The roundabout haters have won this battle.