06-23-08 Common Council Minutes - Laserfiche WebLink

Home Browse Search

REGULAR MEETING JUNE 23, 2008 Bonds of 1992, which were previously refunded with issuance of the St. Joseph County, Indiana Special tax Bonds of 1998. Mr. Inks stated that he does not know exactly what those Special Tax Bonds were for, but those bonds have two to three years of payments left on them, with roughly about $300,000 a year and have some restrictive covenants in those bonds that would require paying off those bonds in order to issue the new bonds. So that is part of the bond financing to pay off those bonds. Councilmember Varner questioned what is the outstanding balance. Mr. Inks stated that he believes that the outstanding balance is close to 1 million or 1.2 million dollars. This being the time heretofore set for the Public Hearing on the above bill, proponents and opponents were given an opportunity to be heard. There was no one present wishing to speak to the Council in favor of this bill. The following individuals spoke in opposition to the bill: Kelly Havens, 1293 Timberline Trace N. Granger, Indiana, stated that she is a Granger resident and if questioned why someone from Granger would speak at a City of South Bend Council Meeting is because the decisions that are being made at the City level are getting into her pocketbook. She is not so concerned with developments or repairs that need to be made at Century Center, as far as she is concerned it is probably a good idea. What concerns her is the method that is being gone about to get the money. These lease bond deals are a distortion of what those laws were intended to do. Think about it, are you leasing the boilers, the skylights, new bathrooms. The City is using a lease deal to by-pass the debt service limitations that we are constitutionally bound by in the State of Indiana. The City does this because the debt is so excessive already that it cannot be done through the normal budget or bond process. She stated that everyone here know the consequences of continuing to do things this way. St. Joseph County was one of only two counties in the entire State of Indiana that had to be set aside and exempted from the property tax controls because the debt is so excessive that they figure there was no way that the City could every pay their way out of it, if they gave any of the property tax payers any kind of break. What a miserable distinction to have among all the 92 counties in Indiana, that St. Joseph County has itself so excessively budgeted that we can’t give the tax break that the whole rest of the State is going to be mandated to give. The reason is because of the debt service. As a taxpayer she stated that she finds it very hard to sympathize with the City’s claims that it can’t possible make ends meet without additional tax dollars. This is all a shell game to hide the fact that the City is going farther and farther into debt, when will it all stop, or at least go public, admit that the City is in debt up to their eyeballs and that is why they tax their residents so high. Ms. Havens stated that there needs to be some serious prioritizing what the needed improvements are and asked the Council to stop doing lease purchases, they are phony ways around what the State wanted to be a protection for taxpayers which is the debt service limit. Leonard Grummell 1919 S. Carlisle, South Bend, Indiana, stated that when South Bend banned gun shows at the Century Center they lost several thousands of dollars worth of revenue. He stated that they could have funded Century Center a long time ago, if they had not banned gun shows in South Bend. Aubrey Wood, 1922 Randolph, South Bend, Indiana, stated that she belongs to a ham radio club. Ms. Wood stated that they used to hold their meetings and conventions at the Century Center. However, the cost to rent and purchase food and refreshments pushed them right out of renting Century Center to hold their events. She advised that if they were to be more realistic with their rent and food, they would have more people holding their events at Century Center. 19