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Wednesday, January 04, 2012
Ind. Gov't. - "Armed with impressive resume, Gary Mayor Karen Freeman-Wilson faces tall order"
From the Chicago Tribune, this long Jan. 2nd story by Andy Grimm. Some quotes:
It falls to Freeman-Wilson to take on the challenges that have daunted Gary mayors for at least two generations.Freeman-Wilson, 51, brings to the post degrees from Harvard and Harvard Law, as well as job experience that includes stints as Gary's city judge and Indiana's attorney general. She is the first woman to be mayor in Gary history.
The role has never been more important.
Over the past three years, state-mandated tax caps have cut city tax revenue by more than half, to $30 million — $10 million less than last year and about what the city spent just on its police and fire departments in 2008.
Despite budget cuts by her predecessor that eliminated at least 100 city workers, an eroding tax base has prompted state auditors during the past two years to question whether Gary can "continue as a going concern." * * *
Freeman-Wilson has staked out the city's salvation on rebuilding the tax base around transportation. As she takes office, a $25 million expansion of the city's airport is set to begin, with upgrades intended to make Gary-Chicago International Airport a viable alternative to overcrowded O'Hare and Midway airports.
She also wants to promote the city, which is traversed by three interstates, multiple state highways and three rail lines, as a hub for train and truck traffic.
Perhaps more immediately, she hopes to start selling off — for prices as low as a dollar — the city's massive inventory of abandoned and untaxed homes and buildings.
As he left office, Clay pointed to a half-billion dollars' worth of projects that could be largely completed within Freeman-Wilson's first term.
The problem is, the city could be bankrupt within her first six months, thanks to the plummeting revenue and crippling debt payments, said Joe Gomeztagle, one of the state's leading tax experts.
"It's a tsunami," said Gomeztagle, who was born and raised in Gary. "It's going to hit all of the older cities across the state, but it's going to hit Gary first, and it's going to be bad. I give it six months, maybe a year."
The city had petitioned the state for relief from the tax caps, a process that made Gary finances a topic of debate statewide and led to a series of deep budget cuts, not unlike the drama attending the bailout discussions in Europe. And they focused outsize attention on Clay.
Posted by Marcia Oddi on January 4, 2012 01:28 PM
Posted to Indiana Government