thedrifter
11-19-07, 09:20 AM
Date posted online: Monday, November 19, 2007
Obscure retired Marine battles taxes, shakes up Indy politics
By KEN KUSMER
INDIANAPOLIS - Greg Ballard just a few months ago was an obscure Republican mayoral nominee without a prayer, some scoffed, of unseating a well-funded, two-term incumbent.
Today, he's the mayor-elect of the nation's 13th-largest city, a tax opponent held up for admiration by President Bush, and a lesson to political incumbents everywhere of what can happen if they don't mind the mood of the voters.
Ballard overcame little name recognition, a sizable mid-September polling deficit and a more than 12-1 fundraising disadvantage to pull off one of the biggest upsets in modern Indiana election history. He beat Democrat Bart Peterson 50.4 percent to 47.2 percent to become the first challenger in 40 years to unseat an Indianapolis mayor.
The 52-year-old retired Marine Corps officer never doubted himself.
"I know half the city doesn't believe it when I said I always believed. I mean, I always thought we were going to do this thing," he said.
Now others can believe, too. Last week, he traveled to New Albany in southern Indiana to greet Bush before a policy speech on the federal budget and holding the line on taxes.
"Right here in Indiana, voters in your capital voted for Greg Ballard and ousted an incumbent mayor, in large part because the incumbent mayor supported raising taxes," Bush told a business audience.
The mayor-elect, as plain spoken as the commander in chief, relished the attention and embraced the message.
"That was kind of neat, actually. I mean, I like it, obviously," Ballard said. "I like the fact that he recognized what happened in Indianapolis."
What happened in Indianapolis was a classic taxpayer revolt in which voters took out their frustrations on the man at the top.
Property taxes for homeowners statewide have shot up an average of 24 percent because of new assessment rules. In Marion County, where Indianapolis is located, they rose an average of 34 percent, and in some cases more than doubled.
Peterson over the summer called for a special legislative session to provide more tax relief, imposed a hiring freeze and ordered most city departments to cut their budgets by 10 percent. However, he also pushed through a 65 percent local income tax hike largely targeted to fund the fight against growing violent crime.
A mid-September poll had Peterson leading Ballard 52 percent to 38 percent. In the end, it was Ballard's anti-tax rhetoric that might have carried the day.
"On top of the property tax crisis, and then to put in an income tax increase on top of it, the timing of it was just really bad," Ballard said. "If it was really, really necessary, it could have been delayed. I'm not so sure it was all necessary.
"Obviously we're going to look into it, very, very much in depth, once we get in there. We're going to open up this government. We're going to show everybody where that money's being spent, and if we can cut it, we're going to cut it."
Gov. Mitch Daniels has proposed a plan to reduce homeowner tax bills by about a third statewide, and a state legislative commission released a report this week that calls for at least a 50 percent cut for most homeowners.
The mayor-elect wants to go further. As part of "The Ballard Rules" he drafted for his campaign platform, he said he would lobby the General Assembly to eliminate property taxes outright, a measure he said already has the support of a third or more of lawmakers. He said 2 percent increases in sales, income and corporate taxes could replace the lost revenue.
Ballard also has said that except for public safety, he will cut all other city spending by 10 percent by his third year in office or he won't seek re-election.
Joe Loftus, a former deputy mayor who's advising Ballard, met the candidate only after he had won the GOP primary. Ballard's steadfastness impressed him, but Loftus also noted Ballard didn't attract the talent and other resources that Peterson and former GOP Mayor Stephen Goldsmith had when they first won the office.
"He has a lot of work to do in part because a lot of people took a pass on the campaign," Loftus said the day after the general election. "The steepness of the hill at the beginning is a lot steeper."
State Democratic Chairman Dan Parker said Ballard rode an anti-tax mood in Marion County to victory on Election Day but has been largely silent on specific details since then.
"I don't really know what kind of mayor he's going to be because most people really don't know him, and he needs to fill in the blanks pretty quickly," Parker said.
Other observers said they expected Ballard to retain his strong focus once he takes office in January, but his inexperience might be a liability.
Cathy Langham, chairwoman of the board of the Greater Indianapolis Chamber of Commerce, said Ballard was scarcely known just a few months ago and did not appear to have strong political connections.
"That could be an extraordinary challenge," Langham said.
Some give Ballard strong marks, however, for reaching out to other community leaders during his campaign.
"Greg did go around. He did listen," said Olgen Williams, a west side neighborhood activist who was co-chairman of the Front Porch Alliance, an alliance with neighborhood and religious groups that Goldsmith forged during his two terms in the 1990s.
Ballard has criticized Peterson for dismantling the Front Porch Alliance pledged to restore it to link the mayor's office with neighborhoods and provide an important tool for fighting street crime.
"I think Mayor-elect Ballard will be a champion for the faith-based community" and the resources they can muster to improve the city, Williams said.
Ballard plans to apply the lessons he learned during 23 years in the Marines before retiring in 2001 as a lieutenant colonel. Since then, he's been an operations manager, management consultant and teacher of college-level business courses.
"Now it's just turning the page and going to work, pretty much like I did in the Marine Corps all the time. You transfer in, you have a new job, it's a bigger job usually, you just go to work, and that's what we're doing right now," he said.
A service of the Associated Press(AP)
Ellie
Obscure retired Marine battles taxes, shakes up Indy politics
By KEN KUSMER
INDIANAPOLIS - Greg Ballard just a few months ago was an obscure Republican mayoral nominee without a prayer, some scoffed, of unseating a well-funded, two-term incumbent.
Today, he's the mayor-elect of the nation's 13th-largest city, a tax opponent held up for admiration by President Bush, and a lesson to political incumbents everywhere of what can happen if they don't mind the mood of the voters.
Ballard overcame little name recognition, a sizable mid-September polling deficit and a more than 12-1 fundraising disadvantage to pull off one of the biggest upsets in modern Indiana election history. He beat Democrat Bart Peterson 50.4 percent to 47.2 percent to become the first challenger in 40 years to unseat an Indianapolis mayor.
The 52-year-old retired Marine Corps officer never doubted himself.
"I know half the city doesn't believe it when I said I always believed. I mean, I always thought we were going to do this thing," he said.
Now others can believe, too. Last week, he traveled to New Albany in southern Indiana to greet Bush before a policy speech on the federal budget and holding the line on taxes.
"Right here in Indiana, voters in your capital voted for Greg Ballard and ousted an incumbent mayor, in large part because the incumbent mayor supported raising taxes," Bush told a business audience.
The mayor-elect, as plain spoken as the commander in chief, relished the attention and embraced the message.
"That was kind of neat, actually. I mean, I like it, obviously," Ballard said. "I like the fact that he recognized what happened in Indianapolis."
What happened in Indianapolis was a classic taxpayer revolt in which voters took out their frustrations on the man at the top.
Property taxes for homeowners statewide have shot up an average of 24 percent because of new assessment rules. In Marion County, where Indianapolis is located, they rose an average of 34 percent, and in some cases more than doubled.
Peterson over the summer called for a special legislative session to provide more tax relief, imposed a hiring freeze and ordered most city departments to cut their budgets by 10 percent. However, he also pushed through a 65 percent local income tax hike largely targeted to fund the fight against growing violent crime.
A mid-September poll had Peterson leading Ballard 52 percent to 38 percent. In the end, it was Ballard's anti-tax rhetoric that might have carried the day.
"On top of the property tax crisis, and then to put in an income tax increase on top of it, the timing of it was just really bad," Ballard said. "If it was really, really necessary, it could have been delayed. I'm not so sure it was all necessary.
"Obviously we're going to look into it, very, very much in depth, once we get in there. We're going to open up this government. We're going to show everybody where that money's being spent, and if we can cut it, we're going to cut it."
Gov. Mitch Daniels has proposed a plan to reduce homeowner tax bills by about a third statewide, and a state legislative commission released a report this week that calls for at least a 50 percent cut for most homeowners.
The mayor-elect wants to go further. As part of "The Ballard Rules" he drafted for his campaign platform, he said he would lobby the General Assembly to eliminate property taxes outright, a measure he said already has the support of a third or more of lawmakers. He said 2 percent increases in sales, income and corporate taxes could replace the lost revenue.
Ballard also has said that except for public safety, he will cut all other city spending by 10 percent by his third year in office or he won't seek re-election.
Joe Loftus, a former deputy mayor who's advising Ballard, met the candidate only after he had won the GOP primary. Ballard's steadfastness impressed him, but Loftus also noted Ballard didn't attract the talent and other resources that Peterson and former GOP Mayor Stephen Goldsmith had when they first won the office.
"He has a lot of work to do in part because a lot of people took a pass on the campaign," Loftus said the day after the general election. "The steepness of the hill at the beginning is a lot steeper."
State Democratic Chairman Dan Parker said Ballard rode an anti-tax mood in Marion County to victory on Election Day but has been largely silent on specific details since then.
"I don't really know what kind of mayor he's going to be because most people really don't know him, and he needs to fill in the blanks pretty quickly," Parker said.
Other observers said they expected Ballard to retain his strong focus once he takes office in January, but his inexperience might be a liability.
Cathy Langham, chairwoman of the board of the Greater Indianapolis Chamber of Commerce, said Ballard was scarcely known just a few months ago and did not appear to have strong political connections.
"That could be an extraordinary challenge," Langham said.
Some give Ballard strong marks, however, for reaching out to other community leaders during his campaign.
"Greg did go around. He did listen," said Olgen Williams, a west side neighborhood activist who was co-chairman of the Front Porch Alliance, an alliance with neighborhood and religious groups that Goldsmith forged during his two terms in the 1990s.
Ballard has criticized Peterson for dismantling the Front Porch Alliance pledged to restore it to link the mayor's office with neighborhoods and provide an important tool for fighting street crime.
"I think Mayor-elect Ballard will be a champion for the faith-based community" and the resources they can muster to improve the city, Williams said.
Ballard plans to apply the lessons he learned during 23 years in the Marines before retiring in 2001 as a lieutenant colonel. Since then, he's been an operations manager, management consultant and teacher of college-level business courses.
"Now it's just turning the page and going to work, pretty much like I did in the Marine Corps all the time. You transfer in, you have a new job, it's a bigger job usually, you just go to work, and that's what we're doing right now," he said.
A service of the Associated Press(AP)
Ellie