Community backs new tax with goal to combat downtown Indianapolis challenges

At a hearing on the city’s new downtown fee district proposal Monday night, a majority of community members who spoke supported the proposal while only a handful of voices, including the council’s Republican caucus, opposed it.The public was invited to comment during the City-County Council’s Metropolitan and Economic Development Committee meeting. The plan, which was proposed earlier this month, would tax Mile Square businesses and residents to raise funds to spruce up Downtown streets and reduce homelessness.Many came to applaud the plan.

Doug Brown, a Mile Square homeowner and partner at the law firm, Bose McKinney & Evans, located in the Salesforce Tower, quoted former Mayor Bill Hudnut, saying, “You can’t be a suburb of nothing.”

“I believe that this initiative will end up being a historic milestone in our city’s history,” Brown said. “I think in the future people will look back and they will admire your courage and your leadership in advancing this cause because it will end up, I think, benefitting greatly generations to come of Central Indiana residents and downtowners."

After the public comment, the committee sent the proposal to the full Council with a do-pass recommendation, with all eight Democrats in support and all three Republicans opposed.

The new downtown economic enhancement district would require all property owners within Mile Square to pay an annual fee for street cleaning, homelessness outreach workers, surveillance cameras and other measures intended to address challenges downtown.

Homeowners would pay a fixed fee of $250 a year. The fee for all other property owners would be 0.1681% of the property's gross assessed value. So, for a property worth $50 million, the owner would pay about $84,000 a year.

The Council proposed a similar idea in 2018 but that failed after opposition from downtown property owners and the Indiana Apartment Association. Now, they see another opportunity as the city continues to try to bounce back from the pandemic.

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The fees paid by property owners, from homeowners to parking garage companies to apartment owners, would amount to an estimated $5.5 million annual budget that will be managed by an eight-person appointed board, a majority of whom must be downtown property owners.

Monday night, the committee also voted to pass an amendment capping the annual fee paid by homeowners at $250 and capping the annual budget at $5.5 million.

Jeffrey Stroebel, a property owner in Mile Square, said he thinks the proposal is a “no-brainer” that would help vulnerable people in the community and protect property values downtown.

Company representatives who spoke in support of the proposal included those from Elanco, which will move into a new global headquarters on the westside near downtown as well as officials from Cummins, which has a downtown headquarters.

“Having a vibrant and safe environment is essential to attracting employees, residents and visitors in driving the economic engine of our state,” Lawrence McCormack, director of state government relations at Cummins, said.

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Rev. Gray Lesesne, dean of Christ Church Cathedral on Monument Circle, spoke in support of the proposal, saying he appreciates how the money would support homelessness outreach and operations at the city’s forthcoming low-barrier shelter.

“We do not see our neighbors as problems to be solved or a business challenge or as issues to be addressed but rather as beloved children of God who deserve dignity, mercy and care,” he said.

But others opposed the proposal.

Mark Firmin, a homeowner who has lived downtown since 2005 and who also works there, urged the council to vote no.

“What I have an issue with is that it is the square mile paying for something that we all need to address,” Firmin said. “I don’t dispute that we need to do things here, but it’s who is paying for it."

He said he thought that the city should pay these costs, not downtown property owners.

Republican caucus called timing of new fee proposal dishonest

Meanwhile, the council's Republican caucus has called the timing of the announcement, which City-County Council president Vop Osili made just two days after the Nov. 7 municipal election, “dishonest.”

The Republican councilors also took issue with what they said was rushing the proposal through before the end of the current councilors' four-year term, instead of allowing the new council, which takes office in 2024, to consider it.

"I don't think that I'm doing justice as a councilor to enact a vote in favor of this without having the due diligence of time to actually pass an educated vote," Michael Paul-Hart of District 18 on the south east side said, pointing out that the council committee only had one week before the committee hearing to vote on it.

The Republican caucus called for the council to vote no on what they called a tax increase during a “lame duck” tax period.

“We just had an entire municipal election cycle in which Mayor Hogsett and every Democrat on this council ignored every attempt by the media or public to discuss this tax increase,” a statement released by the Republican caucus Nov. 13 read.

“After refusing to take a position before voters cast their ballots, it is underhanded that council Democrats and the mayor would push this tax increase less than two days after the election. If they really felt this was good policy, they had a whole year to campaign on it instead of ignoring it.”

Some people who gave public comment said they embraced the proposal as a good first step but wanted to see the district’s reach expand in the long term. For instance, the proposal cuts the Mass Ave neighborhood in half, locating only a portion of the neighborhood within the Mile Square.

Meg Storrow, chair of the nonprofit Mass Ave Cultural Arts District board, said she hopes that over time, the city finds a way to address the artificial boundary that divides the neighborhood.

"I think there's a lot of work to be done," she said, pointing to gentrification and the need for affordable housing. "We embrace this as a first good step, but we want to partner with the (economic enhancement district) to advance it to become even better."

The full Council is expected to vote on the proposal Dec. 4.

Contact IndyStar reporter Ko Lyn Cheang at kcheang@indystar.com or 317-903-7071. Follow her on Twitter: @kolyn_cheang.

This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Indianapolis downtown economic enhancement plan sees public support