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Mayor’s $217M bond proposal, tax increase one of first items to go before new city council

Adam Aasen
Brainard

Brainard

Having won a sixth term for mayor of Carmel, Jim Brainard said he was going to have big plans for 2016 – especially considering he will have a new City Council that is expected to support him.

By any measure, Brainard’s plans are big. $217 million big.

At the first City Council meeting of 2016, the mayor will introduce a plan to fund various road projects, drainage improvements and new roundabouts by taking out $217 million in bonds. He is also proposing a tax increase to help pay for them.

One of the biggest projects on the list is transforming the 96th Street and Keystone Avenue intersection into a roundabout, a project that recently missed out on federal funding.

The City of Carmel will finish its 100th roundabout around the beginning of 2016, but the project list includes plans for more than 30 more. It also includes widening part of Hazel Dell Parkway, creating a Monon Boulevard, reconstructing part of Guilford Road and 126th Street and undercover relocation of some power lines. Range Line Road would be extended to the Lowes Way connector.

The city will acquire land for a City Center hotel, improve landscaping for roundabouts and resurface streets in Southwest Clay. The city will also focus on improving drainage to prevent flooding, and Brainard has promised that money from the city’s Storm Water fee will only go toward drainage.

Brainard said some of the projects will be paid for using the County Option Income Tax. Some will be paid for by a new Storm Water fee that the previous council approved. Some will be paid for by the various redevelopment funds. And some will be paid for by new property taxes that would need to be approved.

The mayor said the tax increase would be about $22 for a $200,000 home. Many homeowners are already at the property tax cap if their home is valued at more than $345,000 and won’t be affected.

Brainard said these project costs do exceed his expected tax revenue but that the city will apply for state and federal funding and will cut back on the projects if funding doesn’t come through.

Three city councilors who often disagreed with the mayor on financial matters have been voted out of office and replaced with mayor-backed candidates. In all, Brainard saw six of his seven endorsed candidates win their elections, so he feels he has the backing for swift action in 2016.

“I’m asking that the council move on this very quickly,” he said. “Keep in mind that there’s interest rate volatility right now. We want to get this to market before the rates go up.”

Rick Sharp, who served as city council president and ran unsuccessfully for mayor, said he’s not surprised by the list of proposed projects and tax increase.

“This is what I was warning people about,” he said. “There’s no way to do everything he wants to do without raising taxes. Yet the mayor told everyone that I was just trying to scare people.”

Brainard said he’s just giving the voters what they want, but Sharp doesn’t believe that’s necessarily a good strategy.

“Every parent will tell you that you can’t grant every wish, and you at times need to be prudent,” Sharp said.

Sharp said he thinks the 96th and Keystone roundabout interchange project will cost half of the $217 million alone.

Luci Snyder, who also lost a bid for reelection, said she’ll leave it up to the next council to decide if it’s too much money, but she did have a suggestion for spending priorities.

“The 96th and Keystone roundabout should be the first thing you do, and then any other roundabouts are gravy,” she said. “There are some places where you need roundabouts and other places where they don’t work.”

Brainard said there’s no way to start these projects without borrowing money.

“(Without a bond) we’d probably never get to most of them,” Brainard said. “The way state law is set up you aren’t allowed to save up enough to tackle many capital projects. It’s not the way our tax structure is set up in Indiana. If you want to do major road projects this is how you have to do it.”

 LIST OF PROJECTS

ROUNDABOUTS

STREET AND ROAD PROJECTS

STORM WATER INFRASTRUCTURE PROJECTS

SUBDIVISION DRAINAGE IMPROVEMENTS


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