1500TH POST: Annual Convention proves that taxpayers should not have to pay for party politics! Plus a recap of Allen County and Indiana Conventions.

This is going to be a wonderful post for our fifteen hundredth! It has been my pleasure to serve you and on occasion have y'all to read my ranting on the state of politics and social concern around Fort Wayne and Allen County and abroad for the last two and a half years and the rest of the Officers pounding it across the electronic super highway for the last six years or longer.

This year The LP of Indiana [Website][Facebook][Twitter][YouTube][FreeHoosiers] and LP of Allen County proved that not only can we have a contentious convention, with not one but two contested federal nomination fights but that we can do so with mutual respect of all parties and without the taxpayer footing the bill for a political party to make a decision! The Libertarian Party in every effect had not just a Convention but an actual Primary election, and you the taxpayer were not charged one red cent or green backed bill, unless you chose to participate in the process. It is time to take a stand and make the Republicans and Democrats do the same across the Hoosier State! You can start by demanding an open primary or no primary at all! You the voter sets the agenda contrary to any cynicism that develops on which ever isle in the marketplace of ideas.

Let's start with the State Convention, going on in Indy as I am writing this, the results so far as I have been told in communiques between members are subject to revision (*name = final result) with official results but are as follows:

FEDERAL ELECTIONS

US Senate *Rebecca Sink Burris [Facebook][Website]
US House 3rd *Scott Wise [Facebook][Website]
US House 5th *Chard Reid [Facebook]
US House 6th *T.J. Thompson [Facebook][Campaign Facebook][Website]

STATE ELECTIONS

Secretary of State *Mike Wherry [Facebook][Website]
Auditor Eric Knipe [Website]
Treasurer TBA

GENERAL ASSEMBLY

House Districts In Allen County
District 81 Elizabeth [Facebook]
District 85 Paul Leslie [Facebook]

TOWNSHIP TRUSTEE, ASSESSOR, ADVISORY BOARD etc.
Lake Twp Adv. Board Tom Pearl (currently a Republican incumbent)

(MORE INFO 2 FOLLOW PLEASE SAVE POST TITLE IN ORDER TO REFER BACK TO IT THANKS!)

Review of Food and Beverage Tax

We have talked about this before and this post is not an debate exercise but an attempt to gather complete details for a formidable response. So before I ask the tough questions and make some pretty harsh statements I have been doing some research and cant find the point in time when a continuation of the Allen County Food and Beverage Tax was extended or why. It seems like it just sort of happened and no body thought the miser of it.

According to the original law the tax was to expire 30th of June, 2000.

On the 14th of February 2001 our County Commissioners in regards to the renovations at the Memorial Coliseum brought up some interesting statistics and questions but I will highlight just two: tax revenues from Food & Beverage as projected and the Coliseum revenues held flat at $400,000; and, Commissioner Irving asked where the $1,242,342.00 contribution from the Coliseum would come from and when would those contributions be paid to the account. Fishering said that the funds are existing, original Food & Beverage tax revenues, on hand at the Auditor’s office. The amount is closer to $2.4 million.

RANDOM QUESTIONS:
What is the surplus at now?
Is there one?
Somebody let the Auditor know I will be calling.

There are also three taxes that the Memorial Coliseum feeds exclusively off of: The two Food and Beverage Taxes and a Professional Sports Development Zone I am assuming the PSDZ is like a TIF, but again it is an assumption. With that assumption though, I am left with two questions:
How much money is the MC going to loose with the new Stadium being built downtown?
Is the boondoggle known as Harrison Square going to recieve a PSDZ of its own?

To answer some of my questions or at least get further data I turn to an awesome article done recently by Michael Summers @ The Fort Wayne Reader entitled Myths of the Smoking Ban (also available here).

The theory that smokers are now going outside the city limits might explain the fact that collections from Allen County’s Food and Beverage Tax haven’t seemed to change much. According to the Indiana Department of Revenue, collections from May of 2007 were over $513,000, and dropped to $395,000 for June, after the smoking ban went into effect. It’s a considerable drop, especially considering the collections from the same period the previous year went up from $451,000 to over $548,000. But collections were back up to $548,421.90 for July 2007. “Part of what’s happening is when they report the food and beverage tax, that’s for the whole county, that’s not for the city of Fort Wayne only,” Loren Fifer says. “The county hasn’t lost any taxes but the bars and restaurants (outside Fort Wayne) have picked up patrons. Sure, the taxes are up. They should be, because everyone has raised their prices to stay in business.”

If (note I said if) the money from the Food and Beverage taxes exclusively funds the Memorial Coliseum and they are pulling in half a million dollars a month, why for goodness sake are residents paying up to five dollars to park for three -five hours at a time? Why do they need a PSDZ also? Why are we letting this tax continue without oversight or redirecting any surplus to a general fund so that other services can be paid for without raising the other levies?

Just some random thoughts and questions I will enjoy reading your answers.