Unless You Like Tax Increases, Randy Borror is Not a Good Choice
Posted by Jeff Pruitt - 6/5/10 @ 11:07 pm - Filed Under 2010 Local Elections, Featured
I told myself I wasn’t going to post for or against any of the candidates running in the 3rd District Caucus but I’ve changed my mind. The fact of the matter is that whoever happens to win this caucus has a better than average shot at becoming our next Congressman, and as we all know it’s mighty difficult to boot an incumbent once they get entrenched. It’s because of this that I feel it necessary to point out why I think Randy Borror would not be a good choice to represent this district.
AWB has a post up reminding everyone that Borror sponsored HR 1604 and I want to expand on that post by showing how involved Borror was and what the eventual outcome was (hint: several large tax increases).
HB 1604 was something we wrote about at the time as we all felt this was an awful bill. The original bill as sponsored by Randy Borror was designed to create a Capital Improvement Board here in Allen County by making the “temporary” 1% food and beverage tax permanent. This was a blatant tax increase for the residents of Allen County as I described in
this post.
[...]has submitted a bill that will create a new city-controlled board to run the Coliseum and control the county’s 1% food and beverage tax. You remember that tax right? That’s the one that was “temporarily” put in place to fund the Coliseum. And then it was extended to fund the Coliseum expansion.
[...]
Look, the argument that the food and beverage tax should be extended to fund the Coliseum expansion was tenuous at best. But nobody could argue that the original intent was to fund downtown development projects so let’s call this what it is - a tax increase. That’s the only honest definition…
This bill, sponsored by Borror, was bad enough on its face but then things got worse as an amendment was attached to it that would bailout the clowns running the Indianapolis Capital Improvement Board by doubling the tax on alcohol throughout the state. The CIB in Indy found themselves $47 Million in the hole after mismanaging their sports complex contracts and turned to representatives like Borror to help them out. Borror was eventually put in charge of the conference committee to sort this mess out and here’s what he said at the time:
The final and, some would say, the most controversial conference committee for Rep. Borror will be for House Bill 1604, a bill that was originally intended to create a capital improvement board for Fort Wayne. Now, the bill also contains the plan to help save Indianapolis’ capital improvement board, which is almost $50 million in the red.
“Obviously, I wasn’t happy with this language making its way into this bill, and my gut reaction was to say, ‘Let them fail,’” Rep. Borror said. “But that’s not realistic. We need our state’s capital to remain an attraction for national conventions. We need to keep professional sports teams. We must keep people coming to Indiana.
“Yet, we need to find a way to help Indianapolis that won’t punish or take advantage of the rest of the state. Why should people in Fort Wayne, for example, pay for Indianapolis’ poor planning? It’s unacceptable, and I think we’re all focused on making sure that doesn’t happen.”
That sounds like the same mentality that led to the passing of the $750 Billion bank bailout - i.e. the CIB is “too big to fail”. So what came of that bill? Did the state legislature require Indianapolis local government to make hard decisions and find ways to dig themselves out of the hole they created? Not even close - they stuck it to the taxpayer of course.
The “compromise” brokered by Borror raised the following taxes (this is on top of the Allen County CIB tax increase described above):
- Raised the county supplemental auto rental excise tax from 4% to 6%
- Raised the county admissions tax from 6% to 10%
- Raised the county innkeepers tax from 9% to 10%
- Allowed an option for Marion County to double the off-premises alcoholic beverage tax
- Allowed Indianapolis to impose a new commercial parking fee
- Raises the $5 per person state revenue cap for the Allen County and Fort Wayne professional sports development areas to $8 per person
Of course all of these are set to “expire” in 2020. How’d that work for the “temporary” 1% food and beverage tax again?
We don’t need more people in Washington that want to solve the country’s problems by increasing everyone’s taxes. We don’t need more people in Washington that will bailout the next “too big to fail” industry. What we DO need are people in Washington that are going to say NO and require those that created the mess to fix it. We need somebody to stand up for the taxpayers instead of looking to us as a never-ending cash machine to solve their latest problem. That is NOT Randy Borror…
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15 Responses to “Unless You Like Tax Increases, Randy Borror is Not a Good Choice”
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We need a democrat in the position!
David,
The last thing we need is a Democrat. They are raising taxes in DC and need to be kicked out of Washington.
Mike
Jeff,
That was a HORRIBLE bill!
Mike
Let’s just put Stutzman into November’s GOP slot on both ballots!
I believe it was Marlin Stutzman that voted for the largest tax increase on Indiana business in history. Maybe we should be looking at another candidate.
Why don’t we put the bought and paid for candidate in Randy Borror? He seems to be the approved pet of everyone. Pretty good at paying everyone off. Politics as usual. DC is looking like the Gulf right now—black and oily and full of slippery trash that kills off innocent life forms.
What is with all of this ill will? Can’t everyone just get along? Go Big Bucks Bob
The “largest tax increase against Indiana businesses” was a no win situation because it had to do with fixing the unemployment fund that was borrowing $7 million a day to keep up with double digit unemployment and benefit extensions now at 99 weeks.
Read about the bill here.
http://www.insideindianabusiness.com/newsitem.asp?ID=35614
2nd look at Bob Thomas? He’s got no political baggage and he ain’t beholden to anyones money but his own.
Point of order here- I am pretty sure HB 1604 was pulled before it left conference committee. Therefore, Borror could NOT have voted for it.
Further, the bill that set up the CIB in Allen County DOES NOT extend the food and beverage tax.
I will research this a bit further, but I am pretty sure I am right. And I think you will find that Stutzman, Borror and Culver voted FOR these bills during the process.
Spoke with Phil GiaQuinta and here is what I found out:
House bill 1604, authored by GiaQuinta, contained language that would redirect food and beverage tax money away from the Coliseum to the Allen County-Fort Wayne CIB. The bill did not extend the tax (it didn’t end it either). If the CIB board decided to do more bonding past 2020, the tax would be extended as well to cover the length of future bonds. That’s a decison up to the CIB. House bill 1604 passed 98-0 (Borror and Culver voted yes).
House bill 1604 went to the Senate. In the Senate, Senator Luke Kenley amended the bill to include a list of new and increased taxes (these taxes were going to be used to “bail out” the Indianapolis CIB). House bill 1604 passed the Senate (with amendments). Stutzman voted no.
GiaQuinta then dissented on House bill 1604, meaning it goes to conference committee. There was a hearing. Essentially, GiaQuinta killed the bill. GiaQuinta then took the original language from House bill 1604, and amended it into House bill 1514 (it was in a conference committee as well). House bill 1514 was signed off by the four conferees and then passed by the House (Borror voted yes, Culver no) and the Senate (Stutzman voted yes).
So, when it comes to the Allen County-Fort Wayne CIB and the food and beverage tax, Borror, Culver, and Stutzman all voted yes at one time or another.
None of the House members voted on the Indianapolis CIB language that included the tax increases because GiaQuinta killed the bill!
Kevin,
Money above and beyond what is needed to pay the current bond is “redirected” to the CIB. That’s a tax increase. Furthermore how can you say “the bill did not extend the tax” when in the very next sentence you admit:
That’s an extension by definition. You can argue that, in theory, the tax may not be extended because the CIB has to approve it but the whole point of the bill was to grant the authority for the CIB to extend the tax! Of course they will extend it.
Again, that’s a tax increase and our state legislators were all for it. So were local politicos such as Nelson Peters and Tim Pape to be fair.
Kevin,
I do believe that the CIB bailout didn’t end up including everything that was in the original 1604 bill. I believe they did get the hotel hike but not the auto or admissions tax. And the House members did vote on it because it got attached to the state budget bill that was passed during the special session.
I don’t think anyone can dispute that Borror and Wyss were all for the CIB bailout in one form or another.
“but the whole point of the bill was to grant the authority for the CIB to extend the tax!”
I disagree. The point of the bill was to look at Allen County as a whole, not just a bunch of small groups running their own little kingdoms (like the Coliseum board).
[...] From Fort Wayne Politics. HB 1604 was something we wrote about at the time as we all felt this was an awful bill. The original bill as sponsored by Randy Borror was designed to create a Capital Improvement Board here in Allen County by making the “temporary” 1% food and beverage tax permanent. This was a blatant tax increase for the residents of Allen County as I described in this post. [...]