Oh I had to do that.

That's pretty amazing.

Welcome to the Adman Finance Committee.

Start with the introductions to my left.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair, Derek Cahill, District 23.

Thank you, Mr.

Chairman.

Mike Dok, District 24.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair, Brian Mowray, District 25.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

We night Allen, District 15 for I said.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair Nick Roberts, District 4.

Thank you, Chairman Muscary, Andy Nielsen, District 14, East Side.

Good evening, Maggie Lewis, District 5.

Frank Mascarry, District 19, Southeast Side.

With consent, I'd like to move the budget hearing just around a little bit.

First, we would like to hear the bond bank and the budget review and analysis with consent.

All right, bond bank is first.

Welcome.

This is gonna be real brief, right?

Thank you.

Mr.

Boogie, if you'd like to introduce yourself.

Okay.

Sorry about that.

We'll go ahead and get started.

Uh thank you, Mr.

Chairman and members of the committee.

Uh, my name is Joe Glass.

I'm the uh executive director and general counsel of the uh Indianapolis Bond Bank.

Um the Bond Bank is a separate body in politics uh from the city of Indianapolis.

Um it was uh created by statute uh nineteen eighty-five uh to buy and sell securities on behalf of uh local government entities within Marion County.

Um since we are a separate um entity from the city, uh we are not presenting a budget for approval, but appreciate the opportunity to uh update you on the goings-ons at going on of the bond bank.

Some of our qualified entities are the City of Indianapolis, uh, the Marion County Building Authority, uh Health and Hospital Corporation, the Capital Improvement Board, um, Indigo, and the Indianapolis uh airport authority.

So we have a bond bank basically to streamline debt management uh within local government in Marion County.

Um we uh prepare bond docs, um, engage with underwriters, um we uh uh head the ratings process and continuing this continuing disclosure so that our qualified entities can focus on uh on their main purpose.

Uh so we convene a subject matter experts uh in one agency, uh reduce the duplication of work and administrative burdens on our qualified entities and uh centralize uh the debt management process.

So the the uh three main categories of activity of the bond bank are planning capital improvements, uh we monitor the uh debt capacity of our qualified entities, uh we develop uh plans to finance projects, um different options include uh direct placements, uh short-term financing, such as bond anticipation notes, or uh traditional uh municipal bonds, and then we manage debt uh through the life of the bonds.

So we uh sell the bonds uh through an underwriter, we uh go through the uh ratings process, we administer the continuing disclosure process, and uh we also uh participate in a surveillance uh through the rating agencies.

Uh we have seven uh full-time staff members.

Uh we are governed by a five uh member uh board of directors appointed by the mayor.

Um all uh current board members uh have terms that expire uh expire in April of 2027.

Uh this year uh we had um five major financings, um the uh 125 million dollars for the uh indigo uh blue line project, which um the bonds were sold uh in the spring.

Um we had a large uh capital uh project at the airport, which included uh the new on-site hotel, and uh financings that are still in the process include refundings of a health and hospital debt uh that has been approved by the council and we expect to issue that debt by the end of the year.

Uh there's general obligation debt for um a new uh storm uh uh siren system, uh snow plows as well as a new fire station.

Um that has been approved by the council and uh will be uh issued sometime uh by the end of the year.

And uh lastly, uh Old City Hall.

Um we are issuing debt uh to rehab uh old city hall proper as a part of a development of by TWG, which includes um a multi-use uh tower on the north end of the building, and we expect to close uh that financing this year as well.

Uh next year um we anticipate uh issuing debt for uh the Metropolitan Thoroughfight District, so that is a streets, uh sidewalks, and uh roads.

Uh we anticipate issuing 40 million dollars of debt pursuant to DPW's uh capital improvement plan.

Uh we anticipate issuing 50 million dollars in stormwater bonds as well as uh additional debt of the airport authority uh primarily for a new uh baggage system uh at the Indianapolis Airport.

So I wanted to speak a little bit about uh credit ratings.

Uh credit ratings basically provide assurance uh to bondholders uh that we are good for our debt.

Every source of security has its own unique credit rating.

So, for instance, Stormwater, Metro Thoroughfare, um the separate qualified entities like the airport and health and hospital and uh the city of Indianapolis have their own uh special rating.

There's four major uh credit rating agencies, uh, Moody's, SP, Fitch, and Kroll, and as well as rating individual bond issuances, uh, most agencies complete an annual surveillance of the city's overall credit.

Uh the work of the council is critical in maintaining our uh credit ratings.

Um things that are mentioned in ratings include our uh eight consecutive balanced budgets, um the city's uh fund balance policy, as well as the capital improvement plans of the Department of Public Works.

Uh to uh give you some highlights of some recent ratings, Kroll and Fitch both recently affirmed the city's uh triple A rating.

Uh they cited um the city's track record of uh structurally balanced operations, a vibrant economy uh with a growing tax base and moderately low uh long-term debt uh that results in uh uh financial flexibility.

Uh stormwater uh was recently affirmed triple A by Kroll in September.

Um our Metro Theropare bonds, the most two recent ratings were rated triple A, and our uh TIFF bonds uh rated double A stable by Fitch and SP last year.

So appreciate your time and happy to answer any questions.

Thank you, Mr.

Glass.

Um do we have any bonds retiring?

I mean, do they ever retire?

Sure.

So bonds are usually issued for terms of 20 or 30 years, um, and I'm not sure exactly what debt we have rolling off uh coming up the next couple years, but can certainly get that information to you.

Total bonds uh that we have out there.

Uh do you have an actual total somewhere?

We do.

I could get that, I don't have it offhand, but I could certainly get that for you.

Councilor Nelson.

Thank you, Chairman.

Really quick.

Uh Director Glass, just for the I know the answer to this, but just for the the public's education.

Um, can you talk about kind of the unique nature of the old city hall bonds and how it will be how it is structured by the developer and everything else?

Sure.

Uh so we are um issuing debt uh to um uh rehab uh old city hall.

Um we will uh use the proceeds of the bond, we'll be using the proceeds of the bond issuance to uh make a loan to the developer, uh the developer will in turn use that loan to make um improvements to old city hall.

Um we will retain ownership um of old city hall until uh that loan is paid off, which we expect to be in ten years.

Uh thank you, director.

And then just a quick comment.

I noticed on your um talking about the city's credit rating and its health, specifically its growing property tax base, and I'd encourage my colleagues to take a look at an article that was in the Capitol Chronicle and then published by the IBJ in relation to kind of the indirect or tertiary effect of SB1.

I know we've talked a lot about that when as it related to this around the spring fiscal time right after SB1 was passed, but really the uh threat of SB1 outside of just the impact on our property tax revenue, but the potential excuse me, potential impact on our credit rating agent or credit ratings, which will make borrowing more expensive uh and more challenging.

So I look forward to learning more from you, Director Glass and OFM and others who will be, I know very vigilant on this.

Um, but I think uh folks really need to be aware that it wasn't just the impact on property tax revenues, but it will be an impact on our potentially on our balance sheet and our ability to borrow in the future.

Uh and I hope that's something that the General Assembly really takes a hard look at because it won't just affect the city of Indianapolis, but all local uh municipalities in the entire state.

So thank you, Mr.

Chairman.

Thank you.

Any other comments from counselors?

Seeing on anyone in the audience would speak on this.

Absolutely.

You can step up to the plate and state your name.

Uh Eddie Hager.

Uh pardon me, hang on, hang on.

Go ahead and uh clerk, go ahead and redo it to you.

The disclaimer.

I know how to behave.

Before we open the floor to public comments, we would like to remind the committee members and the public of a few ground rules so everyone can have a fair chance to speak and be heard.

It is important that we each observe the following rules.

First, each speaker will be limited to two minutes.

Second, any public comment must reasonably relate to the agenda item under consideration.

Third, speakers who stray away from the item under consideration or become unruly repetitious, maybe asked to be removed or move on to the next point or conclude their comments.

Finally, attendees who've called disruptions that prevent the committee from proceeding through tonight's agenda in a reasonably efficient manner will be removed.

Please remember that any types of threatening speech or enticement to violence are not protected by the First Amendment at all.

We will deal with those issues if they come up.

So, yes, I've been trying to get the attention of multiple different uh government entities through uh city, county, and state within reference to um the taxes that we were just talking about within reference to our uh credit rating and how we uh how we're dealing with that and how that's uh the state is going about that and the county's going about that.

So I'm sorry.

I'm just practicing it.

So within reference to uh what the councilman was talking about, um I just did some research within reference to my area, the east side.

So I studied 27 properties.

Of those 27 properties, not a single one of those properties had an increase from 2022 to 2025.

And if they had had an assessment of what they just did, assessment increase of what they just did from 2024 to 2025 page in 2026, we lost out on 12.4 million dollars in assessed value.

That's a lot of taxes.

Then I looked at commercial properties of the commercial properties.

I studied 18 in my area.

We lost out on 16.8 million dollars in assessed value because they did not receive a single increase, not one penny from 2022 to 2025.

Then in 2025, the assessor decided she'd do uh an average of 14% increase on those properties.

Now, let's go back to my property, 2839 South Pasadena Street.

I've lived there for seven years.

In the seven years, my properties went up 64%.

64%.

What you're talking about is this burden is being put on homeowners.

It's not being put on commercial properties and industrial properties.

I have the proof it's right here.

I suggest somebody out of this board do the study that I did that took about 30 minutes and say our assessment isn't being done correctly and equally and fairly.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Anyone else from the audience seeing them?

Thank you, Mr.

Glass.

Up next is the uh budget and review.

Proposal 259.

Who do we have for that?

Anybody?

No.

With the within the budget uh that has been presented over the last the course of budget season.

Um is anyone changed or is there any of your budgets changed whatsoever?

If so, let me let us know.

There is no changes to the budget for any of the agency that came before this committee.

Thank you.

Do we have a motion for proposal 253?

Go ahead.

Yes.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

I I just wanted to explain uh my vote tonight, uh, which I will not be supporting this.

Uh I think it is I don't I don't want to be unreasonable in not voting for public works, uh, and then to simply take sort of the minority caucus position and say there should have been more public works money.

I'm not supporting this because I believe this is the area that most if if I had been doing the budget, this is where I would have made additional uh cuts.

Uh and I would I would call out I think specifically the ISA budget that was not uh part of the they were excluded from the 4%.

That alone would have been about one and a half million dollars there.

So that's the rationale for my thank Councillor Ums.

Did you have anything?

Anyone else?

Anyone else?

I have a uh Mr.

Chair, I move we send proposal 259 of the full council the due pass recommendation.

Well, all those in favor say aye.

Aye.

Opposed?

Thank you.

All right, up next is proposal uh two seventy-three.

Who's presenting that?

Ms.

Abby Hanson.

Uh yeah, uh couple comments.

Thank you.

Uh thank you, Mr.

Chairman.

Um I will be introducing an amendment tonight to proposal 273.

Um the controller will get into more detail on this, and I'll make a few comments even at the end, but uh, we have some exciting developments thanks to the hard work of our public servants at DMD that's gonna allow us to reallocate um some dollars in the standalone, but to still meet the objectives of the standalone, which are infrastructure and safety, homelessness intervention and prevention.

So the controller again will provide an overview.

Uh then I uh appreciate the opportunity for a few uh additional comments before formally offering the amendment if that works for you, Mr.

Chairman.

Thank you.

I think we had user error.

You have the floor.

Oh, you had you got that to work.

I did.

Thank you.

Yes.

All right, you have the floor, Abby.

Okay, good evening.

So I'm controller Abby Hansen.

The this fiscal was introduced alongside the 2026 budget, and it is part of the budget package.

We are, as we're building the budget, OFM is also closing out our prior fiscal year and doing our year-in financial reporting.

So for the last few budget cycles, we have introduced a fiscal alongside the budget that makes investments with the underspin that we identify from the prior year.

We hadn't heard this proposal thus far because we had an exciting opportunity as Counselor Nielsen mentioned, um, that forced us to delay the hearing of this proposal.

We worked closely with the council on setting the priorities of the fiscal, knowing that we will have an additional hundred, knowing that we will have an additional hundred million dollars in road funding in 2027.

We set aside 10 million dollars to begin design on projects, ensuring that new projects are ready for construction when we receive funds.

And then, secondly, the original fiscal set aside 10 million dollars for the streets to home indie initiatives.

So as these discussions were happening, we submitted a request to HUD to reallocate $5.9 million dollars in a grant we had already received called home ARP.

The funds were originally supposed for a permanent supportive housing project that fell apart.

The deal couldn't get closed, and we didn't want to lose the opportunity to utilize that funding.

So we requested HUD's approval to reallocate the remainder of the funds in that grant to the streets to home Indy initiatives.

We received HUD approval on September 15th, which allowed us to amend the fiscal to accomplish some additional priorities without reducing our original commitments.

Here are the programs that the fiscal funds, which I will cover in brief depth in the remainder of the presentation.

And as a result of the additional HUD funding, this fiscal amendment allocate reallocates $5 million of the streets to home Indy.

It was originally DMD $10 million.

We have been able to reallocate half of that.

So the column labeled fiscal funds are the amounts that are allocated to each program in the amended fiscal.

The total commitment column is the amount in the fiscal and our HUD reallocation.

So it's the full amount between those two funding sources.

So first, the home ARP reallocation allowed us to dedicate a million dollars to pedestrian and traffic safety initiatives, which gives DPW the ability to be more reactive to safety challenges as they're happening.

We are also adding an additional $2 million to strip patching.

And then finally, we were able to increase the design funding by $2 million for a total of $12 million to start designing those projects for 2027.

The fiscal will allocate $4.25 million to streets to home initiatives through DMT.

However, with the included HUD funding, we are allocating a total of $10.2 million.

DMD does not need an additional appropriation for it.

They have the ability to go ahead and program it.

I want to include it in this conversation because it informed the decisions that we made with the amendment.

Finally, the fiscal amendment is now allocating $750,000 in funding to the tenant advocacy project through OPHS.

So here's a bit more detail about the DPW funding.

The map on the right shows the prospective projects that will be designed through the $12 million.

And I know it's hard to see, uh, but they are designated in green and red and blue.

And then the yellow segments are the ones that are being considered for the $18.26.

So budget funding plus the funding from this fiscal gets us to $18 million.

And then finally, like I said, there's a million dollars for DPW capital to address pedestrian and traffic safety issues.

So as a reminder, Streets to Home Indy is a strategy that's a three-phased initiative with the goal of ending street and chronic homelessness.

So there's three pillars to the strategy that we are able to divert households from entering homelessness.

We are increasing the housing supply of affordable housing through master lease or permanent supportive housing, and creating a substantial, a sustainable process that uses a mix of other sources of funding.

So the fiscal and the HUD funding together allows us to address needs that fall with inside this strategy.

Then the final piece of the proposal is $750,000 in funding for the tenant advocacy project through OPHS, which is a complementary strategy to streets to home Indy.

CAP partners with legal aid to provide in-court eviction defense, preventing displacement and addressing root causes of homeless or of housing instability.

Due to financial constraints during the budget process, OPHS requested just $750,000 and with the plan to continue to work with their philanthropic partners to fill the remainder of that.

After we introduced the budget, OPHS learned that there would not be additional philanthropic support available.

And so this funding allows us to continue our current scale and provide services to more Marion County residents.

So there are representatives here from DPW, DMD, and OPHS who are able to answer any programmatic questions that you may have.

Thank you, Abby.

Uh I understand we have an amendment for this.

Would you like to present it?

Go ahead.

Um yes, thank you, Chairman.

Um just before I make this motion, may I have just one one more minute?

Okay, and then I'll just move the motion.

So again, so not to be in any way repetitive to what the controller said because she covered that perfectly.

So we're making a million dollars investment in that with plenty of work to go.

Uh helps prepare us for 2027 and beyond for the 100 million dollars coming in, uh tripling the strip padding budget compared to the 2025 budget, and again, making a substantial investment in homelessness intervention and prevention and the flexible funds made available in this uh fiscal combined with what is in the amendment at DMD is the those dollars folks really need to understand that those dollars provide the flexible funding necessary to take the most effective, the most humane and compassionate and the most fiscally responsible approach to solving street homelessness.

This investment is a down payment in that effort, and we know we can't do it alone.

This initiative uh led by the mayor but supported by many, I know many on this council uh does require those in the business, the philanthropic, the faith community, the civic community to also be a part of the solution.

But this is local government really demonstrating that we need to be leading on this, and this investment through this fiscal and the DMD amendment or the HUD amendment really does that.

Um just really want to emphasize what we're doing here and the strategies that we are taking are about again the most effective, the most compassionate, and the most fiscally responsible way to solve this problem.

So with that, Mr.

Chair, uh I move to amend proposal number 273 by adding the below included modifications being stricken through and added and adding the language that has been underlined uh to read as follows.

And council pearls, do I need to read all of that?

Okay, you can just incorporate it by reference by reference to section one, section two.

The answer is no.

Okay, thank you.

I appreciate it.

I so move, Mr.

Chairman.

As we move and second it, all those in favor say aye.

A great question.

Go ahead.

I apologize.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Just uh can I and I'm not sure who can answer this best.

It on this HUD grant.

Is it is it extra money or was it contingent on us matching through this?

Uh I would say neither.

It was money that we have been awarded to program.

We originally said we were going to support a per uh permanent supportive housing development.

That's not gonna come to fruition in the uh in the time in which we need to spend the funds, so we are granted the opportunity to reallocate it, and this seemed like a great opportunity.

But DMD is welcome to come up and say if I'm wrong.

Okay, thank you.

Uh and uh I just I I will say I had significant reservations about the original proposal, but I think all of those are addressed with the uh with this.

This uh allocates what I would like to see in terms of uh public works, and I and I appreciate the uh Streets the Home project.

I think they're uh widespread issues that do need some sort of response.

Uh but I think the uh the heavy focus on infrastructure spending is is the uh best uh use of our resources.

Thank you.

Any other counselors?

Councilor Boots, go ahead.

Thank you, Mr.

Chairman.

Thank you, Councilor Boots.

So a couple questions.

One on the public works uh portion of the amendment.

So after every council meeting, I go and do this media circuit and talk about what happened at the council meeting, and regardless of what happens at the council meeting, they we always end up talking about our roads and um sidewalks, and so my question specifically is how did we identify those potential locations as far as that two million dollars for the strip passaging?

If you can speak to me in layman term, how did we determine that?

Good afternoon, Todd Wilson, director of the Department of Public Works.

Thank you, Mr.

Chairman.

Thank you, members of the uh committee here.

Um so uh how do we pick the potential locations for our strip patching uh for 2026?

Um so we've uh utilized PCI data, we needed traffic data, we've used uh pothole data and uh marriage action center search requests in a system or in a weighted uh uh formula to come up with our road uh health.

So what you see what the red, green, and blue are what we have programmed, those ones that are in yellow are the the ones that are not as bad but our potential for our strict packing program for 2026.

Now we won't understand what we're gonna be doing for strict patching until we get through the winter and we see how the winner has uh done on our roads.

So if I show this map to uh one of the uh reporters that I am going to chat with after the council meeting, how much would this if we did everything in that map?

How much would that uh cost the city of Indianapolis roughly?

So I don't know about the entire uh uh roadway network that you see in that map, um, but we did some calculations on the 16 million dollars that we'd be able to um uh use, and that's about 200 lane miles of roadway strip patching for 2026.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Councillor Boots, thank you, Mr.

Chairman.

Directors, while you're there.

Um, this same map.

Can you explain uh I'm trying to get a handle on we don't know what we're gonna do in 26?

We can wait on for street conditions, real time street conditions.

But how are we projecting then certainty for 27, 28, 29 when we have no certainty for 26?

And then we're gonna spend our stripes with so those uh segments that are identified for 27, 28, and 29 are part of our capital improvement program.

So those are the thoroughfares that you'll see our complete streets uh uh initiatives on resurfacing signalization safety all that.

Okay, all right, and then on the yellow one designated yellow for 26.

You're gonna use that same data that you mentioned to determine in Q1 what's gonna be the focus of strip patching in 26.

That's correct.

And yeah, we'll definitely use that same data and we'll definitely be using top home data and marriage action service requests.

Thanks, Greg.

One more question to made absolutely um controller.

You mentioned the uh TAP program.

That's quite a tech project of many of us here because we think it's critically important in Indianapolis, particularly with our escalating uh hopeless eviction rate.

That is one of the most embarrassing factors and data points Indianapolis has our high rate of evictions for our city, one of the highest in the country per capita.

You says here that we have lost some of the philanthropic support.

Can you name on the record who are the philanthropic bodies that now are not supporting tenant control and tenant assistance?

I cannot.

Yeah, Andrew Berkeley, director of the office of public health and safety.

Um counselor, I appreciate the question.

I think it would be challenging to answer that question considering uh that we would we would like to continue those partnerships in the future.

Um, and it wasn't because they uh you know, we're we're all experiencing financial fiscal challenges due to a large part to the state and other issues, and so um I I don't think it would be appropriate to call out our our partners do it on record, but I would like to provide a private list of those parts.

Happy to meet with you to the local, thank you.

Counselor K.

Thank you.

Uh I wanted to uh just to build on Leader Lewis's comment to say that uh the the data that DPW has come up with for my district for these the the roads in yellow that are the highest priority.

I know they have done a ton of math to get there, but I can tell you from uh constituent uh calls it is it is an exact match to what I hear.

So I I applaud the that's that's always nice to see.

Um Shelby Street's the biggest stretch in my district, and I hear about it every day.

So any other question or comments counselors, anyone counselor Lewis.

Sorry, Mr.

Chairman.

I promise to be brief.

And so I just want to take a second to level set around uh the TAP.

Um what was the spin last year the last couple years in that in that space?

applaud the that's that's always nice to see uh shelby street's the the biggest stretch in my district and i hear about it every day so any other questions or comments counselors anyone go ahead and counselor lewis sorry mr chairman i promised to be brief and so i just want to take a second to level set around uh the tap um what was the span last you the last couple years in that in that space counselor um i don't have the exact spend for you tonight but we can get that for you please it is um very close to 1.5 which is the total amount that we uh have allocated for 2026 with this additional 750 000 um we we believe that this 1.5 million will allow us to continue uh operating county wide in uh superior court which we've added recently uh additionally we uh we understand that there are a couple different programs so there's tap and then there's the EDR program out of Lawrence Township we've had some really fruitful conversations with judge bacon there to move us toward uh a unified program and and hopefully begin some additional conversations with uh township trustees will any of these funds so Mr.

Chairman if it's okay absolutely will any of these funds go directly to uh our constituents to those individuals like can you talk to me a little bit about that you mean as a rental assistance so no these these funds would not be for rental assistance uh although we do believe that that is a critical piece to keeping those uh house I think that uh those conversations with trustees are critical so that we can begin to understand how each of the nine trustees um how we get the the funding that they have that for rental assistance to constituent or to our tenants faster and that we can identify uh tenants who are going to face eviction preemptively so that we can work with trustees and so that'll be our goal as we move it into 2026 for that rental assistance piece okay all right thank you counselor boots just quick follow up director while you're there sorry no worries um just to clarify can you distinguish between our the superior court project with judge of math and what you refer to as the Lord's Township program with Judge Bacon absolutely um might get into the weeds a little bit but the tenant advocacy project is providing legal uh legal assistance to the tenant so that is a one-sided um uh legal assistance right um and and that is because um landlords often come with legal assistance with their attorneys and oftentimes most of the time a tenant does not have that so that is our attempt to provide that legal assistance we also provide a what is called a navigator which is a case manager who is helping walk that tenant through the process of of court that day they're also following up with case management with those tenants after they leave court um the eviction diversion initiative which is the program out of Lawrence Township uh provides a facilitator that is also an attorney but that attorney is neutral so the the goal is for that facilitator to work with both attorneys for both parties and come up identify um a solution that the judge would be uh willing to agree to so that hopefully we can keep that tenant uh from eviction or at least find the most um the the best outcome for that tenant that is not that is uh that maybe like pay and stay or some other solution right there that program also has navigators those navigators do very they're doing the very similar role as our navigators and so that's really the piece that we need to figure out how to combine so that we aren't uh redundant in the resources that we're providing but is there any data or any metrics showing the success rate of either program um as far as the EDI program you would you would have to we would have to talk to judge bacon to for those metrics but ophs does have metrics for our programming and we also have a report that was issued last year early this year demonstrating um the both quantitative and qualitative results for for the tenant advocacy project could you recirculate that report sure to this group yes thank you thank you Mr.

Chairman Councillor Lewis sorry last question I promised to go on mute um there was some rubbling rumblings in public safety will will any of these funds be able to be used for the immigrant um legal services and counselor nielson did try to explain this to me so I apologize counselor so again can any of these funds will they be used for that for those services if an immigrant if an immigrant is a tenant and goes to either superior court or the township small claims courts and they don't they are not represented they could absolutely access the legal aid through tap uh but the the immigrant legal defense fund is a separate pot of money that that goes to the Indian Indianapolis foundation got it thank you so much thank you Mr.

We actually have a we already have the motion.

That's right.

Okay.

All those in favor as amended.

Aye.

So we just vote in the amendment first.

Everyone uh for the amendment, say aye.

Aye.

Opposed?

None.

Okay.

Now 273 as amended.

Go ahead.

As you go ahead.

Mr.

Chairman.

Mr.

Chairman, I move that uh we send proposal number 273 as amended to the full council with the due pass recommendation.

Okay.

All those in favor say aye.

Aye.

Opposed?

None.

Thank you, Abby.

You're probably gonna stay there for the next one, right?

No.

I'm out.

Uh proposal two seventy-five.

Um you're up next.

Welcome.

Good evening.

Uh my name is Jake McVay from the Office of Finance and Management.

Um here to discuss proposal 275, which is the second of two proposals required by Indiana Code to reallocate Marion County's local income tax for fiscal year 2026.

The first proposal, 274, was approved by the full council on September 8th and outlined the plan for reallocation.

Proposal 275, which is before you tonight, seeks to implement that plan.

Um I will do my best to answer uh any questions uh the committee has.

Thank you.

Anyone um any questions or comments?

Seeing none.

Anyone from the audience that likes to speak on this?

Seeing none, entertain a motion.

Absolutely moved and second it.

All those in favor say aye.

Aye, aye.

Opposed?

Thank you.

That was quick.

All right, last proposal 287.

Uh just the power and light company, AB AES.

Who's presenting this one?

Councillor Hart.

You're you're an Autsey.

Yes, sir.

Good evening, uh, members of the uh finance uh admin committee.

Appreciate the opportunity to get this evening all.

Good evening.

I uh appreciate the opportunity to present this evening to the uh the committee members here.

So essentially, uh you know, I I I'm introducing this proposal uh and it brought it here today because um you know obviously had a lot of conversations about data centers in in recent weeks and months, and the the topic of of energy was at the forefront of those conversations.

Well, at the same time, we're seeing a lot of conversations about AES and their uh proposed rate hike in front of the IURC.

And you know, on top of that, you know, it's even been alluded to this evening as we're talking about, you know, Senate Bill, we're talking about property taxes.

Um people are feeling these things, they're feeling the rise in their property taxes, they're feeling the rise in their grocery bills, and they're seeing it at home, and the last thing they need to see is an additional rise in the utility bills.

And we're the largest city in the state.

We've got the largest uh body of representatives, and we represent over a million people in the city of Indianapolis, and we speak for those one million people, and or nearly one million people.

And so I really want to take this opportunity to send a message at the end of the day, and that's what I want to do.

I want to send a message to AES.

I want to send a message to the governor, and I want to send a message to the IURC that the people of Indianapolis don't want to see a rate increase.

Michael Paul Hart doesn't want to see a rate increase, and I ask for your support that we do not see that we urge these folks to not see a rate increase as well.

What this proposal does is it takes a formal vote as as our position as the council uh to send that message.

Essentially, we are urging the uh AES first to withdraw their petition to the IURC.

If they fail to do that, uh this continues on and urges the IURC to vote no to that repetition for rate increase.

Um after we finish our vote and move forward, what happens is that we will send a letter to both the IURC and the governor stating our position, representing the great people of Indianapolis that we do not support any utility rate uh hikes to the city of Indianapolis or AES ratepayers.

And that's that's what we've got, Mr.

Chair.

Thank you.

I'd like to be added as a co-sponsor.

Anyone else would like to be added to the co-sponsor?

Councilor Nilson, raise your hand.

Yeah, so far we have a majority here.

How about you guys?

Okay.

Um you know it's needed.

Uh I have people in my district that living these old houses that are just sucking up the energy.

They're paying $700 a month in electric bills.

It's nuts.

So absolutely I support this.

Any other counselors have any comments or questions?

See none.

None?

Yes, go ahead.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

I move that we send proposal 287 back to the council with a due pass recommendation.

I think we need to open it up to public though first.

Anyone from public like to speak on this?

Yes, just step step up and state your name and you're gonna get two minutes.

You probably already heard the uh disclaimer we had.

Yes, thank you, Chairman, members of the committee.

Just wanted to thank Councilor Hart, uh Councillor Bain for the uh resolution.

Offer our full support at Citizens Action Coalition.

Folks have heard enough from us about the rate case, but we agree folks can't afford this rate increase, the city can't afford this rate increase, and we offer our support to the resolution.

Thank you for your time.

Thank you.

Anyone else from the general public speak on this?

See none because it's been moved and seconded.

All those in favor say aye.

Aye, opposed, none.

Thank you.

Seeing you any new uh we are adjourned.

Nothing else.