Bennett says he's not interested in showing vaccination cards for benefits, he agrees with the governor's decision to halt federal benefits to unemployed workers, and casino groundbreaking will most likely happen in July.
On this week’s installment of Ask The Mayor, Terre Haute Mayor Duke Bennett addresses these issues and more on a Zoom conference call. Listen to the full conversation with Indiana Newsdesk anchor Joe Hren by clicking on the play button above, or read some of the questions and answers below. A portion of this segment airs 6:45 and 8:45 a.m. Wednesday on WFIU.
This conversation has been edited for clarity and conciseness.
Hren: Let’s start with COVID, what a difference a month makes – mask restrictions are either voluntary or enforced by a business and some places are wanting to see vaccination card – how do you feel about that, or in most places it’s word of honor?
Bennett: You know, that's the tricky part. Because, I would think most people would want to get vaccinated. But apparently, that's not the case. And so, here in Vigo County, I think we're 40% is what I heard yesterday. So it's gonna be very difficult to get to the 70% that the President was shooting for, for the nation.
Having people come in the building, not wearing a mask and not knowing who's vaccinated or not, it doesn't bother me that much. Because I feel like the contamination rate, I think yesterday, we had four in Vigo County, and over the weekend, we had one day with zero. But yes, it's still out there. But I don't want to get into being the mask police kind of stuff or the vaccination card police. Let's just keep talking about the positives of being vaccinated.
I feel like every week or every couple of weeks, we continue to make more progress. I just don't we don't know when the end is. We've been having some things going on. This past weekend, Friday, Saturday and Sunday, I personally had nine events and about more than half of those were larger gatherings, and so you're beginning to see that loosening up now.
Hren: What about budgets so far this year? I know we've talked about this in the past, and with other mayor's too, and they don't seem to be worried about this year's budget, but what about coming up?
Bennett: I still feel that way about this year's budget, I'm not seeing any negative trends at all, everything seems to be back to normal. But then knowing next year, we're still going to wait and see. We get an estimate from the state about our local option income tax money, that'll really tell me. I'm told by our financial consultants to expect a 11% decrease next year, as it catches up. And so I'll have a better feel for that probably sometime by late July. All my other budgets appear to be fully funded, the way we need them to be.
READ MORE: Indiana Union Calls Governor’s Unemployment Decision ‘Cruel’
Hren: How do you feel about the governor's decision to withdraw the state from federal programs that was providing funds to unemployed workers and expanded jobless benefits? It cost the state nothing to remain in that federal program. But some people are saying it's the governor's way of saying it's time for people to get back to work.
Bennett: Yeah, I agree with that, generally speaking. I mean, I think there are some segments of the economy out there, though, it is hard for people to go back for a variety of reasons. Maybe they have underlying health conditions, maybe they're dealing with kids issues. I think there's a lot of turmoil still out there and not back to a normal routine. But I think those numbers drop every week. My guess is there's a lot of open jobs in Terre Haute, anywhere from $13 an hour to probably $23 an hour and entry level to manufacturing jobs. And we're having trouble filling these, businesses are struggling.
So I guess we'll see if that decision has an impact. But I think it's the right thing to do. I wish the federal government would have shortened it, and left that money in place that if things change again, that they can go back to it and turn it on just like that.
Hren: I believe that's effective June 19. But the point of contention is that it's forcing Hoosiers into low paying jobs with the argument there are enough people, they're just not paying enough for what that job is worth.
Bennett: I guess. But you know, once again, you can look at the data from lots of different ways and see different things in there. I just heard today, and we had an economic development meeting this morning, and we were talking about a local manufacturer, their beginning wages, $21.75 an hour and they'll train you. And they're still having trouble filling those jobs. So, you know, when you get up in that range, that's better than unemployment.
I'm just hopeful that people will then on that lower end of the scale, whether they're working in retail, or restaurants, maybe they need to move up into some of these better paying jobs and free up spaces for the younger people or maybe some older people who are retired but want to work. To me, the system kind of feeds itself. The problem is we don't have a pool big enough. We don't have enough people. That's our problem.
READ MORE: Work Could Start This Summer On Delayed Terre Haute Casino
Hren: The casino groundbreaking keeps getting pushed back. I read an article by the Associated Press that was optimistic. The Gaming Commission wanted to be sure that the financial backing or status was sound on Lucy Luck Gaming. Is that what you're hearing?
Bennett: They've submitted that a while back, and so they wanted to be freshened up a bit with new, updated information. I think they're looking for building costs and things too because the price of materials have gone up so much. So I was feeling really good going into last meeting, so I've tried to be cautiously optimistic every time we have one of these steps in the process.
I just talked to the casino owner this morning, and he feels like they're on track. And I know I've said that multiple times. But now we're getting down to the final - Okay, let's issue the Luck, renew the license and let them do the groundbreaking.
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