Bennett says he's seeing more downtown openings after the pandemic, the new jail location further south isn't creating new problems for officials, and new legislative talk of decreasing property tax caps is déjà vu.
On this week’s installment of Ask The Mayor, Terre Haute Mayor Duke Bennett addresses these issues and more on a Zoom interview. 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: The COVID-19 public health emergency seems to have an end date. The White House emergency declaration is set to expire after an initial extension into May. But health officials say it’s a misnomer that it’s ‘over’ - ending the health emergencies mean we have to pay for COVID testing, treatment, and vaccines - what are you hearing?
Bennett: I'm hearing that it's turned into more of a routine thing. I mean, it can still be serious clearly like any illness can be. But not hearing a lot about that it's overwhelming anything or there's any significant uptick, I guess, you know, from this winter.
I think it's kind of a mixed bag, I think we're at the end, that's my personal feeling is that we're moving on from it, but it's never gonna go away. So we're going to have to treat it like we do other seasonal kinds of things. The most important thing you can do is have good health yourself. If you can lose some weight, you can control your diabetes, lung issues, those kinds of things all go a long way that if you do get COVID, it'll impact you much less.
Hren: Columbus is looking to revitalize downtown after COVID - is Terre Haute returning to pre-pandemic levels?
Bennett: The convention center was a big catalyst to kind of set the tone for the future. We had a new restaurant opened up right next to it a couple of weeks ago, and they've been packed every night. With the activity that's going on in the Hulman building that's been purchased by a local developer, it's gonna get filled up. And it's a huge, huge building, multi-story, it'll have a variety of private businesses, and not for profit businesses in it.
We're hearing some exciting things on the entertainment side of things downtown. And so I think people will invest when they know the people are going to be there. We're looking at another parking garage downtown to supplement the new hotel or hotels, we need 200 more rooms downtown.
Hren: You presented a plan on how the city should spend the $30 million dollars in American Rescue Act Plan?
Bennett: All of our funds were received in May and we've been working since that time with the county and other local stakeholders, looking at the READI funds, taking a look at the casino funds that will be coming in beginning next year, and figuring out how to leverage these dollars to get the biggest bang for the buck if you will.
We need new housing, our housing stock is old here, we don't have any single family homes, we don't have any affordable housing, everything is kind of taken up. And so we're looking to provide some builder incentive programs, we're looking at helping with some homeless related projects.
Infrastructure, doing the sidewalks in front of new construction, the county is also investing a significant amount of money there. So we put $5 million in that particular pool, we put another $5 million in our parks.
We put some money back for food deserts to help create some environments with access to fresh fruits and vegetables, meats and things like that, we still have to figure out what that exactly looks like. And to set some money aside for that some large infrastructure projects that will help us keep from having to raise sewer rates right now one with the railroad overpass at 13th and 8th Avenue and another one on South Brown Avenue, which is stormwater only.
Hren: We're seeing some legislation to further decrease property tax caps, due to home values going up so much just has to bring back some déjà vu for you?
Bennett: I always understand why our legislators want to protect the citizens of our state. But these are issues in certain areas. I mean, our assessed value has gone up yes, but the state is telling me that our tax cap credits are going to be the biggest they ever have been since 2009. So we're not going to collect a lot of that money. So I think it's a little early to determine what the true impacts are going to be on the property tax side.
Read More: Terre Haute still feels tax cap impact
If you lower those caps, then that means less money come into local government. But, assessed values have been kind of muted for quite some time they've risen. Everybody loves it when the value of their house goes up. But then the the taxes come and I understand the conflict there. I just don't know what the legislature is going to do to address that. Lieutenant governor was in town last week and I asked her that question, and she said, they really don't know for sure.
So I watched those things closely, because obviously, that impacts us and our delivery of services.
Hren: The new Vigo County jail has been operational now a few months, there were some supply chain issues earlier last year, but I'm curious about the workload, logistics of not having the jail, right there, downtown?
Bennett: Seems to have worked out fine. So that's one of the biggest concerns a lot of people had was moving it down on the south side. But the feedback I'm receiving from our officers who have to transport to the jail, to those that work with the courthouse here across the lawn, with our city core variety of things, it's all working out just fine. I think it just took a little a few weeks to kind of work out the bugs of that. But it seems to be working very efficiently.
I talked to the sheriff a few weeks ago about that, just to kind of get an update from him. And I went down and did a quick visit. It's turned out to be what we hoped it would be that kind of a community investment. So I think it's been great. I'd love to see people not commit crimes and not ended up in jail. But I think they've got a much better place to take people now they can be treated and served in a much better way. And I think there's more to come on that and to provide even additional services in the future.
