Ask the Mayor
About
A weekly program where mayors from Bloomington, Columbus, and Terre Haute answer questions about your community. We also delve into new and long-term city topics.
The show airs on WFIU on Wednesday mornings at 6:45 AM and 8:45 AM
- First Wednesday of the month: Columbus Mayor Mary Ferdon (R)
- Second Wednesday of the month: Terre Haute Mayor Brandon Sakbun (D)
- Third Wednesday of the month: Bloomington Mayor Kerry Thomson (D)
Submit a question or comment to news@indianapublicmedia.org and follow us on X: @AskTheMayor
Joe Hren
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WFIU/WTIU News
"I truly believe that when you look at the cost of housing, the cost of utilities, and frankly, a job market that hasn't took wages high enough to achieve this dream style scenario, that's what I wish the election would have been on." - Mayor Sakbun on the primary
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"That's, in fact, why you do PUD, is because you have something that will not fit into the UDO or the transportation plan. We needed some wiggle room with both of those in order to get this done." - Thomson on Hopewell -
"When you start targeting civilian infrastructure, you start really just creating more enemies. The people of Iran are going to be hit with famine, no power. That is not how you win a campaign and do regime change." - Mayor Brandon Sakbun -
"There's still some uncertainty around tariffs, now we're seeing higher fuel costs, energy costs, the uncertainty around interest rates. I think that right now, businesses are being very careful. We aren't seeing many hire and expand." - Ferdon on the economy -
"It is an issue that we are really grateful that the public has brought to our attention, and it has caused us to have very serious conversations with Flock." - Mayor Thomson -
"When global decisions start affecting the everyday American's pocketbook on top of the news cycle that they continue to watch, I do think the court of public opinion will change over time with how we approach these conversations of forever wars." - Mayor Sakbun -
"I think the goal is to push those off for a year and then give cities a chance to talk with legislators about some of the changes and how the rate structure can be adjusted." - Ferdon on municipality revenues -
"We did survey all of the businesses impacted by a closure on Kirkwood, and only five of them said that they supported a closure." - Thomson on summer Kirkwood closure -
"There's an attack on rural communities. And I'm not even saying that it's purposeful. I'm saying that sometimes bad public policy leads to bad decisions." - Mayor Brandon Sakbun -
"As we lose revenue across the board from our two big sources, which are income tax and property tax, then something has to go away." - Mayor Mary Ferdon -
"What this does is really highlight all of these assets that Bloomington has always had, but now we have a spotlight." - Thomson on IU football's success
