In this week’s installment of Ask The Mayor, Columbus Mayor Mary Ferdon addresses this issue and more at City Hall. 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. Here are some highlights.
This conversation has been edited for clarity and conciseness.
Hren: Is the city getting through the winter storm?
Ferdon: Oh, good grief. This was supposedly our 20-year snow. So we had anywhere in the neighborhood from 16 to 18 inches. But this is kind of a double whammy, with both the snow and then just the incredible cold made it so difficult. And so far, we've had three water main breaks that utilities have had to work on.
But, it just adds to the chaos for the crews that have been out all week and then having to deal with it. They're now picking up piles of snow on corners to try to get sidewalks open, and then carting that away.
The City of Columbus, homeowners and property owners and businesses are supposed to be cleaning sidewalks, but many times they don't, or they don't have the right equipment, and so it makes it different for pedestrians and people with mobility issues.
Hren: I hear you're headed to the statehouse tomorrow to talk with legislators, what's your message?
Ferdon: So kind of the biggest bill right now is SEA 1, which is dealing with the local income taxes. And there were changes made in last year's session, with SB 1. And it also made changes to the property taxes, which we haven't really seen that in play yet, and we will later this year.
The local income taxes we're just advocating for, kind of a reevaluation of the formulas that the state legislature has drawn up, and see if we can get those many cities, you know, will actually lose income tax. So it's kind of a double whammy with losing, or triple whammy losing property tax, losing business personal property tax, and then see a reduction in income tax, which I think starts in 2028 so yeah, we're always up advocating just making sure they understand how that and other bills affect the kind of business that we're able to do.
Hren: What happens when a city loses all those taxes?
Ferdon: You can make up some of it if your net assessed value grows. And Columbus has been fortunate that our net assessed value grows fairly regularly over the years, but that doesn't always work communities where they don't see that, obviously you're going to have to make decisions about what services to cut back on.
We always put public safety, will always be a priority, and so that's one that you least want to have to cut. But, this past week is a great example to the community to understand what it takes when we have these weather events, the crews that it takes, not only in public works, but utilities, our parks department, our facilities department, our transportation because we still wanted to get the busses up and running. It takes a lot of extra work and a lot of resources to get that.
Hren: The last time I was there, the trees were coming down along the riverfront for the "Our river, Our riverfront project." What's the latest?
Ferdon: The cold weather and the snow kind of stopped it, but, yeah, we started stabilizing and re landscaping the banks. We removed a lot of invasive trees, which people didn't like, but they, I think, don't understand that those were old and scraggly and didn't really add anything. And so we'll be putting new trees, native plantings back in when we're completed, so the People Trail connection will be completed from Mill Race Park or adding a plaza.
And then this summer, we have a team coming in and removing the low head dam. So later this year we we believe that we're going to have a big party, because it should be completed.
Hren: Before we go, is there anything else we should know?
Ferdon: Next Tuesday evening, we are at The Commons in downtown Columbus. We're holding the State of the City address. It's 5:30, we've got light refreshments, and then six o'clock, and if you don't want to drive, we'll be doing it Facebook Live, and it'll be also on several radio stations.
