Mark Massa, former general counsel for Gov. Mitch Daniels and the Republican candidate for Marion County prosecutor, calls
on Prosecutor Carl Brizzi, also a Republican, to step
down in the wake of an IBJ investigation.
Marion County Prosecutor Carl Brizzi last year intervened in a major drug case to offer a reduced sentence over objections
from both law enforcement officers and his own deputy prosecutors.
Marion County Prosecutor Carl Brizzi paid nothing for a 50-percent stake in an Elkhart office building he acquired with a
local defense attorney.
Records show Marion County Prosecutor Carl Brizzi directed lucrative work for the Prosecutor’s Office to his friend, business
partner and political contributor John Bales.
The bill now likely will go to a House-Senate conference committee to try to resolve the House-passed and Senate-approved
versions of the bill.
The Indiana Fiscal Policy Institute says that all 92 state counties could reap big cost savings — more than $300,000 in Marion
County alone — if they used vote centers on Election Day instead of traditional precinct locations.
Mark Massa, attorney for Gov. Mitch Daniels, is “considering” running for Marion County prosecutor as the Republican candidate.
The leader of the party in the county said he would be “ecstatic” if he would.
The written statement Carl Brizzi released Thursday saying he will not seek a third term as Marion County prosecutor makes
no reference to the controversy surrounding his business and personal ties with embattled Indianapolis financier Tim Durham.
Township boards would be eliminated in Indiana and their local government duties would be transferred to the county level
if a Statehouse proposal becomes law.
Indianapolis property tax bills, paid in two installments due in May and November, should be sent without delay for the first year since
2006.
Lobbyists paid $1,000 or more to sway city or county officials will be required to report all activity online.
A Lawrence Township trustee is proposing to merge the township’s fire department with the Indianapolis Fire Department,
in an attempt to further reduce its operating deficit.
Nearly every Indiana county has failed to send property tax bills on time this year, forcing many local governments and schools
to borrow millions and providing further proof that Indiana’s tax system is still a work in progress more than a decade after
a court ordered a massive overhaul.
Counties wanting to speed traffic among suburbs are building highways to avoid having to travel into Indianapolis. The result,
a 100-mile outer loop beyond Interstate 465, won’t be completed for years, and it won’t be built to consistent standards,
but it might help ease congestion.
Chrysler has returned $5.5 million in bonds to an Indiana county to settle a dispute over millions of dollars the county spent
toward a transmission plant that a Chrysler supplier stopped building last year.
Fitch and other rating agencies are concerned that the phase-in of property tax caps will further strain the city’s finances.
The Arts Council of Indianapolis faces the unenviable task of divvying up less than $1 million in city grants for the arts, compared with $2.15 million that was awarded last year.
Saving money may be the bottom-line reason for reforming local government, but that’s only one of the benefits.
Critics were lined up to oppose Gov. Mitch Daniels’ plan to streamline
local government almost before he left the podium Dec. 19. Big surprise.
What started as a dispute over a pair of digital billboards in Lawrence has evolved into a battle with broad implications
for Marion County.
