Jasper mayor presents economic overview
Hit play to listen to Mayor Seitz’s presentation and follow along with the slideshow. Andy Seger, chairperson of the Economic Development Commission, introduces the presentation.
Jasper — About 65 people filled the Jasper Council Chambers to hear a presentation by Mayor Terry Seitz during the Economic Development Commission meeting held Thursday morning.
Seitz’s presentation touted the city’s current projects and plans as well as introduced some new ideas and concerns.
Of note was the mayor’s mention of a potential parking garage being added to city-owned land northeast of the post office at the corner of Mill and Sixth Street. No plans are in place but the mayor suggested it could be a two to three level structure to alleviate the congestion downtown created by official business at the courthouse, city and county employees parking, and visitors to the downtown businesses.
“It’s an idea, and that’s exactly where it is at,” he said. “I haven’t talked to the county about it. This springs from the downtown plan. If you want to create a boulevard, you lose parking. Could we do a small structure on that property that we already own and then create designated city and county parking.”
This could alleviate the parking problems that currently exist for visitors to downtown businesses and events.
“We don’t have a great place for our guests to park too much, you know, when it gets crowded here,” Seitz said.
Seitz also noted in his presentation that Gov. Mike Pence’s plan to abolish the business personal inventory tax could take a big hit on many cities’ budgets. “Mayor Weineke [Evansville] and I were together yesterday and he said they would lay off 50 people immediately,” Seitz said about the proposal.
The mayor also mentioned that Gov. Mike Pence recently announced that he is looking at phasing out the personal property tax for Indiana businesses to make the state more competitive with other states in attracting businesses. Removing that revenue would decrease the city’s revenue by almost $1.2 million a year, Seitz said.
“We would wipe out 17 percent of Jasper’s budget,” he said. “$1.2 million every year and right now there is no replacement included in the plan.”
Seitz pointed out that at this time, no plan for replacing the lost revenue has been announced.
“Ultimately, our greatest challenge is to not do anything with what we have showed you this morning. To sit still,” Seitz said. “I promise you we won’t.”
The city plan is a great plan. The Governor has to make the State more competitive to attract businesses and while it sucks to lose revenue, if we spend time attracts new businesses here the revenue will grow. Same theory as the property tax abatements.
We can increase the sales tax. That worked out well for the citizens of the state. We can make those who make over few million or so not pay any kind of taxes at all (personal, business, property). If we have no taxes for the “Job Creators” they will be crawling over the top of each other to do business in the state bringing thousand of well paying jobs.
Not really a novel idea, I’ve wondered why the parking structure didn’t happen years ago instead of tearing down the many buildings that represented the city’s culture, fine craftsmanship, and character. The jail, the White Hotel, The Glove Factory, the City Bakery, Dr. Ackerman Residence, just to name a few. The list goes on and on. When I drive through Jasper at night, I see parking lots where buildings stood; lots of void. Instead of stewardship, this community leans toward destruction, all in the name of “parking.”