Henry campaign releases new television ad: “Believe”
Today, the Tom Henry for Mayor campaign released a new television ad, “Believe.” The spot contrasts Paula Hughes’s attempt to twist the truth about city finances with Mayor Henry’s record of keeping city finances strong — holding spending flat every year and putting us on track to cut 40 percent of city debt by 2015.
The ad will begin airing on all major Fort Wayne stations starting today. Proof and transcript below.
httpsv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LNyRrqHQBDo
Can you believe Paula
Hughes
She supported tax
increases for ten straight years
Hughes supported or voted for tax increases every
year for ten years.For a full list of
tax increases go to https://therealpaula.com/images/8-25-11_Hughes_Ten_Years_of_Taxes_1_.pdf
And newspapers prove
the city’s debt is only half the amount Paula Hughes and her political
backers claim
Utility Debt
The
Fort Wayne Journal-Gazette recently noted, “Actually, city government’s
debt is only about half that amount. The other half is in City Utilities, the
separate city-owned business that operates the city water and sewer
systems.”[1]
State Pension Obligations
To
get to her half a billion debt figure Hughes now also cites a $88.8 million
pension liability as the city’s, but when questioned by the Journal Gazette,
“Hughes acknowledged that number is not a city liability.”[2]
The Journal
Gazette explained that “It’s an accounting change, not additional debt.
In 2008, the General Assembly voted for the state to assume cities’
obligation for pensions of public safety officers hired before 1977.”[3]
That’s because Tom
Henry has kept city spending flat
As the Journal Gazette recently noted:
“Solid city finances,” Editorial, Journal
Gazette, 7/14/2011
…the overall picture is
one that would make officials in many other Indiana cities envious….Last
year’s actual spending of $175.9 million was essentially flat with 2009 – an
increase of less than 1 percent. Just as importantly, the city spent nearly
$5 million less than budgeted, adding to city reserves. At the end of 2010,
the city’s general fund held $19.7 million in reserves.
To cut existing debt by
40% in four years
“2010 CAFR and City Finances
Executive Summary,” Ft. Wayne City Controller, 7/12/2011
“Once these issues are
accounted for, the city ended 2010 with a net liability of around $176.5 million,
down $13.2 million from 2009’s $189.8 million.
Between 1/1/2011 and 12/31/2015 the city will pay off
an additional $73.77
million in principal on outstanding bonds.”
“Henry
has said more than 40 percent of the civil city’s debt – not including City
Utilities – will be paid off by 2015. Hughes has promised to cut 24 percent
of all city debt by the end of her first term.”
Tom Henry’s doing
what’s right for Fort Wayne’s future
