The Wishard referendum has all of the markings of a scam

It’s unfortunate, but the Wishard referendum has all of the markings of a scam. We are being told that we must “Act Now! – we can’t afford to wait!” We are being bombarded with emotional appeals but little hard data including the cost. We are being told to trust a circle of political insiders – but nobody has money in the project or is taking any risk except Marion County taxpayers. It turns out that the “Citizens for Wishard” is funded almost entirely by the IU School of Medicine. Even the wording of the referendum and calling a special election when there’s sure to be little turnout raises eyebrows.

This proposal should be soundly rejected by the voters- even if the project is a good one—for the above reasons. The voters deserve better for what will be somewhere close to a billion dollar project.

First, we should have a clear understanding of the costs. Right now those numbers are all over the map. There should be a “not to exceed” number. After the last couple of projects the public is in no mood to write a blank check. We should know that we are legally authorizing a bond issue as well as a property tax increase – beyond any property tax caps—to pay for those bonds. We should balance this project against the $5.3 billion of unfunded infrastructure needs that the city already has.

Second, if Wishard believes that it can pay for the bonds without a tax increase then we should hear that from a disinterested third party expert. There’s no reason that Marion County, independent of Wishard, couldn’t hire a bond rating agency to do just that. There have been arguments that Wishard can’t make the payments on the bonds for 30 years. I’m not an expert in municipal credit rating… but there are firms who are and the study should have been done already. Taxpayers should reject the proposal until they have that information.

Third, with all due respect to Officer Fishburn and other patients, we should not swayed by their appeals. We know that the hospital has saved lives. We should be less interested in what the hospital has done in the past as the need for the hospital over the next 30 years. By waiting a year we will have a much better idea of how health care reform will shape both the need for a “safety net” hospital and the ability to pay for it.

Lastly, this is a state teaching hospital. It is a classroom for IU school of Medicine. Indiana University should not expect Marion County to pay for their school. IU needs to put up a significant amount of money for the new hospital instead of funding a million dollar PR campaign to get Marion County taxpayers to foot the bill.

If this is a good proposal, it will be a good proposal in a year when we have the needed information and more voters can participate. Until then, we should vote “No” on Tuesday.