GARY-- Days after announcing his re-election campaign, Mayor Rudy Clay told a packed room of Gary Chamber of Commerce members the city has a positive environment for businesses.
However, Clay appeared to struggle with a question about his efforts last week to raise local taxes by getting the state to temporarily lift state-imposed property tax caps, which include a 3 percent cap on businesses.
"We have to be sure our small businesses prosper because if you prosper, the city prospers," said Clay, before reciting a list of small businesses that have recently set up shop in Gary. "We've got to restore our tax base and bring jobs to the community."
Clay described what he called a "property tax restoration and job implementation program" as the city's main economic development initiative.
The program calls for moving the city's two casinos to a site on Interstate 80/94, collecting back pay the city believes it is due from Majestic Star Casino, tearing down dilapidated buildings to make room for private developers and offering more tax abatements for businesses to relocate to the city.
Another boon for the city may be development of the lakefront, Clay said. A $28.7 million grant from the Northwest Indiana Regional Development Authority will enhance Marquette Park, once the jewel of the city's parks system, and draw more people to the city, he said.
"We're going to step it up a notch, and we're going to say to the world hope is alive in the city," Clay said.
But Clay floundered when asked about how his efforts to seek property tax cap relief from the Distressed Unit Appeals Board last week would affect Gary's business climate. If the board approves Gary's request, property tax bills for businesses would be more than the 3 percent called for by the state.
Instead, Clay spoke of how the DUAB relief would lower tax bills from 2 percent to 1.5 percent, apparently confusing the business tax cap rates with either the residential of rental property and agricultural caps.
After the meeting, Clay said he supported Chief of Staff Arlene Colvin's comments in a phone interview that the city is asking for "incremental decreases" in property taxes for homeowners and businesses to eventually meet the tax caps.
"Still, we've got businesses moving into Gary, Indiana, because the rates in Chicago are so much higher than what we have," Clay said.
The mayor's answer did not sit well with Gary resident Audrey Bartholomew, regional coordinator for the Indiana Parent Information and Resource Center.
"My thought was it was completely off base, and it was political sidestepping," said Bartholomew, who moved to Gary from Chicago six years ago.
"I needed to know what (Clay's) plans are to live within the confines of the property tax caps, otherwise we could be looking at an emergency manager from the state taking over the city."