Republican Majority Indianapolis City-County Council Votes to Raise Taxes - Libertarian Votes "NO"

The Indianapolis City-County Council voted to raise the hotel tax in Indianapolis to 10%, thereby making it even more difficult for the city to get convention business by making Indianapolis' hotel tax one of the highest in the nation. This was done to raise more money for the Capital Improvement Board, the agency in charge of Indianapolis' public stadiums for corporate welfare scheme.

Here are the councilors who voted for the tax:

Republicans unless otherwise noted.

Cain
Cardwell
Cockrum
Day
Hunter
Lutz
Malone
McHenry
McQuillen
Nytes (Democrat)
Pfisterer
Plowman
Smith
Speedy
Vaughn

Here are the councilors who voted against the tax:

Democrats unless otherwise noted.

Bateman
Brown
Coleman (Libertarian)
Evans
Gray
Lewis
Mahern, B
Mahern, D
Mansfield
Minton-McNeill
Moriarty
Oliver
Sanders
Scales (Republican)

In Indianapolis, the city-council has recently voted to raise taxes both under Democrat and Republican majorities, thus evidencing that both the Democrat and Republican parties are "tax and spend" political parties.

Libertarian councilor Ed Coleman, a vocal opponent of the Capital Improvement Board, corporate welfare and building public palaces for politicians and CEO's, voted "NO".

In my personal experience, it is hard to get organizations to meet in Indianapolis. Granted, these are events for 15 - 200 people and not as large as the NCAA events for example, but they add up if we get lots of them. These organizations and their members are cost conscience too. They do compare tax rates when making a decision on where to meet for their events.

I hope this is not the case, but I suspect that the end result will be fewer tax dollars collected through this tax as smaller groups go elsewhere, such as the suburbs of Indianapolis.