Milan Ball, 26, recently received a letter from her downtown landlord that urged her to sign a petition opposing a new economic enhancement district within the Mile Square. 

But the graduate student, instead, waited more than six hours Wednesday to show her support for the district. During an Indiana House committee meeting, Ball urged lawmakers to reject House Bill 1199, which aims to take the decision away from Indianapolis leaders and repeal the district entirely. Yet while she thinks her rent might go up because of the district, Ball wants to feel safer downtown and to see more help for her unhoused neighbors. 

“I don’t see it as a cost, I see more of the gains,” Ball told Mirror Indy afterward. “I’m not afraid of it, I mean I used to pay New York rent.” 

She was one of several downtown residents to testify in favor of the district, which was established by state law and City-County Council ordinance last year. The district would allow the city to collect additional taxes from Mile Square residents to be spent on cleaning crews, increased security measures and homeless outreach within the roughly one square mile that makes up the heart of downtown. 

Hanging in the balance is a low-barrier homeless shelter planned for Fountain Square that would provide housing to people who don’t otherwise qualify for existing shelters. Right now, ongoing funding for the shelter hinges on the economic district. 

Over the course of four hours, lawmakers heard from and questioned more than 30 people who mostly came to support the district and oppose the bill that would remove the authorizing language from state law.

Supportive testimony was led by Taylor Schaffer, president and CEO of Downtown Indy Inc., and Taylor Hughes, vice president of policy and strategy for Indy Chamber. Both organizations have been at the forefront of efforts to establish a special funding district. They brought with them more than two dozen supporters from big Indianapolis organizations, including Salesforce, AES Indiana, Indiana Sports Corp, Cummins and the Indianapolis Foundation. 

City government leaders also testified in favor of the tax: City-County Council President Vop Osili; Chris Bailey, the city’s interim police chief; and Dan Parker, chief of staff to Mayor Joe Hogsett.

“Downtown Indy receives more basic services than any other neighborhood in the city,” Parker said. “Additional services to benefit downtown property owners should not come at the expense of the other 399 square miles of the city.”

Opponents of the district cited two main complaints: Cost and transparency.

Kory Wood, an Indiana-based consultant for Ascent Strategic, testified on behalf of DefendDowntown.com. He said the group was a coalition of “businesses owners and residents who live, work and will be most impacted by this economic enhancement district tax.”

Wood said the website was launched to raise awareness about the economic enhancement district. Since its launch, Wood said the website has received “thousands of views, hundreds of emails and our petition has nearly 500 entries” opposing the tax.

Mirror Indy reported earlier this month on the DefendDowntown.com’s funder, a Virginia-based organization called the American Jobs and Growth Fund. That group spent more than $11,000 late last year targeting Indianapolis residents in an effort to raise opposition to the district.

When pressed by Rep. Ed DeLaney, D-Indianapolis, to answer questions about out-of-state funding, Wood said the American Jobs and Growth Fund is “an organization that supports pro-taxpayer and pro-business policy.” 

Wood, who told Mirror Indy he does not live or work downtown but visits often, declined to answer questions about the involvement of the American Jobs and Growth Fund and reiterated that DefendDowntown.com was a “diverse coalition” of residents and property owners who oppose the tax.

No one else from the coalition took the opportunity to testify.

Graham Renbarger, coalition director for the national conservative advocacy group Americans for Prosperity, also testified against the economic enhancement district.

Chad Greiwe, CEO of Zidan Management Group, said his company is already spending $75,000 to install security cameras in his building and that the costs would not be eased by the services funded by the district.

The rent at his company’s units has increased by only 4.1% in the Mile Square, whereas other parts of the county and state are seeing rent increases closer to 10% over the last couple of years.

“We are not seeing that downtown, due to the lack of occupancy downtown. As occupancy rises, rents rise,” Greiwe said.

Brian Spaulding, who works as the lobbyist for the Indiana Apartment Association, questioned the transparency of the process. The language to create the downtown district was written into the state budget bill and approved by lawmakers and Gov. Eric Holcomb at the end of last year’s legislative session.

“The way I view democracy, with all due respect, is that you don’t cut the property owners subject to the tax completely out of the process,” Spaulding said in an exchange with Delaney.

Although there was no hearing on the language during the state’s legislative session, the City-County Council held a hearing in November before approving the district a month later. Several people testified in support of the district at the time. Absent from that hearing was the Indiana Apartment Association.

Spaulding declined to speak to Mirror Indy, noting that he did not have permission from the organization’s board to speak to the media. 

When this year’s legislative session began, Republican House lawmakers filed a bill to repeal the district. House Speaker Todd Huston, R-Fishers, told the Indianapolis Business Journal that he wanted to hold a public hearing this year to give citizens an opportunity to voice their opinion. 

Milicent Wright, a homeowner in her 60s, was among those who voiced her support for the district. She told lawmakers she was initially on the fence about the district but came to support it after talking about it with her priest. She said her mother bought the home in Mile Square in the 1980s with money they inherited after her father was killed serving in the military.

Wright said that she’s felt the squeeze from increased property taxes, and would like to see some tweaks in the future to take into account low-income residents and seniors. But she opposed the outright repeal of the district.

“A majority of my neighbors will not feel this,” she said. “But we have a growing number of residents who are losing their homes. We can’t get any funding or momentum for them if we don’t start here with this now.”

The committee did not vote on the bill. The House Ways and Means Committee is set to meet again next Wednesday, but it’s unclear if this bill will proceed through the legislature.

Mirror Indy reporter Emily Hopkins uses data to write stories about people. Contact them at 317-790-5268 or emily.hopkins@mirrorindy.org. Follow them on most social media @indyemapolis.