Mayor Greg Ballard decided to hold a town hall meeting last night at the Pike Performing Arts Center to pitch his plan to create a new city-funded pre-K education spending plan financed with higher property taxes on Marion County residents through the elimination of the homestead property tax credit. Ballard used radio talk show host Abdul-Hakim Shabazz, a pariah in most of the city's black community, to lead the panel discussion that aired live on WIBC-FM. According to black radio talk show host Amos Brown, the outreach effort was an utter failure. Only a handful of people showed up, many of whom weren't even black. "If purpose of this Mayor Town Hall at Pike was to reach black community, it failed miserably," tweeted Brown, who counted only 58 people in attendance. Ballard's mouthpieces in the local news media were livid when the council's Rules & Finance Committee voted last night to table his proposal to eliminate the homestead property tax credit over the opposition of committee Republicans, who can't seem to find a tax increase they oppose these days.
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