Bill Shaffer - Carmel Guest Contributor 12/30/20 Old Al, rest his soul, would have a field day looking at the latest U.S. Census Bureau data for the bedroom communities north of Indianapolis.
For openers, Carmel’s reported $1.3 billion debt is $36,251 per household where the median annual income is $112,765.
Fishers logs in with $589 million or $17,950 on households earning $109,454 at the median.
Noblesville’s $305.7 million ranks third at $13,198 per household where the median earnings are $82,218.
And, fast-growing Westfield’s $195.6 million yields $13,755 per household where median income is $98,376.
Al would especially view Carmel’s fiscal insanity alive and well in comparing it with Indianapolis and its $1.4 billion total debt. Indianapolis, you might recall, is nearly nine times of size of Carmel with virtually the same debt. Hence, the per-household share is just $4,065 on households where median income is $47,873.
With no end in sight for doing the same thing over and over again, there’s little chance for improvement in Carmel – with a total debt 2.3 times that of Fishers, 4.3 times that of Noblesville, 6.8 times that of Westfield and a dead heat with a city nine times bigger. Bill Shaffer is a Carmel resident and prolific social media content creator often posted on his Carmel Non-Mayor Facebook page. He is the first of what we hope is many guest contributors sharing his opinion of the state of fiscal conservatism in HamCo. These are his opinions alone and not necessarily shared by the FCOHC .