HREN >> All right, hello and welcome to ask the mayor on WFIU, I'm Joe Hren. This week, we're in Terre Haute with Mayor Brandon Sakbun, hello. Thanks for having us in Terre Haute today. Beautiful day in Terre Haute.
SAKBUN >> Well, I mean, I had to adjust the weather for your arrival. There's only one way to see the city of Terre Haute, and that's 65 degrees and sunny. But all kidding aside, great weather, which is really good for our parks and recreation department. We're seeing kids back on playground equipment, folks using the tennis and pickleball courts. And of course, our golf our golf courses, are off swinging. I am personally not swinging because I'm horrible at golf, but it's great to see Haute-ians and Hoosiers alike utilizing the golf and the Parks Department for the city of Terre Haute.
HREN >> And I have to mention, if people are heading into Terre Haute from Indianapolis or Bloomington, be careful. There's a be a little bit of traffic. You might want to try a different route in. I-70 is backed up, INDOTs' doing some work.
SAKBUN >> Yeah, and I'm happy you brought that up. So representative Tonya Pfaff has done a great job of really articulating the concerns with Interstate 70. It is a two lane interstate, the second that one of those lanes has some issues again. We're the crossroads of America, they quickly compound that leads to traffic congestion for your everyday Hoosier, that's frustrating, right? Traffic concerns for the trucking industry in the business community, I mean, these are egregious errors in supply chain that I certainly hope the state legislator and INDOT look into. We have had some good conversations with them. I believe the new administration is working to prioritize Interstate 70, but when you look at east to west being that crossroads of America, it's clear that this interstate has been neglected. So we certainly hope that they push some resources towards that conversation.
HREN >> So let's just talk briefly. Second half of legislative session underway, so many bills starting to shake out. And as you said a month ago, it's a long way to go. Things change. Things have changed a little bit. Do you feel like residents are going to get some property tax breaks, but the cities are not going to have to cut services?
SAKBUN >> Yeah, I definitely think they should receive some sort of tax relief. I do think a lot of the assessments that spiked at 2020, 2021, range. You saw that housing market boom. So there's market conditions that really created that. What's important for me is that there is a replacement revenue for those core services. As I previously stated, the city has done a number of efficiency cuts, not just the past year, but even the past 15 years for a myriad of different departments. And how I really simplify that equation is we really make what DOGE does now look like child's play, the level of efficiency that we operate at. I mean, we are laser focused at maximum services, at the lowest price. So when you take that perspective, as we have for months and months and months, and then you get told, hey, look, we got to chop off your revenue source. It's a little bit frustrating because there's so many other state taxes that are not even a part of the conversation right now that I think affect every single Hoosier, and not just property owners. Now, I really do think the legislator as well as the governor, have some very valid concerns, as do property owners. So this is a good conversation, right? We want to balance core services, and I'm very particular in saying core services and not using the term growth, right? I am pro the system that we have today. Why? Because I'm pro education, I'm pro police, I'm pro fire, I'm pro parks, and I'm pro clean streets. I mean, you need these services to operate as a city, and that's why I stand for them.
HREN >> Speaking of conversations, you had a little back and forth with Lieutenant Governor Micah Beckwith on X, formerly known as Twitter. He was pointing to data about Terre Haute city budget, though almost doubling from 2020 to 24 I think his point was that residents needed relief from spending well.
SAKBUN >> And I think, you know, to his point number one, the data was not necessarily incorrect, but he used different budget forms. The state legislature also changed how we report things. So redevelopment was added onto that. ARPA was at, I mean, major budgets were added that were not on that 2020, level. So when you look at studies, I always tell folks, look at who's designing and paying for this study. They want it to fit a certain narrative. When you look at our tax revenue growth over that four year span, it is barely 2% year over year, which is less than inflation. So costs have skyrocketed. Inflation skyrockets, and government is collecting 2% less, which I think is a true indicator of just how efficient we've become here in the city of Terre Haute. You know, also, it's important to note, you know, we are in Indiana, not in Western Illinois, that I think the map folks on that study must have just messed up a little bit, but I did have a great conversation with Lieutenant Governor, not just about that topic, but about West Central Indiana at large. We got some one on one time together. His Achilles tendon was a little bit sore because the basketball game, so we got to joke around about that. And I do believe that he does have valid concerns. And to be honest, I'm not in a position to vote on this tax relief, or really to have a legislative thought, right? I'm a mayor, but if I were in those shoes, I would push to completely repeal property taxes and replace them with the sales tax on services, except for health care, with some other carve outs for, you know, services that we always need that are emergency style. If you run the math and do the numbers, a 1% sales tax increase could replace 50% of the property taxes. I mean, the data is all there, and I just think that we're not having conversations around the total policy tax package.
HREN >> And of course, there's a lot going on in the federal level, but I have to ask, what's going on with n tech. So that was a $1.5 billion battery plant announced the campus in Terre Haute a few years ago. They're kind of holding a little bit. What do you know about that?
SAKBUN >> They're a holding pattern. Our conversations with the federal congressional delegation all indicate that that project should resume here in about 90 to 120 days. I do think you know, when an administration comes in, they want to pause, they want to review, but to me, making America great again is investing in advanced manufacturing, in employment in the Midwest. I mean, we literally fit the metric of what the Trump administration should want to do? I have zero problem taking federal tax dollars from California, Maine, Massachusetts, and using them here in the Hoosier state. That's why we have these federal programs. We got to get that return on investment back and a company, like Entek, bringing in 660 jobs, creating a couple 100 construction jobs for several years. That is what the Midwest needs. I mean, we're not the flyover states. We should be a hub of technology, innovation, employment, and so sometimes I feel like I'm screaming on top of Mount Everest, like, please. Like, this is what the country needs, and that's supporting communities like Terre Haute, Indiana, enabling communities like Kokomo to recruit $8 billion battery plants to help revolutionize the automotive industry. I mean, these are projects that I think should transcend partisan politics, because to me, they represent progress.
HREN >> It's been one year since the opening of the casino here. How's it been going? Working out, traffic, attendance, how's it going?
SAKBUN >> We've seen really good attendance numbers. The revenue does look to be very solid. You know, we see positive numbers with our hotel innkeeper tax, which just shows how many people are truly visiting and staying in the city of Terre Haute. And I think overall, it does provide an outlook for folks to get together, have some fun and gamble. I don't go. I went for the ground breaking, and I've been one since then to do kind of an audit and review some of the services. But I'm impressed. I mean, the parking lot seems to be packed. We've had no public safety concerns from a law enforcement perspective. We stay tied into them to see if they have any issues.
HREN >> Yeah, you mentioned during your State of the City address that the innkeepers tax revenue has been with the highest it's ever been. Do you attribute? I mean, I assume some of that?
SAKBUN >> You could say there'd be a correlation. I don't know if there's a causation. Remember, we had the Eclipse last year. We had a very Pat cross country course. Going into the next two years, we've got some, you know, Division One, division three cross country Championships will be held in the city of Terre Haute, Indiana. So sports tourism is really where we see a lot of the growth. And I certainly hope the Convention and Visitors Bureau, the CDB, as well as the capital improvements towards CIB, begin to prioritize that by investing in the Wabash Valley Sports Center, by investing in sports tourism. To really see that industry grow.
HREN >> Is there any way to measure tourism in the downtown area from the casino?
SAKBUN >> That's a really good question. I off the top my head, I don't know how we would track that metric. I'm sure we can come up with something. We are having some meetings between the convention center, the casino and downtown Terre Haute to discuss things like transportation and marketing between these two really ecosystems. And to me, you know, there's one Terre, it takes 15 minutes to get across the city. But for those visiting, how can we sell Holman Links golf course, J Ford's Black Angus Steak House or the Verve Bar and Lounge to folks who are at the casino, and that's where we really need to start synchronizing our marketing and tourist efforts to capture a Hoosier or someone from Illinois or a Kentuckian when they're in the city of Terre Haute.
HREN >> And I know that the county and city do. Get a small portion from the casino, depending on their revenue. Have you gotten any yet?
SAKBUN >> We have, yeah, and those numbers are a little bit higher than anticipated, so we'll definitely meet our budget requirements, fill the cash surplus and then review those plans for 2026 I always remind Hoosiers that casino gaming revenue. It's going to help us build a new Deming Park pool. It's going to help us expand and renovate the YMCA. We're going to pave more streets, we're going to address more blight. We're going to update some city departments so that way they're more efficient. And we're going to transform municipal government. This is all to take, you know, the onus off the back of property taxpayers. And I really think the casino, in terms of gaming tax revenues, helping in that forefront.
HREN >> You mentioned spring Park projects are, yeah, this has been, we've talked about this the last couple months. This is a big initiative from you.
SAKBUN >> This is there's a ton of neighborhood parks that we're investing in, and that's obviously people see it hurts. Rose right? That's a $2.7 million project, which we're so thankful that we see funding from the American Rescue Plan Act to do that. Now the federal government gave us that opportunity. That's a great project. YMCA is a great project. Rea Park, but we're doing so much more. We're investing in our neighborhood parks like Collet Park, like Washington, Anaconda Park, Booker T Washington, is not just getting updated playground equipment, but new playground equipment. And look, and you and I, we've had this conversation. Kids play outside, what? 15 minutes a day. Now, let's give them every excuse to put that cell phone down. And it takes strong Parks and Recreation, right? There's a programming aspect to this, and I'm really impressed with what our parks department's done in that space.
HREN >> And speaking of parks, you have a Mayor's Youth Council meeting about the park project. How's that going?
SAKBUN >> It's good. So I think we're about to $15,000 our goals, 35,000 the state IHCDA matches that. We got a number of fundraisers coming up. We've reached out to the business community. They're really creating an accessible playground if you're in a wheelchair, if you've got some sensory deficiencies. This is a great park to go to, the new design, and again, it's a neighborhood park, so to see high school students take that initiative, put in the time and effort, is really inspiring. I'm happy that they're doing well. If you could put the link to our fundraising in your news article, that would mean a lot. The kids are working hard. They're engaged. They do make fun of me a little bit. They call me a little bit older. I've always tended to act a little bit older, I guess. So it's a good time.
HREN >> You know, it's pothole season. How do people report when there's a dangerous Pat hole in the street.
SAKBUN >> So we've got the 311 system. You can text, you can email, you can call. Now, there was a delay in getting some of the hot mix for those potholes, so we're still using cold patch. Unfortunately, once we get that new step, then that's a better, better type of repair. And of course, we've got a lot of street paving. A lot of streets are going to get addressed. Usually we do about $2 million this year, we're doing $3 million, and I can't thank the State Legislator enough for investing in the Community Crossing grant program, and that's what's helped create that two to $3 million jump. Again, not a property tax increase whatsoever, but utilizing state funds to pave more and really invest in our infrastructure.
HREN >> And I see you're investing in a new website.
SAKBUN >> Yeah, it and, you know, I think it's important, because so much of society is online nowadays. This creates a user friendly website so we can provide clear information. Folks can get on there, figure out what's going on with certain services. Improve navigation, enhanced search functionality. So really, it's a good project.
HREN >> And I've noticed that since you took office that this the city has been more active in you tweet, you Facebook, and I know you might have others that I don't know about too. Are you finding that that helps connect a bridge to city?
SAKBUN >> Absolutely. You know, a lot of people, when they think of government, you know, they kind of have that Cable News Network mindset, or they think of the federal government, or they think of the President, right? And truth be told, local government is actually what you deal with a lot more on a day to day basis. So I think it's important for state and local government to be very direct, upfront and transparent about what's going on, what we're doing to deliver for Hoosiers. I mean, the city of Terre Haute, we rank in the bottom third when it comes to public health. We have improved in our poverty rankings, but we're still not in the top half. And so for me, you know, government's creating this ecosystem for the private sector, the business community, to thrive, to flourish, and we've got to connect with our residents. That's why we do our walk about Wednesday program, where we go door to door neighborhoods and say, Hey, do you have a street issue? Code enforcement issue, legal issue, police issue or fire issue? The Red Cross even joins us on those. So we do in person communication. We do tweeting, we do Facebook messaging, radio shows, your show, cable news. We do a number of different programs, walk with the mayor, the mile of the mayor. Program, slices with sack, but mostly because I love pizza, but you got to get out there and connect. And I tell that to every public official, whether you're in Congress or you're on the city council or you're the county dog catcher, right? Tell folks what's going on. Interact with them, hear their concerns. Government's been disconnected for far too long, and we refuse to do that this administration.
HREN >> So down to the final minute, any announcements, anything else that you'd like everyone to know?
SAKBUN >> Hey, some really positive news, Joe, our February numbers for public transportation increased 82% from last year. So in January we saw 50% increase, 10,000 to 15,000 February, we saw a 10,000 to 18,000 increase. So we're really starting to grow when it comes to using public transportation in the city of Terre Haute. For some folks, they love it, right? You know, climate reduced cars. For other folks, they just need a ride to work. They just need a ride to the grocery store, the business community enjoys it. So I think, you know, that's one of those programs that is completely non partisan and strictly about progress. And I love, love seeing the city embrace it and utilize our bus system.
HREN >> But that was all from an initiative from lowering rates or giving free rides too, right?
SAKBUN >> Well, it's marketed as free rides, but the local match for those rides comes from gaming tax revenue. So gaming tax revenue makes it free for the everyday Hoosier, or really visitor, if you're from another state and you're here, hop on the city bus. You don't need a pass or no pass. Just come on in. And you just have to know, obviously, what rod is going and we are spending a lot of time partnering with Indiana State University to update our marketing information on the bus system. So utilizing some college help, utilizing feedback from the bus drivers, taking some gaming tax revenue and delivering for the people of Terre Haute, Indiana.
HREN >> Thank you so much. Hope to see you in April.
SAKBUN >> Thank you, looking forward to it.
