Milo Minderbinder must be an advisor to Mayor Greg Ballard.  Milo was the parody of a war profiteer in Joseph Heller's "Catch-22." He's the only person I can imagine who would be as excited as Ballard about a plan in which the citizens of Indianapolis will sell the city's sewer and water systems to themselves and then pay for lots of infrastructure improvements through utility bills, perhaps the most regressive form of revenue.

That is the bottom line of Ballard's plan to sell the Indianapolis water and sewer utilities to Citizens Energy Group, which now provides natural gas and chilled water in the city, for $1.9 billion. Out of that, the city would net only $425 million. The rest would go to pay off existing sewer and water debt.

He points to that $425 million as a capital windfall for city infrastructure. The administration also claims economies in larger-scale capital projects and combined administrative functions. Citizens Energy would be responsible for making the $4 billion in water and sewer improvements needed in the next 15 years.

If we were selling our utilities to a Trans-Mongolian syndicate, as Governor Daniels might, Indianapolis would at least be getting new cash from somewhere else. The Ballard plan – sounding like something Milo might push – has us buying the utilities from ourselves. That's because Citizens Energy is a public trust owned by the people of Marion County.

How will Citizens Energy recover that $1.9 billion? From its customers. How would Citizens Energy recover the $4 billion for infrastructure improvements? From its customers. 

How is this different from the current situation? If the city kept the utilities and made the improvements, it would have to pay debt through utility rates. However, this deal apparently will add $425 million to the debt that needs to be repaid. 

If the city spent $425 million on infrastructure without this sell-off, it would have to find another way to pay for it. Since the taxpayers have made it clear that they don't want higher taxes, finding the revenue would be difficult.

The Mayor's answer is to add it to water and sewer bills, which are even less progressive than property taxes.If this makes sense, I should have been a bond lawyer.