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Mayor Greg Ballard has an ambitious goal: to make Indianapolis the best place in the country at keeping and creating good jobs.

He emphasized that objective in his third State of the City speech, delivered Wednesday night at the Indianapolis Museum of Art’s Tobias Theater

To accomplish it, Ballard pledged the city will increase money for Indianapolis Economic Development Inc. — first with a one-time infusion of $3.5 million from recovered tax abatement dollars, and, starting in 2011, an additional $1 million each year from the city’s budget.

The economic development group, which typically gets about $500,000 a year from the city, works to retain and create jobs in Indianapolis and attract new companies here.

“My administration is using every available resource to retain and create jobs in Marion County,” Ballard said in his prepared remarks. “Never before has the city committed to invest so much year over year to create jobs.”

Ballard said another $1.5 million will benefit the Indianapolis Convention & Visitors Association, whose charge is to promote the city’s tourism and convention business.

Much of Ballard’s speech underscored the importance of economic development initiatives in tough economic times. But he also emphasized basic city needs, which he called the “grass-roots elements of governing.”

Among the key basics, he said, are reducing crime and creating a stable tax climate. He pointed to the city’s efforts to make the government more efficient through public-private partnerships and a 16-year low homicide rate as evidence of progress on those fronts.

But political opponents attacked those issues even before Ballard delivered his speech.

In a response sent in advance of the address, Ed Treacy, the Marion County Democratic Party chairman, criticized a plan the city has discussed to merge its water and sewer operations under a single operator.

And while homicides are down, Treacy said, other violent crimes are on the rise.

“I realize that crime statistics are complex,” Treacy said in the remarks, “but to say all is well in Indianapolis is disingenuous at best.”

Ballard also outlined new initiatives that the administration will push in 2010.

As part of an effort to eliminate township government, the city will move forward to consolidate the remainder of the township fire departments into the Indianapolis Fire Department. City officials also have thrown their support toward a state proposal to transition township government into city-county government by 2013.

Mass transit also will be a priority, Ballard said in the prepared remarks, with a plan that evaluates options for a feasible regional transportation system expected to come out early this year.

In his speech, Ballard also attempted to make clear his vision for the city, something that observers have said he has failed to do in his first two years in office. He said that while it includes executing big plans that will affect the city in years to come, the core of his mission is carrying out the nuts and bolts.

“While we boldly build for the future, we continue to focus on the quality-of-life issues affecting ordinary citizens in their everyday lives,” he said. “My vision for a renewed Indianapolis landscape starts with the basics expected by a citizenry of its government.”