A Citizen's Guide to Indiana

Masson's Blog

Toll Road, DST unpopular

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The Associated Press has a story telling of a poll indicating that privatizing the Toll Road and adopting Daylight Saving Time are unpopular with Hoosiers.

DST was supported by only 44% of Hoosiers and opposed by 49% while the Toll Road privatization had only 39% support among Hoosiers with 55% disapproval.

I sort of hold these issues to a double standard. I think the popularity, or lack thereof, with respect to DST is more significant than the lack of support for Toll Road privatization. DST seems like the kind of issue perfectly suited to a straight up popularity contest. How we synchronize our clock to the sun is basically a lifestyle choice with few complex policy questions involved. The most important aspect of the choice is pleasing the greatest number of Hoosiers. A statewide referendum would be, in my opinion, an appropriate way of deciding how to deal with the DST issue.

The lack of public support for the Toll Road would concern me less if it were good public policy. But, it’s not. That’s just my opinion, of course, but I have my reasons. I’ve read the lease and thought it through a bit. At the end of the day, I think it’s bad public policy to increase taxes solely on the motorists of northern Indiana to pay for roads in the rest of the state. I could still be wrong, obviously, but we have no idea how much information the poll respondents had on this issue and, therefore, no idea how informed their opinions are.

Vacation

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In case anyone was wondering, the utter lack of posts have been due to my vacation to Muskegon, Michigan. Nice beach. The weather was pretty bad earlier in the week — nothing but rain for a couple of days. Yesterday and today have been pretty good. The kids have really enjoyed themselves. This morning, I did little besides build a sand citadel. Absolutely pointless work. I had a great time. The kids kept knocking down my towers as fast as I could build them. Hopefully I’ll have some good pictures to post later on.

Students unhappy with healthy foods

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Erin Smith, writing for the Lafayette Journal & Courier has an article entitled “Many students not stomaching state’s healthy food approach.” Might I just say: shocker.

The article concerns SB 111-2006 which, among other things, required schools to develop local wellness policies and imposed requirements attempting to improve the healthiness of food made available to students during school hours. (For prior discussion of SB 111-2006, see here and here.)

Harrison High School junior Hope Gerlach responded as follows:

“What they’re trying to do is almost backfiring on them,” Harrison High School junior Hope Gerlach said, noting that more students have resorted to bringing their lunches or purchasing snacks from an in-school store.

“They try to force healthy food on us (and) it’s too gross to eat, so people just go to the Trading Post and buy chocolate and Pop-Tarts.”

Schools and government can only go so far. But I think it is good policy to make eating healthy food the path of least resistance regardless of whether students think such food is “gross” or whether they can get junk food elsewhere. Just make it easier to get healthy food, and if students go the extra mile to eat crap, then so be it. Children with poor dietary habits become obese, diabetic adults, increasing our health care costs and poverty rates. So, I think it’s worth the effort to at least make good food easily available in our schools and perhaps make junk food a little harder to get.

Proposed amendment to protect trust fund

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Senators Richard Bray (R-Martinsville) and Mike Delph (R-Carmel) have an interesting proposal. They want to adopt a Constitutional Amendment that protects the “Major Moves” trust fund — the $500 million squirreled away with a provision that it’s not supposed to be spent before a certain time. The Senators don’t trust themselves with the money, so they want to take it out of their hands with a Constitutional Amendment. Certainly, their fear is justified. The General Assembly has a habit of reaching for money wherever they can instead of raising taxes when money gets tight.

Senator Vi Simpson (D-Bloomington) characterizes the proposal as “silly.” Simpson is a good Senator and I usually respect her opinion, but, even if there are good policy reasons not to pass this kind of amendment, I wouldn’t go anywhere near as far as calling it silly. A Constitution is supposed to be made up of broad provisions, and I can see not wanting to muck up the Constitution with this kind of particularized legislation. I can also see wanting to demand accountability from the General Assembly and have them take it upon themselves to spend wisely without using the Constitution as a crutch. But, those arguments notwithstanding, I wouldn’t call the proposal silly.

IN-03: Souder’s smear campaign

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Sylvia Smith had an article in the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette on Sunday that discussed the three most competitive Indiana Congressional races (IN-02, IN-08, and IN-09) and the potential that those races may decide control of the U.S. House of Representatives. But she also discussed the race in IN-03 which is up in the Fort Wayne region where Dr. Tom Hayhurst is challenging incumbent Mark Souder.

Souder started going negative against Hayhurst early and often:

Souder began airing radio commercials immediately after the May primary and hasn’t let up. One, for instance, scoffs at Democratic opponent Tom Hayhurst for being rich, retired and interested in a full-time public service job.

In it, Souder says four Republican physicians were elected to Congress in 1994 to make changes in the federal approach to health care, not to “do some public service at the end of their medical careers.” He describes Hayhurst, as “a wealthy, retired doctor worth up to $15 million who thinks being a congressman for a few years would be interesting. But being a congressman, if you want to get things done, is hard work. It’s not something you retire into.”

As one reader pointed out, “For a guy who has accomplished next to nothing in his 12 years of office this is really rich. For a guy who promised to leave office after 6 terms to go after someone “who thinks being a congressman for a few years would be interesting” is grotesque.”

I’d really like to see some poll numbers on the Hayhurst/Souder race. I’m just guessing, but my suspicion is that Souder isn’t as comfortably ahead as most of us would probably assume. Hayhurst is a credible opponent, Souder is flagrantly breaking promises, and the political winds are adverse to the GOP. Still, I’ve heard that IN-03 is the kind of place where a chimp with an “R” next to his name would probably beat out Jesus if he was running as a Democrat.

Legislative Prayer

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(Via Indiana Law Blog) The 7th Circuit Court of Appeals will hear oral arguments in the case of Hinrichs v. Bosma (in his official capacity as Speaker of the House of Representatives) on Thursday, September 7 at 10:30 a.m. in Chicago. The appellate materials are available here, including briefs from the parties and amici briefs from the American Jewish Congress, the Anti-Defamation League, Advance America, the Indiana Family Institute, and the “Liberty” Counsel. The issue, as readers might recall, is whether the Speaker of the House of Representatives can exercise his authority over access to the Speaker’s podium during session to allow sectarian prayer, such as a revival-style singing and clapping rendition of “Just a little walk with Jesus”  as official business of the Indiana House of Representatives. The District Court for the Southern District of Indiana ruled that the government’s ability to engage in such public speech was limited and that the Constitution’s limitation on the government prohibited this activity. Speaker Bosma has appealed the decision.

According to a story in the Indianapolis Star by Mary Beth Schneider, the appeal is currently being paid for by taxpayers, but Speaker Bosma is appealing to “the public” to defray expenses in excess of $67,000 paid to a Washington, D.C. law firm. Taking Down Words suggests that this issue will play into the GOP “WedgeWhack” strategy wherein Republican strategists seek to distract voters from bread-and-butter issues with emotionally charged wedge issues.

Labor Day: What does it mean to me?

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I’ve been tagged by PSoTD with the question “What does the federal holiday, “Labor Day”, really mean to you?”

To be honest, it doesn’t mean that much to me. It’s a day off work, I suppose. But, since I’m a small business owner, that just means I’ll probably go into work anyway and just get a bit more done since the phones won’t be ringing. But even when I was an employee rather than an employer, it didn’t mean a great deal to me.

It should mean more to me, however. I believe a healthy labor movement leads to a healthier society. I am really not a believer in supply-side/trickle down economics. I think that when wealth becomes concentrated in the ultra-rich hands of a relatively small segment of the society, it tends to distort our markets and our democratic institutions. Certainly, I don’t think the wealth flows easily from the ultra-rich to the middle class. The labor movement helps facilitate that flow.

When society’s wealth is less concentrated in the hands of the ultra rich and spread out a bit more, I think our markets are healthier, our democracy is more robust, and our communities are stronger. I think the economy works better when you have a lot of people buying washers and dryers than it does when a few people are buying Faberge eggs. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not looking for some worker’s paradise or communist utopia. I like the fact that people who work harder or smarter can reap greater rewards, because that also is critical to a healthy economy. But there has to be balance. And labor unions help provide that balance.

A little more national attention for Indiana

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The Washington Post has an article on the vulnerability of GOP districts across the nation. Unsurprisingly, Indiana gets a mention:

Even more worrisome to the Republicans is Indiana, where three House incumbents — Reps. Chris Chocola, John N. Hostettler and Michael E. Sodrel — could fall to Democratic challengers. There, Bush’s weaknesses have been compounded by the problems of freshman Gov. Mitchell E. Daniels Jr. (R), who is in hot water over his decisions to switch some counties to new time zones and to lease the Indiana Toll Road to a foreign consortium.

I would be at least a little amused if Troy “I’ll never vote for it” Woodruff’s switch in time has the effect of changing the balance of power in the U.S. House of Representatives. Woodruff and Daniels get another mention in an Indy Star article on the Indiana campaigns. Daniels seems to be a political pariah, raising money for the candidates but otherwise staying out of view. Woodruff is a top target for the Democrats.

Bad Idea

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Looks like the Coast Guard is considering plans to engage in periodic gun target practice on the Great Lakes. (The linked story is from a Grand Haven, Michigan newspaper.) According to the AP:

The plan calls for establishing 34 permanent zones over open water a few miles from the Great Lakes shorelines for the shooting exercises. Crew members would fire at floating targets from cutters and small boats using machine guns, rifles and small 9 mm guns, said Chief Petty Officer Robert Lanier, spokesman for the Coast Guard’s 9th District in Cleveland.

Some of the zones are near recreational spots and areas crisscrossed often by pleasure, charter and fishing boats, such as Grand Haven, Marquette, Sault Ste. Marie and the Keweenaw Peninsula. Most are near Coast Guard stations.

The linked Grand Havens Tribune Story adds:

Each two- to three-hour practice session will consist of more than 3,000 machine gun volleys, according to 9th District Coast Guard officials. Boaters should tune to VHF-Channel 16 for announcements on when training sessions are scheduled.

“We’ll be training with M240B machine guns,” said Ninth District Chief Enforcement Commander Gus Wulfkuhle, who estimated the bullets will travel up to 1,500 yards, or slightly less than a mile.

An Army publication reports the weapon’s range as 4,060 yards, or about 2.3 miles.

. . .
“It’s just too close,” Richards said. “I’d be OK with a minimum of 15 or 20 miles offshore but at 5 miles, especially with a wind out of the west, people in the campground, on the beach or in their boats are going to be bombarded by the sound of military fire. We’re just here to relax and enjoy boating. We don’t want to be subjected to machine gun fire. I don’t know where the brains are in this. It’s the most ridiculous idea I’ve heard of in my life.”

Richards said the idea is “an accident waiting to happen.”

Well, at least the “training missions” will provide cover when we invade Canada. Oops! I’ve said too much.

Dental hygiene

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This post is apropos of very little, but it reminded me of a recent comment from “T” and I just wanted to share. I went to the dentist this afternoon and, in the waiting room. A woman was waiting at the same time I was. While she was waiting, she took her coke outside so she could have a cigarette. It just struck me as particularly bad form to go for a dental visit with a mouth full of sugar and smoke.  And, if it matters, I overheard her discussing
Medicaid issues with the receptionist.