A Citizen's Guide to Indiana

Masson's Blog

Greenwood mayor proposes rental ban

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I have serious doubts about the propriety of this proposed ordinance in Greenwood. The mayor wants a ban on the rental of any newly constructed home for a 3 year period.

I think you could probably make it legal, by using the zoning and building permit processes to get the builder to agree to such a condition in exchange for permission to build. I understand the motivation — you have a number of builders softening the housing market which probably has deleterious effects on the community at large.

I don’t necessarily have much sympathy for large developers, who can address the pros and cons of such an ordinance up front and price and plan accordingly. But, it might tie a home buyer to his or her property in an unfair way. Say someone buys their home, plans to live there, but their situation changes 1.5 years later with the real estate market in a down phase — perhaps getting them upside down on their mortgage, making their only real option to rent the place out.

Councilman Keith Hardin seems to have a good head on his shoulders about this at any rate:

Some Greenwood City Council members, who will hear Henderson’s proposal tonight, like the idea behind it but are wary of whether it can pass legal muster.

“I don’t want to be a test case in the courts for these types of things,” said Councilman Keith Hardin.

He prefers more of a carrot-and-stick approach in the form of a three-year tax abatement to developers that could be passed on to homeowners to help nurture the upkeep of their properties.

“The whole point is we debate this and encourage developers to stick with their original plan and not bait-and-switch the city.”
He and fellow Councilman Bruce Armstrong want the city to tighten its zoning regulations, too. Greenwood’s ordinances allow a developer to change his commitments without penalty.

“It’s the wrong way to go about what needs to be done,” Armstrong said of the ordinance. “Unfortunately, there are too many loopholes developers are using.”

Ostentatious prayer

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Advance Indiana continues its skewering of Eric Miller’s Advance America. Seriously, with respect to this legislative issue, somebody’s gonna have to address the admonition against ostentatious prayer in the Gospel according to Matthew before I’m seriously going to believe that Christians absolutely have to pray in the name of Jesus from the Speaker’s podium.

Pal-Item on local property taxes

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I’ve beaten up on the Palladium-Item pretty good in the past. But, today they have an editorial that’s spot on, in my ever so humble opinion. They criticize the General Assembly for getting tough on other government’s taxes. Specifically, they are critical of the General Assembly’s decision to restrict the ability of local governments to raise property taxes without providing local government with an alternate means of funding schools, parks, and all the other local government services.

The trick to achieving success will be to make any local government finance reform proposal simple and productive, something that legislators long accustomed to micromanaging local governments in Indiana will find hard to do.

In lieu of traditional property taxes, provide local governments a host of sales or income tax options or user fees that best suit local needs.

And if local officeholders overuse or abuse their new, alternative spending authority, local voters will show them the door.

That is how it can and should work.

I might just add that fewer unfunded mandates coming out of Indianapolis would also be helpful to local government.

What he said

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Hunter has another of his inspired posts over at DailyKos. Short version: Liberals don’t and never opposed the Iraq War because they were against the (so called) War on Terror(ism/ists); rather they oppose(d) the Iraq War because it actively hurts our efforts to eliminate terrorists.

But, as ever, he says it so much better than I ever could.

IN-08: Hostettler throws the “he won’t debate me” card

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Usually it’s the challenger who complains that the incumbent won’t debate him or there won’t be enough debates or something along those lines. In Indiana’s 9th District, challenger Baron Hill has already started that line of attack against Mike Sodrel.

But, in the 8th District, for whatever reason, incumbent John Hostettler is complaining that his challenger, hasn’t pushed for debates early enough. Ellsworth’s campaign gave the equivalent of a shrug with his spokesperson saying, “It’s a little early, but I’m sure we’ll have debates.”

Something to watch, I suppose.

FWJG: Don’t privatize FSSA

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The Fort Wayne Journal Gazette has an editorial suggesting that if the Governor privatizes the Medicaid benefits eligibility determination process for FSSA,it will be (even more of) a debacle.

There are two ways that Gov. Mitch Daniels’ decision to take over the Family and Social Services Administration’s move to privatize welfare eligibility could go.

He could ensure that a decision that profoundly affects so many fragile lives receives the careful analysis it should have gotten in the first place, bringing light and clarity to a murky process.

Or he could advance a pre-ordained contract that gives $1 billion to FSSA Secretary Mitch Roob’s former employer. If he chooses the latter, he’ll be greasing the skids on the road to a debacle.

The main problem seems to be that the only two bidders have what seem to be deal breaking problems: Accenture has a laundry list of snafus with respect to a similar contract in Texas that have them on the brink of being fired . . . in Texas! IBM/ACS not only lost a similar contract in Georgia, it also was the former employer of FSSA’s chief, Mitch Roob.

The Journal Gazette concludes by saying:

Everyone agrees that FSSA should do a better job serving its clients, and most would agree that replacing the agency’s antiquated computer system would go a long way toward improving service. Why not consider contracting for a new computer system that would solve some of the agency’s problems?

A few thousand FSSA employees would be more than happy to use their intimate knowledge of the public benefits system and the people they serve to help a contractor build it better.

IN-08: Boehner used Vectren Corporate Jet for Hostettler Fundraiser

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This just looks bad. In an election year where lobbyist corruption and energy policy are hot issues, this might be a twofer for the Ellsworth campaign. As I mentioned a few days ago, House Republican Leader John Boehner came to Evansville to do some fund raising for John Hostettler. Apparently he was provided with a round trip flight to and from Evansville by Vectren, the Indiana/Ohio electric company. According to the Courier Press report, that’s a $1,200 value. Also according to the Courier Press report, under the current ethics rules, Members of Congress are supposed to reimburse companies for these kinds of transportation services, but the rules do not require either the Member or the corporations to report the flights, so there doesn’t seem to be any way to verify how often a Member takes a corporate jet or whether he is reimbursing the company for the service.

June 2006 Indiana Register

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The June edition of the Indiana Register is available. It contains:
Adjustments to the toll rate structure on the Indiana Toll Road by INDOT and the Indiana Finance Authority.

Youth deer hunting season.

Reduces HIV nursing facility Medicaid rates by $5 per resident per day.

A notice from the Governor that he intends to take an additional 15 days as permitted by IC 4-22-2-34(b) to approve or disapprove Rule 05-94(F) concerning Abortion Clinics. It includes fairly comprehensive licensure requirements, meticulous record keeping for its patients that includes reliable identifying information and must be easily retrievable.  It also sets forth a fairly detailed list of requirements for the clinic’s physical plant. I don’t know how much this might differ from requirements for similar, non-abortion, medical facilities.

DHS: Alexandria, IN has more national icons than NY, NY

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According to the Department of Homeland Security, Alexandria, Indiana has more national icons than does New York, New York. In computing how anti-terrorism money should be distributed, the Department of Homeland Security decided that New York did not have any national monuments or icons.

The formula did not consider as landmarks or icons: The Empire State Building, The United Nations, The Statue of Liberty and others found on several terror target hit lists. It also left off notable landmarks, such as the New York Public Library, Times Square, City Hall and at least three of the nation’s most renowned museums: The Guggenheim, The Metropolitan and The Museum of Natural History.

On the other hand, Alexandria Indiana’s Largest Ball of Paint was included in the DHS calculations. An aerial view of the location of this precious precious landmark provided courtesy of Google Earth.

Update: It occurs to me that I may have been sucked in by the dry humor at the Cheers & Jeers entry at Daily Kos. I haven’t been able to find corroboration of the list there (and Kos is down for maintenance so I can’t read the comments for confirmation). On the other hand, I think it’s sufficiently bad that DHS and the Bush administration’s past performance has been bad enough that it is even plausible that a big ball of paint in Alexandria, Indiana might figure into DHS terrorism/pork calculations.

IN-08: Hostettler advocates deporting 11 million

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The Evansville Courier Journal article doesn’t quite make clear that Hostettler supports deporting the estimated11 million immigrants who have not complied with all of the U.S. naturalization laws, but I don’t think there is any other way to parse his advocacy of a so-called “hard line” on immigration.

He opposes the Bush and Senate immigration proposal which allows, depending on who you talk to, a “path to citizenship,” “a guest worker program,” or “amnesty.” Politically, I guess I’m content to watch the Republicans have a food fight over the issue. Personally, I don’t think it’s really our most pressing problem — but that might just have to do with being an upper-middle class professional in Indiana. I think we have more pressing problems like paying off our debt, getting out of Iraq, developing a sustainable energy policy, combatting global warming, developing a better approach to health care, securing the ports, rehabilitating our reputation as a good world citizen, and fixing trade agreements that benefit owners of capital while screwing workers. Regardless, I don’t think mass deportations are very realistic, nice as it might sound to some constituents.