A Citizen's Guide to Indiana

Masson's Blog

State cuts back on recycling and pollution efforts

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Rick Callahan, writing for the Associated Press, reports that the State is halting funding for state grant and loan programs that support recycling and pollution prevention – a cutoff that will persist through at least summer 2010. Tough times are a good way of identifying peoples’ priorities. Coming on the heels of the Indiana Department of Environmental Management’s decision to cut the Office of Enforcement, it appears that a clean, healthy environment is one of the lower priorities for the Daniels’ administration. I don’t recall hearing that in the Governor’s campaign advertisements, but then, I suppose his ad budget was limited, and he couldn’t tell us everything.

Dollars spent on recycling and pollution control seem like investments that will pay for themselves over time. Cutting them is probably penny-wise and pound foolish. In particular, it seems to me that pollution enforcement efforts should be a priority for devotees of the free market. When manufacturers pollute, they are externalizing their costs of production – making the rest of us absorb that part of their cost. With that cost externalized, the market pricing signals are distorted (the price does not reflect the true cost of production), creating market inefficiencies.

But, back to the article. Per Jesse Kharbanda, director of the Hoosier Environmental Council:

“Indiana, on a (per-) person basis, faces persistently high toxic emissions, which have repercussions for our health – and our economy – and we need a vigorous, sustained effort to address these emissions,” Kharbanda said.

IDEM’s decision to temporarily suspend funding affects state grant programs for waste tires, recycling, pollution prevention, household hazardous waste and public education. It also includes the state’s loan program to develop markets for recyclables.

Hartsock said the funding suspension means about $2 million for recycling market and development loans that had been awarded will be withheld from the intended recipients.

All of this said, I do want to point out that I recognize government spending cutbacks will always involve decisions subject to second guessing.

Retail sales grim over holiday season

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Anne D’Innocenzio, writing for the Associated Press, reports that retail sales were grim over the holiday season. Possibly I’m imagining things, but it seems like this is part of the annual pattern of reporting on holiday sales. First there is reporting that “black Friday” sales are expected to be below average — along with the annual reminder of how important such sales are to retailers and how nervous they are about their prospects. Then, black Friday comes along and the initial reporting is that sales were brisk and things may not have been so bad after all. Then, when all the numbers are in, things weren’t very good after all.

This year was particularly bad with consumer sales down between 5.5 – 8%. It’s quite the dichotomy for the citizen looking to do the good thing when you think about it. Americans are constantly chastised for their low rate of saving and overspending. But, then when they do the responsible thing and pull back their spending in light of limited resources, the economy is doomed.

Merry Christmas Everyone

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Merry Christmas everyone. Like I’ve said probably too many times, I’m not a religious guy. But, it’s tough to argue with the message — peace to everyone, love your family. Love each other. Sounds easy enough. Looking at the world, apparently it’s harder than it sounds. Still, this is a nice reminder each year.

I Have A Dream

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I had a dream that I was creating a particularly insightful blog post. Now that I’m awake, I have no idea what that is. However, I will take the fact that I was dreaming about blogging as further confirmation that I needed this vacation. So, if anything is going on out there, consider this an open thread.

And, while I realize that this is of limited interest to anyone, I have to publicly declare the awesomeness of the fine folks at All American Bike Rental in Hilton Head. The family & I biked down the way to the Harbour Town bagel shop (Amy with Harper in a trailer; Cole on the back of mine on an Alley Cat attachment.) When we got there, I loosened the bar for lowering the seat, lowered the seat, and then went to tighten it back up, and the bar just snapped off. I called the bike shop and they had that thing fixed before I finished my bagel. Just spectacular customer service.

Vacation

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I’m currently in South Carolina. I keep looking for the “First in Treason” license plates but haven’t seen any so far.

On the “True Meaning” of Christmas

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This year I have been hearing more references to the “true meaning” of Christmas. Every year, we seem to get the Bill O’Reilly type War on the War on Christmas silliness, but this year I have heard more “true meaning” stuff, by which the person discussing it tends to mean celebrating their Lord, Jesus Christ.

By itself, I certainly have no problem with this, especially since it is in this context, I hear Christians at their most concerned about Jesus’ messages of peace, love, and understanding divorced of the more pernicious political stuff about gays and abortions (neither of which Jesus had much to say about, as I understand it.) With some speakers, however, there seems to be an additional subtext to the effect that Christians should get more aggressive and “take back” their holiday.

But, the “true meaning” of Christmas is ambiguous. For starters, in many respects, the holiday seems to predate Jesus. Any number of cultures have had holidays celebrating the winter solstice. And why not? What day could be more powerful to pre-scientific cultures. The days keep getting shorter and shorter and shorter, until one day, that stops; and the sun and light begin returning. A second issue is that nobody really knows when Jesus was born. Early Christians assigned the date of his birth in the 4th century; and Christmas sort of glommed on to existing Roman holidays such as Saturnalia and, more prominently at the time, Sol Invictus where the Romans celebrated “the birthday of the unconquered sun.”

In the English speaking world, Christmas seems to have been largely ignored until about the mid-1800s; though the Germans regarded it as a significant celebration. Among other things, the division between Catholic and Protestant helped suppress Christmas in England. Oliver Cromwell had denounced Christmas as papist idolatry.

Among the most prominent elements of the resurgence of Christmas was Charles Dickens “A Christmas Carol.” And, it’s because of the source of the resurgence that we have the particular trappings of Christmas which originated in Victorian England and was heavily influenced by the German heritage of Prince Albert: the sending of cards, the Christmas carols, the exchanging of gifts, and the set-piece Christmas dinner.

What I take from this as someone who is not religious is that Christmas has a meaning that does not depend on the divinity of Christ, though it is reflected in the teachings of Jesus and others. That meaning is that love of family and a desire for peace and understanding among humans are things to be valued and toward which we should strive. So, even as a non-Christian, I have no problem at all sharing gifts with my children under the Christmas tree or celebrating the holiday with my family; because these are (or should be) human values, not solely Christian values. And, what better time to celebrate these universal human values than when the sun finally conquers the darkness once again?

Bankruptcies up 30%; Indiana #5

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Lesley Stedman Weidenbener, writing for the Louisville Courier Press, reports that bankruptcy filings are up nationally more than 30% in the past year and that Indiana’s filings were among the highest in the country (the Governor’s “hot streak” notwithstanding. Incidentally, the “hot streak” language has been removed from the Governor’s bio at the state web page but is still in the Google cache. “Indiana is on an economic hot streak, thanks to Governor Daniels’ strong leadership and the pro-active business-minded skills he brought to state government[.]” )

Where was I before I got distracted by that “hot streak” talk? Oh, right. Bankruptcies. Indiana has a lot of them. Indiana is 5th in the country with 5.9 per 1,000 residents, compared to a national average of 3.4 per thousand. This is the 12th straight year Indiana has been in the top 10.

Medical costs, foreclosures, rising unemployment and the loss of high-paying manufacturing jobs are to blame for the climbing numbers locally and nationally, economists and bankruptcy attorneys said.

One cause of Indiana’s higher rates is that apparently Indiana has a higher incidence of people owning homes they can’t afford, resulting in foreclosure and bankruptcy. An interesting fact of which I had not been aware until recently is that many states do not allow deficiency judgments on mortgage foreclosures. In Indiana, your lender will sue to foreclose on your house, get a judgment for the outstanding balance, sell your house at a Sheriff’s sale, and if the house sold for less than you owe, the lender will have a personal judgment against you for the balance. In some other states, non-recourse loans are apparently more common where the lender can’t do more than sell the house. With no personal judgment against you for the deficiency, you’re less likely to file bankruptcy after foreclosure — and a lender is more likely (one would think) to evaluate the collateral more closely.

Our jobless rate also doesn’t tell the full story of our state’s economic health. There are a significant number of people who are employed but in worse paying jobs. Jobs have shifted from high paying manufacturing work to lower paying health and retail jobs. Those jobs tend not to have health benefits which results in an exacerbation of the main reason for bankruptcies: medical bills.

Carol Rogers of the Indiana University Business Research Center points out that Indiana also ranks pretty low on health measures with bad rates of smoking and obesity. On the one hand – yes. Healthy living is important, and Indiana needs to do a lot, lot better. We need to change our culture by promoting fitness. We need to design our communities with an eye toward running, biking, and generally being active. On the other hand, I’m always a little leery of this line of conversation when discussing medical costs. Our medical system is poorly designed, and not just because we’re a bunch of fat, lazy smokers who could afford our medical bills if we weren’t so damn fat and lazy. Obviously Ms. Rogers didn’t say this, but I’ve seen any number of conversations on medical costs head in this general direction.

So, generally speaking, Indiana is in a hole and we need to figure out how to get out of it.

New Commissioner of DLGF Announced

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Brian Corbin of the Evansville Courier Press reports that Tim Rushenberg of Elkhart, Indiana will be the new commissioner of the Department of Local Government Finance. He will replace Cheryl Musgrave who stepped down after 18 months in charge of the office which oversees Indiana’s property tax system. 

 

Rushenberg has been the department’s general counsel since August 2007, and he assisted in drafting the legislation that was part of the governor’s property-tax relief package, passed earlier this year.

Rushenberg was a member of the U.S. Air Force Judge Advocate General Corps from 2003 to 2007 and previously served as assistant city attorney in Elkhart. A graduate of Indiana University-South Bend and Indiana University School of Law, Rushenberg is also certified as a Level 2 assessor.

The Evansville Courier Press referred to the position as the “property-tax czar.” Really? A czar? I suggest just sticking with commissioner.

Repost: Tippecanoe Legal Aid Benefit at Arni’s-Market Square Tomorrow (Tuesday 12/16)

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This is a repost of an entry I did last week, reminding folks in the Lafayette area of the Arni’s percentage event for the benefit of the Legal Aid Corporation of Tippecanoe County. Remember to mention “Legal Aid” to your server if you go.  Reposted material:

The fine folks at Arni’s are really solid members of the Lafayette community. The latest example of this is a “percentage night” they are holding for the benefit of Legal Aid of Tippecanoe County. On December 16, 2008 from 5:00 to 8:00, Arni’s has indicated that it will donate a percentage of its profits at its Market Square store (map) for the evening to Legal Aid.

It is the mission of Legal Aid to provide legal services for people who cannot afford it themselves in civil, non-fee generating cases — for example, CHINS cases (children in need of services; could involve termination of parental rights). The theory is that our legal system only works if people believe, by and large, that they are getting a fair shake. That belief erodes when they do not have a lawyer and simply get steam-rolled by the system or perceive that is what is happening to them. Ultimately we all benefit from a stable legal system; and organizations such as legal aid contribute to that stability. So, I would encourage anyone in the area to come out to Arni’s at Market Square on the evening 12/16/08 (<strike>next</strike> this Tuesday), enjoy some good food, and help out Legal Aid.