A Citizen's Guide to Indiana

Masson's Blog

Grumblings about the DLGF

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(H/t Indiana Law Blog) Karen Francisco, writing for the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette, has a good column about some of the strife between local governments and the Department of Local Government Finance. The DLGF used to be viewed as a partner to local government. Now it has taken on a confrontational tone that is exacerbated by the seemingly constant flux of Indiana’s tax system as well as delays and contradictory information that seems to come out of the DLGF.

Not in the column, but worth mentioning is the Governor’s drumbeat of blame for local government when he was pushing his tax restructuring plan last year. That certainly couldn’t have helped relations between local government officials and the Daniels administration.

Supreme Court to Consider Robocall Statute

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Lesley Stedman Weidenbener reports that the Indiana Supreme Court will consider the robo-call statute. At issue is whether the ban on robocalls should apply to political messages.

I’ve actually written quite a bit about this issue as it turns out. With respect to the decision on appeal, I posted this back in February:

I haven’t read the judge’s opinion, but as described, I don’t think it holds water. The statute does a few things — it specifies types of messages to which the statute does not apply — e.g. messages from schools to students or parents. Significantly, political messages are not in this list of exempt messages. Secondly, it defines commercial telephone solicitations and imposes restrictions on commercial telephone solicitations above and beyond the restrictions it places on solicitations via robocall generally. There is nothing in the text of the law itself that strongly suggests an allowance for robocalls to be used to spread political messages. There are at least two provisions that suggest that the regulation extends beyond commercial messages. So, unless there is something a bit more nuanced than reported about the judge’s decision, I’m going to predict this one gets overturned on appeal.

The State Republican and Democratic Parties are urging an interpretation that allows the automated phone calls. The Attorney General is trying to make sure a live person is involved when any of these calls are made to citizens. A recorded message is actually permitted under the statute, but it must be preceded by a live phone call and agreement by the recipient to receive the recorded message. (Or a recipient must have previously “opted-in” to receive such phone calls.)

Microvote sanctioned for 2006 violations

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Niki Kelly, writing for the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette, reports that Microvote will be sanctioned for failing to provide certified software on its voting machines. As I read the article, with a lot of the sanction suspended, the upshot of Microvote’s punishment is that it won’t be able to sell or lease its machines through 2009 to new buyers in Indiana. It will still be able to market the machines, and there are no elections in 2009.

The Indianapolis-based company was cited for providing 47 counties with electronic voting machines that did not meet all certification requirements at the time of the 2006 primary election.

I’m Shocked, Shocked to Find Gambling in Indiana

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Rick: How can you close me up? On what grounds?
Captain Renault: I’m shocked, shocked to find that gambling is going on in here!
[a croupier hands Renault a pile of money]
Croupier: Your winnings, sir.
Captain Renault: [sotto voce] Oh, thank you very much.
[aloud]
Captain Renault: Everybody out at once!

—Casablanca (1942)

Indiana – 2008: The Associated Press has a story on how the promised crackdown on illegal gambling has fallen well short of expectations. Some lawmakers promised thousands of slot machines and poker machines would be seized. Meanwhile, lawmakers authorized 4,000 new machines at Indiana’s horse tracks. So, it looks like we have a substantial increase in gambling.

I don’t have strong feelings either way. I don’t have any moral opposition to gambling, but I don’t have a strong desire to have gambling facilities in close proximity. I think we really need to figure out a rational system for gambling in the state. This patchwork of grudging expansions while pretending to oppose the practice is silly.

Likely delay on property tax rule

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The Associated Press has a story on a new property tax rule that is probably going to be delayed. The rule change would be to go from a “market value in use” system to a “market value in exchange” system. The latter is the predominant valuation in 48 other states.

“Market value in use” means that a property is assessed according to the value it has with its current, specific use whereas “market value in exchange” means assessing the property’s value based on its potential use. According to the article, the latter method of valuation would result in a substantial reduction in value for older industrial properties. If that happened, the tax burden would shift to the rest of the tax base — including residential property owners. Cheryl Musgrave, commissioner of the Department of Local Government Financing has announced her opinion that now might not be time for the change.

Toll Road Operator Offers Free Travel to Legislators

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Mike Smith has an article for the AP on the tollway operator’s offer of a free pass to legislators. Some in the area of the toll road were sent passes while the rest were apparently sent letters with an offer.

“When I got it I was in a state of disbelief,” said Rep. Scott Pelath, D-Michigan City. “I can’t describe it as anything other than a perk. Mine is in the possession of solid-waste authorities.”

I think Pelath did the right thing. Legislators should have to labor under the laws they put in place. For similar reasons, I tend to think legislators shouldn’t have special license plates.

Zoeller wins Republican AG nomination

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Greg Zoeller, Indiana Deputy Attorney General and heir apparent to outgoing attorney general Steve Carter, won the Republican nomination to run for the AG position. He defeated Gov. Daniels’ preferred candidate, Jon Costas, mayor of Valparaiso. Zoeller will be running in November against Linda Pence, the Democratic nominee.

I’m not privy to the inner workings of the political parties, but rumor has it that Daniels pushed too hard for Costas, prompting a backlash. I don’t know if that’s the case or if the Republican delegates just thought it made more sense to nominate someone already in the office. Speaking for myself, I think Carter has generated an enormous amount of good will for the office, and Republican stewardship of the office, through his prominent efforts with the Do Not Call List and, to a lesser extent, with his efforts against “robocalls” by the political parties. When an office is perceived to be running fairly well and an incumbent is stepping down, it probably makes sense to run a candidate from within the ranks of that office instead of bringing in an outsider.

It will be interesting to see how the contest in November shakes out. I’m sure Pence is happy to continue Carter’s policies (and, let’s not forget, the law) with respect to protecting Hoosiers against annoying telephone calls. It’s one of those happy intersections of the politically popular with reasonably good public policy. After that, there may be some more rough and tumble debates to be had about some of the Attorney General’s office’s other duties.

More on ACLU v. FSSA

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Abdul has a post on the latest lawsuit by the ACLU against FSSA claiming that people are being wrongfully denied welfare benefits as a result of FSSA’s automation and privatization efforts. Abdul’s post I believe misses the point of the lawsuit but probably accurately captures a lot of people’s opinions generally.

I hate to sound like the bad guy here, but someone needs to tell people who get government assistance that it is not a right, but a privilege. I cite the recent ACLU lawsuit against the Indiana Family Social Services Agency over the privatization of the agency.

The ACLU maintains the privatization of the eligibility portion of FSSA has resulted in thousands of Hoosiers being denied benefits they are entitled to. No offense, but the last time I checked, government benefits are not a right.

I am all for helping people and think there should be a safety net for the neediest of the needy, but there is nothing that says the state has to do anything. We made a decision as a society to help people out of the kindness of our hearts and the money in our wallets. However someone needs to tell the 1.1 million people who are getting the benefits that as long as someone else is paying the bill and the day is coming where some of us may decide not to do that anymore.

As I posted in his comments, the problem is that FSSA doesn’t get to unilaterally decide who receives benefits and who does not. If FSSA is denying assistance to people who meet the criteria set by the people controlling the money (the Indiana General Assembly and the United States Congress, I believe), FSSA is violating the law.

If no welfare programs had been created at all, I don’t think the ACLU would have a leg to stand on trying to compel that a program be implemented. However, once a program has been implemented there is a duty to implement it in a non-arbitrary fashion and there is an obligation by an administrative agency to administer the program consistently with the dictates of the legislative bodies.

Indiana (and North Carolina) Primary Day: VOTE!

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It’s primary day in Indiana and North Carolina. Whatever your preference*, get out and vote. It’s good to get in the habit. Here in Lafayette, turn out seemed strong. Until today, I had never waited in line to vote in an Indiana primary. I waited for 3 or 4 minutes at 6:45 a.m. this morning.

*When I typed that, I recalled Mike Kole, Libertarian, and his practice of going to the polling place, signing the book, and leaving because the primary is stacked in favor of just Republicans and Democrats. That made me think of the Blues Brothers scene:

Elwood: What kind of music do you usually have here?
Claire: Oh, we got both kinds. We got country *and* western.

I suppose primaries are kind of like that for any third party.

My footnote kind of ate up the initial post here. Still, get out and vote.

Update
The Lafayette Journal & Courier is doing an election day notebook. As of about 2:45 p.m., about 30,000 people had voted in Tippecanoe County’s primary. I don’t know what the record is/was for the county, but according to the J&C, 1996 had about 22,500 and that was the highest primary turnout from then to now.