No time for much commentary here, but the South Bend Tribune has an article on whether Elkhart County would petition for a move to Central Time if the St. Joseph County petition to move time zones is granted. Professor John Gaski says Elkhart County would do so in a heartbeat and their case for moving becomes overwhelming if St. Joseph County is in the central time zone. Elkhart County Commissioner Terry Rodino offers a condescending response, suggesting that Professor Gaski should “worry about what bowl Notre Dame’s football team will play in and go back to education.”

Commissioner Yoder admitted that Elkhart County’s situation would change if St. Joseph County were in the Central zone, but does not necessarily see a reason to switch even in that case. On the other hand, he would support a referendum considering the time zone statewide:

Calling it “very bad public policy” to allow time zone changes one county at a time, Yoder said he would favor a statewide referendum on the issue if it would mean the whole state was on the same time.

“I’d support that in a heartbeat,” Yoder said. “That’s the best way out of this mess.”

I had myself a little chuckle reading State has big plans for www.in.gov then trying to go to the page for the House Journals. All I got when I went to take a look at the House Journals was a blank page. The Indy Star article talks about plans to turn in.gov into a state government site on par with what C-Span does for the federal government.

I’m sure the House Journal page is just a temporary glitch, and I’m being unfair in taking a jab. But that’s just the type of despicable human being I am.

I’m engaging in some sort of politico-blogospheric recursion here that likely has profound implications of which I am unaware. But, I recommend Torpor Indy: George Will on Mitch Daniels

Hoosier voters were hoodwinked by Daniels’ brand of populism last fall. He rolled up his sleeves, spoke plainly, slept in supporters’ homes as he traveled throughout this state in his RV. He created a character who acted as if he cared about the general public. The majority of us voted for him even though he gave IPL employees Indiana’s Enron. Now, he has shown he is willing to support corporate executives over Hoosier workers. This may impress George Will, but I do not know how well it fly with Indiana citizens in 2008.

Update Taking Down Words also has a post on the George Will column. TDW makes a good point about one of the reasons why you can’t run state government like a corporation.

If a company fails, its CEO calls in a team of lawyers and eventually moves on. Many entrepreneurs have risked everything and flopped.

We can’t afford to flop; ergo, we can’t afford to be reckless.

The Indy Star has a few stories on Indiana Congressional travel where the cost of the trip is picked up by third parties. It’s apparently legal, but raises ethical questions. According to the story, Sen. Bayh is the biggest traveler from the Indiana delegation and the 4th in the Congress. Senator Lugar ranks 14th and, in a distant 3rd, comes Rep. Mark Souder at 153 out of 637. (535 Reps and 100 Senators? Who are numbers 636 and 637?) Families often go along for the ride and the trips are often paid for by groups with interests specific to the Congressperson’s legislative specialty. For example, Rep. Buyer’s trips to Las Vegas telecommunications conferences have been paid for by telecommunications interests.

The stories:

Private money funds global jaunts

Sen. Bayh ranks 4th in privately funded trips

Families go along when lawmakers travel

I have to say, this issue does not cause me a great deal of consternation. But I had to mutter a little bit at Rep. Souder’s quote with respect to family joining in on these third party paid trips. Some have suggested that if we’re going to allow these trips at all, they should be strictly business. Souder’s response:

“To do this job well already stresses family time,” said Souder, R-Fort Wayne. “If anything, I think the rules for children should be more generous, not less.”

With all due respect, Mr. Representative, sir, you know what really causes family stress? No healthcare, no jobs, wondering if you’re going to be evicted next week, wondering how your sick mother is going to be cared for, wondering where your next paycheck is coming from, wondering if increased property taxes are going to force you from your home, wondering if the pollution in the air is going to cause you cancer, wondering if your Dad is coming home from Iraq, wondering if America’s staggering deficits will lead to another depression and financial ruin. So, excuse me if I don’t cry you a river when little Timmy doesn’t get to tag along on your next trip to Germany.

There is a good editorial in today’s Fort Wayne Journal Gazette entitled Leaner state government? which first questions whether Gov. Daniels has made the government any leaner at all. It notes that

Niki Kelly’s Sunday story showed that the Daniels administration has created multiple new departments, including a Division of Aviation, an Office of Federal Grants and Procurement and a Division of Government Efficiency and Financial Planning. Salaries for administrators of the newly created agencies fall just short of $1 million, not including employee and office costs.

But, the editorial concedes, changes to the bureaucratic structure may create savings that offset the cost new positions and agencies. Or, it could mean that we’ve just shifted where we spend the money. In any event, the editorial allows that it’s Gov. Daniels prerogative to make these kinds of changes.

The editorial also urges that privatization of government services, for which the Governor has shown an abiding love, should not be confused with savings. My favorite example of how insourcing government services saved the government money is here.

Furthermore, the Governor’s big privatization contracts are, by and large, going to out of state vendors. The editorial notes a billion dollar FSSA contract that will likely go to an out of state vendor. And, let’s keep in mind, not all state money spent is equal. First, there is the question of service per dollar spent. Will our level of services remain the same? (Should it?) Then there is the fact that where currently, the money is being kept in state, to be respent in state by the workers employed by the State, under privatized contracts, the workers will likely work for substantially reduced pay and benefits, meaning they have less to spend in their communities. In fact, we’ve seen that Wal-Marts and other low wage & benefit paying companies tend to put a substantial burden on the public health system (link chosen at random – Google ‘Walmart employee medicaid’ for more) since their workers often need to be on Medicaid and the like. Meanwhile, the cream of the contracts will go to out of state executives and their shareholders. How much of that is likely to be respent in Indiana?

Update Taking Down Words has a post on the subject.

You may recall an earlier effort of tracking the Indiana Blogosphere in the form of “The Indiana Review of Blogs.” That effort got a lot of buzz, but appears to have withered on the vine; it’s last post was October 26, 2005.

A new effort is under way which hopefully will be more sustainable: The Indiana Blog Review is being run by Nathan Gotsch and, so far, has had a pretty good level of activity. I’m always up for some blogospheric navel gazing (as John Cole at Balloon Juice calls it), particularly at the Indiana level, so I wish the Indiana Blog Review the best of luck.

Niki Kelly has an article for the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette entitled Property tax relief to guide legislative session

She writes:

Property tax relief will likely headline the 2006 General Assembly as House Republicans who want to retain control of the chamber recognize it as a hot-button issue for voters.

Apparently they think the projected 7-11% increase in property taxes arising out of the budget they passed last year won’t sit too well with the voters. (To be clear, the State didn’t pass any property tax increases; they structured the budget so that local officials had to be the hatchet men.)

The legislators are looking at the tax amnesty money to use for property tax relief. They low-balled the estimated amnesty revenue at $65 million and figure they have $135 million to play with because the Dept. of Revenue has reported receipts of about $200 million from the program. (I’d caution against relying on that figure until we see how firm that number is.) Cigarette taxes are also being considered. Apparently Indiana’s cigarette taxes are well below the national average.

I’d be worried about using the amnesty money to fund property tax relief, because it’s a one time deal whereas the extra burden on local government and, consequently, on property taxes appears to be a built-in problem. Perhaps you could allocate the income expected from stepped-up enforcement efforts, since that would presumably be more of a continuing stream.

My recommendation for the amnesty money: shore up the public employee pension funds, TRF and PERF. I know those are underfunded. Dumping the amnesty money into those funds would help ensure that those obligations of the State remain solvent. It’s not glamorous, to be sure, but it would be a prudent place to invest the money.

Jennifer Whitson also has a story on property taxes in the Evansville Courier Press.

As I mentioned before, the Indiana Dept. of Revenue has a legal obligation to make a list available online of those with tax delinquencies between 2 and 10 years old in excess of $1,000. Apparently in violation of this law, the Department of Revenue took the list down because of the Tax Amnesty Program. The INDebt page, as it’s called, said the service will be unavailable from September 15 through November 15, 2005. As of November 21, 2005, it is still unavailable.

My personal reason for wanting to access the information is that certain debtors whose creditors I represent have indicated an inability to pay based on outstanding tax obligations to the State Dept. of Revenue. I wanted to verify their assertions to see if they were telling me the truth or not. The web page was unavailable. The Dept. of Revenue person with whom I spoke said she could not verify the information because of privacy concerns. I suppose I could ask the court in which I have a judgment to compel production of the information, but that seems like a big hassle if they’re telling the truth. All in all, it’s a small thing for my legal practice, but it seems like that information never should have been taken off line and, certainly, a week after the amnesty is over, it should be back on line.

The Marion Chronicle-Tribune, ever a font of wisdom offers up this wishy-washy editorial in support of the Governor’s position on Intelligent Design. The Governor’s position is that the state shouldn’t be micromanaging school curricula. That’s true, as far as it goes, but there is an easier answer with respect to putting Intelligent Design in science classes: it’s not science. Intelligent Design doesn’t depend on observation of natural phenomena or the testing of falsifiable hypotheses: both corner stones of the scientific method.

The threshold question is not about evolution and intelligent design, or whatever you want to call it. The threshold question – the real one that matters – is whether the legislature should tell local school boards and school systems what specific topics must be taught in school.

Nope. The threshold question is whether Intelligent Design is science. It’s not. I’m glad that under the Governor and the Marion-Chronicle Tribune’s standard, ID won’t be mandated by the state. But really, it’s just a way of passing the buck in a way that doesn’t alienate a part of the political base that is willing to degrade science to shore up their faith. As many have noted, some even around here, science need not be perceived as a threat to one’s faith. Though, I would say that, the more dogmatic one’s faith, the more likely science will pose a threat to one’s beliefs. I don’t think we really need to cater to a constituency that is so dogmatic in its faith that it feels threatened by the scientific method.

Karen Francisco writing in the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette (h/t the Indiana Law Blog) notes that the GOP is being too cute by half with this Intelligent Design issue:

Intelligent design – a creationist curriculum poorly disguised as science – was not [a priority], [a House Republican spokesperson] insisted, and it was inaccurate to characterize it as such.

But that’s not what the Speaker of the House was saying. In that very day’s edition, the Indianapolis Star reported that Republican Brian Bosma wouldn’t say that a bill mandating the instruction of intelligent design in Indiana schools was a priority; but neither would he confirm that it wasn’t a priority.

So which is it? It depends on whether you’re a member of the bedrock conservative base that the GOP caucus wants to preserve. It’s the wedge issue du jour – designed to energize the faithful and paint the opposition as godless.

Ms. Francisco suggests that the priorities should be property tax relief, cherry master gambling machines, and local government consolidation.

An odd story about John Hostettler in the Courier Press. Apparently he held a hearing on immigration where he intended to have members of Congress as the only witnesses. Problem is, no one showed up. So, he held another one. The article says he opened the hearing “using words like “under siege,” “invasion” and “society is gravely burdened.””

The article quoted only the lone Democratic witness:

Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga., the only Democratic witness, said the immigration system we have doesn’t serve anyone well – “Not immigrants, not businesses, not national security and not the American people.”

But he said, “I caution you not to apply a sledgehammer approach. It doesn’t matter whether we are white, black or brown, we are one family, one house, one nation. Maybe our mothers came in different boats, but we are all in the same boat now.”