Niki Kelly reports on the Daniels administration, specifically IDEM, getting caught in a little PR fib.

“The Indiana Department of Environmental Management has unclogged a bottleneck of enforcement cases that have been unresolved for two or more years. Many of the previously unresolved cases inherited by the new Daniels Administration were settled with an amicable agreement between IDEM and the responsible parties.” Later in the statement, 90 resolved cases were mentioned.

This quote was rehashed in press statements a couple of times in July as well. So, the Sierra Club says tell us which cases. IDEM wasn’t telling. So, the Sierra Club had to take their complaint to the Indiana Office of the Public Access Counselor. When the Public Access Counselor found that IDEM hadn’t complied with the public access laws, IDEM finally produced a list.

The list shows 80 cases settled, 18 dismissed and 10 in which orders were issued because no resolution could be found.

Of the 98 resolved either through settlement or dismissal, 50 are from 2005 and 2004. Forty-eight were from 2003 or before – and even some of those could technically fall within the two years depending on what month they were filed.

90 cases became less than 50. Not a matter of huge importance. Just a dumb lie. If they’re willing to mislead the public about something trivial, matters of more consequence become suspect. Maybe it was an honest mistake, but I’ll bet most of these sorts of mistakes tend to err on the side of puffing up the accomplishments of the administration.

Northeastern Indiana blogs seem to be cropping up at a fierce pace lately. The latest I’ve seen is Indiana Parley. It describes itself as “A place for public policy, politics, the history, and the future of Indiana.” It allows comments, the tone seems reasonable, and the writing is good. The main question is staying power. Good luck!

Thomas Langhorne for the Evansville Courier Press reports that a recorded telephone call is being made to Evansville residents which is critical of Hostettler’s support of indicted former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay.

The caller characterizes DeLay as Hostettler’s “close associate and political ally” and says DeLay has been “indicted on felony conspiracy charges for campaign money laundering.”

The indictment against DeLay accuses him of conspiring with two co-defendants to make a political contribution in violation of Texas state law, which outlaws corporate contributions.

Hostettler, the caller says, has “voted twice to shield Tom DeLay from investigation.” The caller provides no further details.

After giving the phone number of Hostettler’s district office in Covington, Ind., the caller urges listeners to “tell (Hostettler) to stop protecting Tom DeLay and demand DeLay’s immediate resignation from Congress.”

“Let’s cut out the cancer of corruption in Congress,” the caller says.

The Vanderburgh County Democratic Party and Hostettler’s likely Democratic opponent, Sheriff Brad Ellsworth apparently were not involved in making the calls. Similar calls were made for other candidates across the country.

The article does not say whether the allegations made in the telephone call are true or false.

The Marion Chronicle Tribune had a time zone editorial yesterday. They suggest that the legislature’s recent action concerning Daylight Saving Time didn’t solve the indecision, bickering, and confusion about Indiana’s time. Nevermind the premise which ignores the possibility that things worked well enough how they were. The paper is correct that the legislature’s actions have made things worse.

Unfortunately, the editorial goes on to make an extremely questionable assertion without bothering to provide anything resembling an explanation.

Now, according to news reports, 19 counties have asked to join the 10 counties already on Central time, meaning 63 counties would be on Eastern time while 29 – almost twice as many as before – would be on Central.

The phrase “patchwork quilt” has been used to describe the plan, and it is fitting.

As much of Indiana as possible should be on the same time, and it appears Eastern Time is preferable.

Gov. Mitch Daniels probably went into this whole thing thinking it would end confusion. It doesn’t appear that’s happening. To prevent more of a kerfuffle, Daniels should exert his leadership more than he has on this issue.

He could work on county officials to persuade or convince them to drop their Central time requests.

“It appears Eastern Time is preferable.” Why? I know others have made arguments. Some are even valid. But the Marion Chronicle Tribune feels no need to explain itself. “The Chronicle Tribune said it. I believe it. That settles it. Apparently, that’s how a discerning reader is supposed to react.” Whoever the editorial writer is appears to have absolutely no recognition that the western part of the state exists except insofar as he or she feels it necessary to have Governor Daniels impose his or her time zone preference on the rest of the state.

I tend to think the whole state should be in one time zone. I tend to think that Central Time is the better time zone. The fact is that currently for about 7 months out of the year, the entire state — except for those few counties that currently observe Eastern Daylight Time illegally — is already on Central Daylight Time (functionally if not technically). But I’m not oblivious to the arguments on behalf of Eastern Daylight Time.

Update – Just reading through some recent docket entries, I see the Juday Creek Golf Course (pdf) was kind enough to provide the USDOT with “the accurate unbiased facts as they relate to St. Joseph County Indiana.” Very decent of them. But, it seems to me, if a golf course owner is unbiased, then she is an idiot. Of course a golf course owner should want Eastern Daylight Time. It gives them an extra hour of golf. Be biased. Go for the money. And, of course she is. She wants EDT. But the claim that she isn’t biased is laughable.

Added to the blogroll, reader and occasional commenter, Fort Wayne Libertarian Mike Sylvester. Today’s installment, a proposed tax hike by the Northwest Allen County School Board.

A couple of new Hoosier-centric blogs on the blogroll: Fort Wayne Observed and Bilerico.

Lesley Stedman has a good column in the Louisville Courier Journal which captures nicely Governor Daniels ever shifting position on time zones.

Many county officials resented having to make the decision.

And they don’t believe it had to be so difficult.

When Daniels was running for governor, he not only endorsed daylight-saving time — an issue Hoosiers have been fighting about for decades — he also said he wanted to move as much of Indiana as possible into one time zone. He said both actions would reduce confusion.

And during the campaign, Daniels said repeatedly that he preferred the entire state move to the Central time zone, except for Clark, Floyd and Harrison counties near Louisville and two other counties near Cincinnati.

After the election and before the legislative session began, though, Daniels already had narrowed his focus to daylight-saving time. He said the time-zone issue probably would be a question for another session.

But — as Daniels and daylight-time proponents soon learned — there’s no separating the question of daylight-saving time from the issue of time zones in Indiana.

Contrast Governor Daniels position then with his position now:

the governor said it would have been wrong for him to have asked the department to establish one time zone or the other for Indiana, and said it never entered his mind to do so.

. . .

Daniels recalled saying during his gubernatorial campaign last year that he favored having as much of the state as possible on one time and that he could “see an argument for Central time” but didn’t prescribe it for anybody.

Of course, now he says that the jigsaw puzzle approach of having each county choose for itself, “makes common sense.”

Also of note, check out this article from the April edition of Governing which explores why the time debate in Indiana is so fierce. (Thanks to Mr. O’Malley for the catch)

Evansville Republicans have selected Vaneta Becker to replace Senator Server. Server was appointed to the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission and so Rep. Becker will complete the remaining three years of his term. I’ve been told by folks who know the area, that Rep. Becker’s seat is solid Republican, so having an essentially open seat in 2006 shouldn’t affect the composition of the closely divided House of Representatives.

The Legislative Services Agency has provided the General Assembly’s Code Revision Commission with a proposed outline for Recodification of Title 21 (PDF).

Title 20 of the Indiana Code concerning education was recodified during the last session of the General Assembly. In upcoming sessions, the legislature will likely tackle Title 21 which is education finance.

The Memo attached to the outline describes the proposed recodification as follows:

In the first year Grade K-12 education finance law would be moved primarily from Title 21 to Title 20. In the second year, the higher education law in IC 20-12 would be recodified in Title 21 with the remainder of higher education law.

. . .

The proposal changes the changes the sequence in which ideas are arranged. Current law is arranged in a local funding/state funding/local funding/ state funding/local funding/pensions sequence. The proposal would present the law in the following sequence: accounting systems/state tuition support formula/property taxes/borrowing. Pension law would be consolidated in Title 5. Provisions in Title 20 governing categorical grants outside the formula, start-up funding for charter schools, transfer tuition, student aid for textbooks, and permissible school fees would not be moved. Following the lead taken in HEA 1288, non-education levies for community use of facilities are moved to Title 36.

For those who may not be aware of the project, recodification has been an effort by the General Assembly to organize and simplify the Indiana Code, getting rid of superfluous language and putting the content in an intuitive format. This is a tough, tedious, and mostly thankless job. Great care has to be taken to restate the law without changing its substance. The bills that implement the recodification are large and unpleasant to wade through. It is critical that the legislators involved never feel like a substantive change is included either intentionally or by mistake — unless, of course, that change is very clearly announced.

Take a look at Title 3 (Elections) or Title 27 (Insurance) just off the top of my head to see how ugly the unrevised parts of the Code can be. Or, if you want to see a real lack of quality control in the legislative process, just take a look at the United States Code. Prior recodifications have been made to Titles 9 (Motor Vehicles), 10 (Public Safety), 12 (Human Services), 13 (Environment), 14 (Natural and Cultural Resources), 16 (Health), 31 (Family Law and Juvenile Law), 32 (Property), 33 (Courts and Court Officers), and 34 (Civil Law and Procedure).

In my opinion, this is one of the best projects the General Assembly undertakes. It is almost as important that the law be clear as it is for the law to be correct. (Apologies to Justice Brandeis, “Stare decisis is usually the wise policy, because in most matters it is more important that the applicable rule of law be settled than that it be settled right.” Burnet v. Coronado Oil (1932)).

The Indy Star has an article entitled Daniels’ plan could privatize 2 interstates, though I’m not sure the headline accurately reflects what is in the article.

As I read it, Gov. Daniels is proposing hiking up the fees on the Toll Road (I-80/90) and making the new stretch of I-69 a toll road when it is built. In addition, Daniels said the state would pursue the option of leasing out tolling and concessions rights along both the Toll Road and the yet-to-be-built stretch of I-69, as well as on two planned bridges over the Ohio River near Louisville. In exchange, private companies would operate and maintain those roads.

I loathe toll roads. I think that, next to public safety, building and maintaining infrastructure is the government’s most important job. But, if there is no other way to get a highway, I think it’s tolerable (barely) to make that highway a toll road. So, making the new stretches of I-69 toll don’t bother me overly much — if there is no other way. But, increasing the tolls on the northern stretch to pay for a highway for southwestern Indiana strikes me as unacceptable. Personally, I think gas taxes are a perfectly reasonable way to fund road construction and maintenance. Even more, I think general taxation is an even better way to pay for road construction and maintenance. Every last Hoosier benefits from a good road system. Better roads means more commerce means more jobs even for folks who don’t drive.

Update: Of some interest to me, but probably not to those in other parts of the state, I see that the Hoosier Heartland Corridor made the list of priority transportation construction projects. The Hoosier Heartland Corridor currently connects Fort Wayne to Logansport. The corridor will be extended by improving State Road 25 from Logansport through Delphi to I-65 in Lafayette. Eventually, the plan is to construct a good highway from Fort Wayne to Toledo and on up to the Great Lakes. (Just an aside, but I’ve always been surprised there isn’t a better route from Fort Wayne to Toledo. I’m not from around there, so I’m probably missing a shortcut, but it seems like you have to go a fair distance pretty much due north to the I-80/90 Toll Road which swoops back down southeast, before heading due east to Toledo. I’ve taken US 6 to cut the corner. You go through some nice towns, but it’s not fast.)

The Journal & Courier also provides a link to the 10 year project list (PDF)