The Palladium-Item has an Opinion on SB 310. If I get some time later, hopefully I can expand on the subject.

The Indy Star’s Michele McNeil has an article entitled Senate OKs bill mandating use of seat belts in pickups

According to the article:

Motorists in pickups and passengers in the back seats of cars would have to buckle up under legislation approved 34-16 Thursday by the Indiana Senate. This expansion of the state’s mandatory seat belt law would mean that Indiana would join 48 other states that don’t exempt pickups.

. . .

This year, House Speaker Brian Bosma, R-Indianapolis, thinks it’s probably a good idea to make occupants of pickups buckle up. But he’s not sure which committee he’ll assign the bill to. If it goes to Roads and Transportation, Chairman Cleo Duncan, R-Greensburg, has said she doesn’t know if she’ll hear it.

Rep. Bob Alderman, R-Fort Wayne, said he wasn’t inclined to hear the bill in his Public Policy and Veterans Affairs Committee. “I’m not a believer in birth-to-grave legislation. I don’t want to live your life for you.”

Rep. Alderman’s comment is a good reason not to have seat belt legislation at all. I’d like to hear a cogent explanation for requiring seat belts in cars but not in pickups.

Sen. Dillon makes another excellent point:

But Sen. Gary Dillon, R-Columbia City, a doctor, said the state forks over about $66 million a year on health care for those injured in accidents because they weren’t buckled up.

“When we’re paying that kind of money, it does become our business.”

Maybe, as tbailey says in one of the comments to an earlier post, “Make it an implied consent situation. If you don’t wear a seatbelt you consent to waive any medicare/medicaid/disability payments from the government and agree to pay cash for any longterm nursing home care you may require.”

The Indy Star reports that: Daylight-saving vote postponed. Apparently the vote will take place on Monday or Tuesday. More importantly, neither Representative Torr nor the Associated Press seem to realize that “Democrat” is a noun and not an adjective:

“We need Democrat votes and I am certain we will have all the votes we need to pass this bill on Monday or Tuesday before the deadline midnight Tuesday,” Torr said.

The bill is backed by Republican Gov. Mitch Daniels, and fellow Republicans control the House 52-48. But Torr has repeatedly said that Republicans would need some Democrat support to reach the 51 votes needed to pass it.

Maybe if you use the name of the party properly, you might get someone to vote with you.

The Fort Wayne News Sentinel has an article entitled Tax idea cuts at Daniels’ image. Would the news folks quit pushing the idea that Daniels’ nickname as “The Blade” was somehow merited by federal spending cuts while he was in the Bush administration. Under Bush and Daniels, deficits exploded to an unprecedented degree. So far, I’m cautiously optimistic about Daniels’ approach to Indiana’s fiscal health. (Certainly, he strikes me as more sensible than the folks in the House who think they can limit Medicaid growth to 3%, Education growth to 0.75%, and flatline prison spending.) The federal government over the past 4 years has been fiscally reckless. So spare me “the blade” nonsense.

In any case, Daniels is taking some heat from the Wall Street Journal Editorial Board and the Grover Norquist/Americans for Tax Reform crowd. I’m glad that Governor Daniels appears to be more pragmatic than Norquist, ATR, the WSJ Editorial Board, and their ivory tower cohorts. (Obscure reference, but when I think of Norquist & Co., I always think of Phil Hartman doing Frankentstein, “MMMM TAXES BADDDDD MMMM”.

The South Bend Tribune has an article entitled SouthBendTribune.com: A call for do-not-call — which discusses the Consumer Bankers Association attempts to have the FCC rule that the federal Do Not Call list preempts the state do not call list and prohibits Indiana’s more stringent do not call requirements. It mentions that local banks supporting the action include KeyBank, National City, Wells Fargo, Bank One and Fifth Third.

I loved this brilliant nonresponse by National City Bank to complaints from its customers:

National City spokeswoman Terri Wilson said Tuesday a relatively small number of customers had contacted the bank to express concern.

The bank answered the concerns with assurances National City respects their privacy and will comply with all applicable telemarketing laws, said Wilson.

Well thank you very much Terri Wilson! That’s the *&$^% point. Hoosiers want Indiana law to be the applicable telemarketing laws. By supporting the CBA position, you’re saying that you do not in fact respect privacy since you want the applicable telemarketing law to be the more permissive federal law that will allow National City Bank and its ilk to call me to peddle its crap while I’m eating or spending some quality time with my child.

House Bill 1008 Dept. of Agriculture:

Provides that the lieutenant governor is the secretary of agriculture and rural development. Establishes the office of rural affairs. Establishes the department of agriculture. Transfers the functions of various state agencies relating to agriculture to the department of agriculture.

Passed the House 97 – 0. Looks like this is a pretty popular bill, but to my way of thinking, Indiana has been doing agriculture for longer than it’s been a state. Agriculture is less important to the state now than it has been in the past. So, if we’ve gotten along without a Dept. of Agriculture for this long, maybe the middle of a crippling budget crisis isn’t the time to be creating a new Department of Agriculture.

PunchtheBag has a good entry which takes a look at an Indy Star point/counter-point on Governor Daniels reasons for proposing a tax increase and Grover Norquist and the “Americans for Tax Reform” no tax purity. Punch The Bag points out that Norquist doesn’t delve into any specific cuts but only scolds the Governor for not trying harder. Governor Daniels refers to the ATR crowd as ivory tower academics who are useful but who he wouldn’t trust to manage a baseball concession stand. He also points out that one of Reagan’s first acts as Governor was to raise taxes in the face of a bankrupt state and a Constitutional duty.

Another Indy Star article on DST entitled House ready to vote on daylight-saving bill

Not a great deal of new information. There was a disingenuous quote by Rep. Torr: “Torr argued that the issues [Daylight Saving Time and Time Zones] were separate. Hoosiers who live near Cincinnati or Louisville, and adjust their clocks to stay in sync with those Eastern zone cities, are never going to agree with those who live near Illinois and want to stay on Central time year-round, he said.”

No way are the issues separate. The folks in Covington (Fountain County, next to Danville, IL) are essentially going to be on what they refer to as “double fast” time. The sun will be up way too late in the summer and rise way too late in April. By doing nothing, the legislature is expressing a preference and forcing the people on the western border, not already in the Central Time Zone, to observe Eastern Daylight Time and synch their clocks with New York City. That’s a choice the legislature can make, but calling the issues separate is absurd.

Also, the sidebar to the article notes pros & cons. Two “cons” the sidebar doesn’t mention are: 1. The fact that we’ll have to deal with an extra hour of darkness on April mornings; and 2. The cost to Hoosier businesses of reprogramming their computers and overhauling scheduling software already in place.

An extensive article entitled Just plain, ol’ Mitch? by Matthew Tully for the Indianapolis Star (my link is to the Feb. 20, 2005 Muncie Star Press where I found it.) This article is fun reading if not, ultimately, very important to the future of the state. It examines Mitch Daniels as a rich guy running in the nation’s most elite circles and his laid-back, down home Hoosier persona.

When you get down to it, I don’t really care if he bathes in Perrier Water in a Carmel Mansion or refuses to shower while drinking Drummond Brothers in a Greenwood apartment. What really matters are the actions he takes while governing.

Writing for the Indianapolis Star, Michele McNeil has an article on HB 1001 (The Budget Bill) entitledHouse OKs state budget: $23.8 billion, no tax hike

House Republicans stuck together Monday and approved a $23.8 billion two-year state budget that gives some schools more money, allows the state to hire more child welfare caseworkers and sets aside more money for college students. All without a general tax increase.

The budget plan increases public school funding by 0.75% per year; holds annual growth in Medicaid spending to 3% per year; and flat-lines prison spending. The article provides some good quotes on public school funding and Medicaid spending. What floors me is flat-lining prison spending. You’re going to have sick, broke, uneducated people and while keeping the “tough on crime” laws on the books. I hope the Attorney General’s office is getting a few more lawyers to fight the 8th Amendment lawsuits that will be coming down the pike when prisoners file their Cruel and Unusual Punishment claims against the Department of Correction. Who knows, if the prison can’t hire enough good guards or supervisors, maybe they’ll even get nailed with a 56 million dollar wrongful death action. Hopefully my concerns are unfounded and the legislature is taking steps to flat-line the Dept. of Corrections’ need for money.