Via the Indy Star: 50% disapprove of Daniels’ work. His approval rating is 40%.
35% of Hoosiers think Indiana is headed in the right direction; 57% think it’s headed in the wrong direction.
Rising property taxes, their personal finances, the lease of the Indiana Toll Road and the state’s switch to daylight saving time all contributed to Daniels’ disapproval rate, the poll of 600 Hoosiers found.
Pila says
I’ll get flamed for saying this, but Hallelujah! If that is any indication that Daniels will NOT be re-elected then it is good news for Indiana.
Buzzcut says
I should LOVE Mitch. But I don’t.
He caused the property tax problem with trending and elimination of the inventory tax.
His tax plan is stupid. Raising sales or income tax to replace the property tax is a recipe for long term disaster (see my blog fo details).
But would a Democrat be any better? Ask Illinoisans. Governor ROD is waaaay worse than corrupt but competant George Ryan.
Democrats are corrupt AND incompetant. I would characterize Mitch as not corrupt, failry competant, but perhaps quite arrogant. His arrogance has led him AND Indiana astray.
Doug says
Much as I love to hang blame on Daniels, I don’t think it’s fair to say that Daniels caused trending or elimination of the inventory tax. I’m pretty sure these things were in the works before the 2005 session. Seems like his primary contribution to the property tax problem, besides not addressing it when he had the chance, was his role in balancing the State’s budget on the backs of local government and limiting the property tax replacement credit and homestead credit which are two state budget items that have been keeping property taxes in check for a lot of years.
T says
Buzzcut–
On what level are Democrats, as a rule, corrupt AND incompetent? Would you, for example, consider the Clinton administration more corrupt and incompetent than the Bush administration?
Buzzcut says
Doug, good analysis. You are right, how he balanced the budget and the games with the homestead credits are a good part of the percentage increases in property taxes.
Any way you slice it, he bears a good amount of responsibility for the property tax crisis.
7, I think the Clinton administration was quite corrupt with regards to how it illegally raised campaign contributions, for example.
Clinton was certainly more competant than Bush, there’s no denying that. But he was governing in easier times.
Doug says
I would suggest that the times were easier in large part *because* of his competence.
Rev. AJB says
Buzzcut-
Living by Illinois, I can tell you that every politician in that state seems to be corrupt. It is just a matter of time before they find something on Rod B.
T says
The possible campaign contribution issues would have been one of the most minor of Bush indescretions, had he done it. Familiarize yourself with Karl Rove’s use of the General Services Administation to give seminars in government buildings on government time for political/re-election purposes and get back with us. It was more pervasive and more illegal than whether Gore used one phone or the other. And relating to that, maybe review how a significant amount of government business was conducted with GOP email accounts in direct violation of Federal law. What minor indescretions were alleged to have been done by the Clintonistas, the Bushes took as suggestions or starting points for their corrupt behavior.
Doug says
It’s all about the narrative. Slick Willy was a cunning trickster. So, getting creative with finances fits right into the storyline and gets disseminated accordingly.
Bush is a (perhaps unsophisticated) businessman who listens to good advisers. So, the idea of him being incompetent and uninformed fits right in, but a lot of the evidence that he was acting with any kind of bad intent sort of gets filtered out naturally.
Buzzcut says
Uh, Doug, there was this little thing called 9/11. Arguably, Clinton could have done “something” about it. The fact that he didn’t lends some credance to the charge of incompetance.
And 9/11 and its aftermath are of a scale that Clinton simply never had to deal with.
But I do get your point. Iraq was a war of choice, and the aftermath can hardly be called “competant”.
Buzzcut says
With regards to Illinois, there are a lot of corrupt politicians, no doubt. But I submit that DuPage County, which is Republican through and through, and which almost every Republican for higher office comes from (Ryan excepted) is NOT corrupt. It is a very well run place. The kind of place where, when revenues come in lower than expected, cuts government spending before trying to raise taxes.
Doug says
9/11 was in 2001. Eight months after Bush took office. To the extent we’re going to blame Presidents for that event, Bush deserves more of it than Clinton. I seem to recall that Bush’s budget proposals de-emphasized terrorism compared to the Clinton years. My recollection is that the Bush administration wanted to make missile shields more of a priority.
In any event, I believe that Bush’s reactions to the 9/11 attacks have hurt the country more in the long run than the direct damage of 9/11 ever did.
Rev. AJB says
Bush did a good job following 9/11 (as good of a job as anyone could have done following such an event) UNTIL he made the decision to invade Iraq. Ever since then, our credibility as a nation has tanked.
Buzzcut says
Doug, my point with Clinton was that the Cole was attacked, ourr embassy was attacked, he had the opportunity to get Ossama (I believe that the Sudan so much as offered him to us), and he did nothing.
Except bomb an asprin factory. During his impeachment.
I pretty much agree with Rev. AJB regarding Bush.
T says
Buzzcut has read all the great Clinton myths, like the old saw about Clinton refusing a handover of Osama.
Al Qaeda was confirmed to have been responsible for the Cole bombing after Clinton left office. It was BUSH who did nothing about that fact. Let’s hear some criticism of that.
When the towers were bombed in ’93, I believe that was about three weeks after Clinton took office. That bombing must have been Bush senior’s fault, right? I don’t agree with that. But Buzzcut must believe that. It’s always the predecessor’s fault, right?
I’m not sure I’ll ever understand the “aspirin factory” criticism. It’s infantile. Did you want him to do something, or not? I thought your crowd was the shoot first, ask questions later bunch. If the aspirin factory deal riles you, you must have been against the Iraq War from day one, right? Plus, you forgot when Clinton had Bin Laden’s camp bombed and missed him by fifteen minutes. That is more than Bush ever did pre-9/11. Clinton at least tried. Bush was golfing, cutting hedges, and having Ashcroft chase down prostitutes.
Bush’s response to “Bin Laden Determined to Strike in U.S.”? Continue vacation.
T says
And by what measure did he do a good job on 9/11? By sitting there having a book read to him for several minutes? Some of our nation’s most stupid moments were when people attempted to defend him by claiming he didn’t want to scare the children. Hello–there were people on fire jumping a thousand feet to their deaths, and hijacked planes still in the air…SCARE THE CHILDREN! Frighten the living shit out of them if you have to. Or better yet, say, “Excuse me, I have to step out for a few minutes”, and walk out. Either way will do. Sitting on your ass while New York and Washington are under attack won’t.
Mr. Commander-In-Chief-not-shy-about-alluding- to-his-days-as-a-fighter-jock-and-loving-the-flight-suits also seems to have forgotten that he needed to give an order to shoot down civilian aircraft. Five-deferment Cheney didn’t have much of a clue how to get that done, either.
I’m not saying anyone else would have done better or worse (though I suspect Gore would have probably busted out some kind of checklist to deal with it–after all, his commission recommended re-enforcing cockpit doors pre-9/11). But the fact is, the administration’s performance on 9/11 was extremely poor, not good. It was abysmal. Deadly bad. Pretending otherwise is silly. And standing on a pile of rubble with a bullhorn is the easy part, which is probably why he nailed it. Catching Bin Laden when you have him trapped at Tora Bora, apparently that’s a bit harder.
Buzzcut says
Sorry guys. I hijacked the comments (pun intended) with the Clinton remarks. I’m going to drop all references to Clinton, Bush, 9/11, Ossamma, etc. We shouldn’t go there.
What was the original topic? Oh yeah, Mitch and the CRAPPY job he’s doing.
Doug, I found the post where you wrote about HB 1478. You linked to a great post by some professor explaining how property taxes got so high.
Why doesn’t Mitch just go back and address each and every item in that guys post? Trending, inventory tax, etc. Why does he propose a bait and switch, as it is, with the sales tax for property tax relief plan?
Pila says
I must be flame-proof. ;-)
j says
Why do those in government have no consequence to poor job performance, as we in the real
world? Would it not be a simple solution, to tie salaries, budgets, all government spending,
to a easily generated average, as per the DOW or NASDAQ, this average generated by easily
obtained census and tax data?
Have city, state, and federal averages, with the geographic region of each governing body
as the area each covers. This average, adjusted anually, is the averaged incomes of the
broad spectrum of all jobs,business,and industries, averaged per job per region,all added
together to come up with one number.
Each year, those in government are then forced to live with the consequences of their
actions,i.e., as those they govern prosper, or as now, fail,those in charge feel it at the
same rate as those they govern. As a particular area of business has a downturn, more focus
then placed immediately on that segment, as it costs them money….Tax rates then in tune
immediately to what we are living. Too simple? We need simple…..Fight the good fight,
there are not many speaking for us…
Jason says
I’m with you on the salary thing, j. However, I have thought about it and I can’t figure out a way to do it that would prevent them from “gaming” the system. For example, if you base it off the DOW or NASDAQ, then their motive will be to make stock prices high. That doesn’t necessarily equate to prosperity for the average person.
I’d be in favor of it if we could work out a way, but can we get the press on board? They decide things like this….