The Associated Press is reporting:
Senate President Pro Tem David Long says Senate Republicans plan to present 10 bills with various aspects of the plan on an organization day in late November. He then wants committee hearings and votes to be held on the bills before the session begins in earnest on January 8th.
If they’re endorsed by the Republican-led Senate committees before then, they would be eligible for floor action on that day. Long wants Democrats who control the House to take similar action.
What the hell? Why? Why muck around with cutesy procedural nonsense? Let’s consider this thing head-on. Put it all in one bill, vet it through the committee process, and then vote it up or down. This seems too important to railroad through prior to the session or mess it up by having popular pieces of the plan approved while less popular (yet vital) pieces are shot down.
Maybe there is a legitimate reason for Long’s unorthodox proposal, but I don’t see it at the moment.
(h/t Taking Down Words.)
I figure it’s election year posturing, knowing the only power Bauer has over the deal is to drag it out over the entire session. They’re going to put the ball in his court early to force him to do something, so if the deal falls apart, they’re hoping The Rug gets the blame.
From the Indy Star:
Ladies & gentlemen, your House majority leader.
I’d give Bauer his due for having more respect for the roles of the legislature and the governor than Daniels and Long are showing. Many aspects of the property tax problem have been brewing for years, compounded by the Republican sponsored repeal of the inventory tax and pushing spending (without the money) down to the county level. More recently fallout from subprime mortgage defaults and the very high rate of residential foreclosures occurring in this State is being reflected in falling property tax yields, high rates of tax sales and falling residential real estate values in many counties. Some of the Governor’s actions have compounded the problem, appear calculated to divert attention as to the cause of the problem away from himself and, finally, to present himself as the man who will save us if only we close our eyes and trust him.
Watching Daniels straddle the property tax issue is a little like watching a one man House Harkonnen trying to enlist the county commissioners to play the “Beast” Rabban.
I was going to compliment the substantive quality of that comment, Paul, but then you simply dazzled me by busting out with a gratuitous Dune reference. Bravo sir, bravo!
And, in that vein, perhaps Gov. Daniels, like his former master G.W. Bush, counts on fear being the mind killer. You know, the “little death” that brings total obliteration.
“I must drink beer.
Beer is the mind-killer.
Beer is the little death that brings total obliteration.
I will face my beer.
I will permit it to pass over me and through me and when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path.
When the beer has gone there will be nothing.
Only I will remain.”
I think Joe nailed it, and I think Bauer’s best quality has been his refusal to be railroaded in such situations, even if one would wish for a better explanation and a more convincing wig on occasion.
The calm and clear-eyed observer, in addition to feelings of loneliness, has understood all along that the issue was easy to demagogue but tougher to settle–aside from a simple reinstatement of the inventory tax, perhaps–and that the official “relief” would be aimed at putting corks in all the landed loudmouths and keeping them in place through November. Ten bills, one-hundred times the confusion. It’d be nice if all the outraged burghers and giant-tea-bag dippers could have shut up long enough to figure out that the real problem was their own failure to pay attention the first time.
While I’m at it, special thanks to Channel 8 last night for displaying what sort of savings the 1% cap would offer the typical Hoosier who owns a typical quarter-million-dollar hovel in Meridian-Kessler. No nice graphic showing how much of the $500 savings would disappear to the 1% sales tax increase, unfortunately.
Maybe Bauer just needs until late March to come up with his plan. Of course, until then he’ll just yell “No!” a lot. That’s how he rolls.
Would businesses rather have an inventory tax or the proposed property tax?