It seems like every morning brings a new ranking in which Indiana is bringing up the tail end. On Saturday, I mentioned the survey showing Indiana being 5th to last in national well-being, including 48th place in the subcategory of healthy behaviors, ahead of only Mississippi and Kentucky.
Now I see that Indiana ranks 2nd to last in its budget process in terms of the processes’ compatibility with balancing the budget. Reading the description on this one gave me the impression that the survey was somewhat arbitrary. Indiana got knocked around for not having a constitutional balanced budget requirement — and I don’t think it got points for its somewhat unique provision limiting the state’s ability to take on debt. The state also loses ground because the governor doesn’t have a line-item veto.
This morning comes the news that Indiana ranks next-to-last in online records.
Indiana tied with Montana, Oregon and Wyoming for the second-worst ranking in a 50-state survey of government information accessible online, conducted as part of the annual Sunshine Week campaign. The state with the sparsest information online was Mississippi.
The survey found that although official records are increasingly available on the Internet, some important information is missing.
Might I add, “God bless, Mississippi?” They keep saving us from last place. (Although according to the Tax Foundation, Mississippi ranks 19th in “business tax climate” (pdf) — so they have that going for them.)
Miss. finished last which means Ind. was actually tied for 47th. I only say that because I’m always interested in the way things are written. Is 47th really 2nd to last?
BTW, I am in no way defending Ind. in this debacle.
Let us not forget about every survey one ever sees is put forth in favor of a position that may or may not address issues the way another person/group might address them. Self interest is an amazing thing therefore one does not need to bend to other opinions if feel confortable where you are. If one is a liberal then any conservative poll will rate you poorly and vice versa—and any poll by the media will favor having someone else do their work by providing more information than anyone can logically afford to provide as updated as a minute ago.