A Citizen's Guide to Indiana

Daniels spurns schools’ cash pleas:

Instead of asking for more money, schools need to be looking for ways to tighten their belts, Gov. Mitch Daniels said today.

“I think it’s really sad that folks come and demand more, more, more of the same, same, same,” he said.

His critical comments come a day after about 1,500 people packed the Statehouse, some chanting “No More Mitch”, to protest inadequate school funding proposals they say will lead to widespread teacher layoffs, bigger class sizes and program cuts.

I certainly respect fiscal austerity, but I kind of feel like we’re eating our seed corn here. I guess we’ll see if the Governor refuses to fund frivolous things like buying flags for class rooms and defending the lawsuits the Flags/Pledge/Prayer bill is inviting.

I’m having some internet DNS server issues, so I guess I’ll take it easy on the blogging this evening.

According to this article in the Indy Star, Congress is considering extending Daylight Saving Time by two months, with DST starting the first Sunday in March and not ending until the last Sunday in November.

Senate Bill 0570 Traffic light cameras. This bill would have started a pilot program that would have allowed citations to be issued on the basis of cameras snapping pictures of cars running red lights. It was defeated 18-76.

Senator Jackman’s Senate Bill 0527 Deer Meat. (The bill uses the term “cervidae” instead of deer — presumably for purposes related to clarity — or to serve the needs of Hoosiers by encompassing the pressing issues of reindeer and caribou meat in Indiana.) Allows deer meat to be sold to the general public. Passed 80-13.

House Bill 1611 passed 47-2. Requires direct deposit by electronic funds transfer of all payments to a person who has a contract with the state or submits invoices for payment from the state unless the Auditor of State grants a waiver.

House Bill 1063 Eminent Domain for Commercial Purposes. Failed by a vote of 24-25. It would have prohibited transfer of property acquired by a political subdivision to another person for commercial use unless the transfer would create jobs and the property was in a blighted area.

The Indy Star has an article entitled Garton says House version of time bill won’t fly. The problem is that federal law prohibits county-by-county observation of DST. The Governor’s office went to federal attorneys to get this legal opinion, but, I feel obliged to mention that the Governor’s office could have saved the time and expense of seeking a federal legal opinion by simply reading the January 9 installment of Masson’s Blog. The Indianapolis Star article points out a discrepancy between what appears to be current law and the practice of the 5 eastern counties around Lousiville and Cincinnati observing DST when the rest of Indiana’s eastern time zone counties do not. The Star’s article describes the issue as follows:

“It is a state decision that cannot be delegated to a county or county executive,” wrote Neil R. Eisner, assistant general counsel for the Transportation Department.

Most of Indiana is in the Eastern time zone and does not switch clocks in April and October, the way 47 other states do.

The letter, however, seems to contradict what goes on in five counties in southeastern Indiana. Those counties near Cincinnati and Louisville, Ky., are in the Eastern time zone, like 77 other Indiana counties, but they switch their clocks even though they aren’t legally on daylight-saving time. The federal government has never taken any action against those areas.

Again, reading Masson’s blog on January 9 could have saved everybody a lot of time and effort. Initially, I, like the Star, thought the question of the eastern DST counties was intractable:

It could be a failure of mine, but under 15 USC 260, IC 1-1-8.1, and 47 CFR 71.5(b), I cannot see any authority to allow [Ohio], Clark, Dearborn, Floyd, and Harrison counties to follow eastern daylight time. If I’m right, those counties could be in violation of federal law.

But, later that day, I posted what I believe to be the answer to that question:

Looks like the enacting sections of Pub. L. 89-387 might act as a grandfather
clause. Couldn’t find the full text of that law online, but I found this:

“This Act (enacting this section and sections 260a, 266, and 267 of this title and amending sections 261 to 263 of this title) shall take effect on April 1, 1967; except that if any State . . . or any political subdivision thereof, observes daylight saving time in the year 1966, such time shall advance the standard time otherwise applicable in such place by one hour[.]”

So, if the eastern counties were observing Daylight Saving time in 1966, they might be grandfathered in even if the other eastern time zone Indiana counties didn’t observe DST.

Without having the full text of Pub.L. 89-387 and without knowing whether Ohio, Clark, Dearborn, Floyd, and Harrison counties observed DST in 1966. But, seems like if they did observe DST in 1966, they would have been grandfathered in.

Just goes to show how valuable reading Masson’s Blog ™ can be. Hehehe.

Update: Updated to include Ohio County as an Eastern Time Zone county that observes Daylight Saving Time. Thanks to Lane Siekman for the correction.

Senate Bill 0363 Judicial Salaries. Passed 76-16. (I don’t see a roll call available to see who was for and who was against.) Raises trial court judge salaries from $90,000 to $110,500; raises appellate court salaries from $110,000 to $129,800; and raises supreme court salaries from $115,000 to $133,600. Jacks up filing fees – $17 more for plenary docket cases and $12 more for small claims cases. I think that’s something like a 33% increase for small claims filing fees. (That’s just for this bill — I seem to recall some other filing fee increases in the pipe line.) The judicial salaries were overdue for an increase, but I think the entire community benefits from decently compensated judges; so it would seem appropriate for the whole community to pay for their salary increase.

Senate Bill 0217 Increases the speed limit from 65 to 70 on Interstate Highways. But that’s not all. It goes on to take a fairly elegant bit of legislation and turn it into a mishmash of speed limits.

Current law is: 1) Default of 55 mph; 2) 30 mph in an urban district; 3) 65 mph on an Interstate outside of a metropolitan area; 4) 60 mph for heavy trucks; and 5) 15 mph in an alley.

Proposed law is 1) Default of 55 mph; 2) 30 mph in an urban district; 3) 70 mph on an Interstate outside of an urban area; 4) 65 mph for heavy trucks; 5) 15 mph in an alley; 6) 65 mph for US 20 between C.R. 17 in Elkhart County and US 31 in St. Joseph County; 7) 65 mph for a road classified as an INDOT freeway; 8) 70 mph for light vehicles and buses on a highway that is the responsibility of the Indiana transportation finance authority; 9) 65 mph for heavy vehicles on a highway that is the responsibility of the Indiana transportation finance authority; and 10) 60 mph for a highway that is a) not an interstate, b) has 4 or more lanes, c) is divided by a barrier, and d) is outside a metropolitan area.