A Citizen's Guide to Indiana

Masson's Blog

HB 1266 – Notice for Provisional Ballots

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HB 1266 passed the House on a 51 – 47 vote. When a voter casts a provisional ballot, the voter would have to be informed orally and in writing with a form prescribed by the election commission the steps necessary to have the vote counted.

Within three days, the circuit court clerk (I’ll bet they’re thrilled about this) would have to mail the voter information about the following: (1) the reasons that the voter’s ballot is being treated as a provisional ballot; (2) what actions, if any, that the voter must take in order to have the voter’s ballot counted; (3) the deadline by which the voter must act to have the voter’s ballot counted; and (4) certain contact information that the provisional voter may use to find out about the provisional voter’s ballot.

Smoking Ban Would Reduce Gambling

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Lesley Stedman Weidenbeners’ article in the Courier Press noted testimony on behalf of the Argosy Casino in opposition to the proposed statewide smoking ban. They were among the businesses who said they would be hurt by a smoking ban. Possibly not the most sympathetic of causes. And, they weaken the property rights argument of the other businesses. If other businesses were contesting a gambling ban, as opposed to a smoking ban, in their own establishments, you’d figure Argosy, beneficiary of a partial monopoly on gambling, would be in favor of government restrictions on what takes place on other people’s property. And, of course, some legislators probably figure that reducing gambling through a smoking ban is a little extra added bonus.

It causes a drop in business,” said Richard Klemp, vice president of government relations for Penn National Gaming, which owns Argosy Casino in Lawrenceburg. He estimated that 50 percent of the riverboat’s customers are smokers.

50%? That’s remarkable. What is the rate of smoking among the population as a whole? Would more non-smokers be attracted to the casinos if there was a smoking ban? Is there some underlying characteristic that makes people prone to smoking also prone to gambling?

On the other side of the equation:

Bruce Hetrick of Indianapolis told lawmakers that he lost his 49-year-old wife to cancer that doctors said was caused by secondhand smoke she inhaled in part while working in a newsroom where editors smoked. Hetrick said he promised her he’d continue the fight for a smoking ban.

“You don’t kill businesses by making them smoke-free,” Hetrick said. “You kill workers by making them inhale smoke.”

Voluntary Local Government Restructuring

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Deanna Martin, writing for the Associated Press, reports that Senator Long is indicating that the Governor’s local government restructuring plan would probably have to be voluntary to pass the Senate. Among other things, the restructuring plan calls for a unitary executive to replace the 3-person board of commissioners and calls for the county council to pick up a lot of the legislative duties currently performed by the board of commissioners.

Seems to me that the further one gets away from the capitol, the more important local government control becomes to people. As this debate progresses, I want people to pay attention to something — and I’ll pay attention myself. Let’s see how many people stomping up and down about how necessary and good mandatory local government restructuring is come from Indianapolis, and let’s see how many are from other places.

Indianapolis/Marion County already has county government a lot like that proposed under the restructuring and, perhaps just as importantly, state government sits in Indianapolis. So, when the State adopts legislation, it feels a lot less like mandates coming from a foreign power.

So, I want to see how many voices in favor of mandatory restructuring are coming from places not dominated by big cities, with functioning and influential boards of commissioners, and mostly out of the shadow of the Capitol City. My bias is that the Tippecanoe County Board of Commissioners has, in my opinion, been an excellent governing body since I moved out of Indianapolis to the Lafayette area. In that time, I recall one commissioner with whom I did not usually agree, but the other two balanced her out. I can’t imagine if that commissioner — or say a county level Blagojevich — took control of the unitary executive. For that matter, is the streamlined non-leadership of Mayor Ballard or the dysfunctional legislative body that is the City-County Council really being held up as a model of government for the rest of the counties? A mandatory model?

Let’s just say I have reservations at this point. I’ll need some convincing on the point of why I should prefer a mandate from the General Assembly for that model of government to replace what I have currently in Tippecanoe County. And voices outside of Indianapolis will probably be more convincing than those within.