A Citizen's Guide to Indiana

Masson's Blog

Tully: I’ve Never Understood

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Matt Tully professes an inability to understand the controversy over leasing the Toll Road. But, he drove the toll road from Ohio to Illinois on a Monday from 8:30 a.m. to about 2:30 p.m. and the traffic moved pretty well. Go figure.

Anyway, the controversy is this: a) the people of Indiana paid to build the thing and are turning it over to a private contractor to make a profit – the profit is going to come, not from efficiencies of the market place, but from political insulation enabling an ability to raise tolls and cut services; b) motorists of northern Indiana will effectively be disproportionately paying for road projects in other parts of the state; and c) the excessive 75 year duration of the arrangement unduly ties the hands of future generations. That Tully has “never understood” this controversy might have something to do with his living in Central Indiana. However, even if one believes the benefit from leasing the toll road outweighs these factors, the controversy itself isn’t that tough to understand.

Froth

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The Fort Wayne Journal Gazette’s Political Notebook makes it sound as if the state Republicans measure success by activity rather than by results.

Senator David Long at the GOP convention:

“The only way we are going to be tripped up is if we put another do-nothing, excuse-making politician back in the governor’s office.”

Naturally, Democratic gubernatorial candidate Jill Long Thompson responded the next day to Daniels’ remarks, including his statement that the “next constructive idea they propose for Indiana’s future will be the first one.”

Long Thompson pointed out that Indiana has not improved in key areas that Daniels talked about four years ago in his convention speech.

“It is only fair to look at those same benchmarks to judge the effectiveness of his administration. The results are not good,” Long Thompson said. “We are still hemorrhaging jobs. Hoosiers still make less than workers in other states, and personal income has actually dropped since Governor Daniels took office.

“Indiana is still among the leading states in personal bankruptcies and home foreclosures. Nearly one-third of our high school students still don’t graduate.”

No question that Gov. Daniels “does stuff.” He put us on Daylight Saving Time, for example (while reversing course and ducking as much as possible on the inextricably linked time zone issue). Has that lead to the economic boon we were promised? He sold off the toll road for another 73 years. We’re still enjoying the short term benefits from that (presumably benefits that will include a flurry of Gov. Daniels cutting ribbons through the campaign season); will those benefits outweigh the 70+ years of tolls paid to the company that now owns our road?

Fundamentally, we have to answer Reagan’s question, “are we better off now than we were four years ago?” If all we want is an “agent of change” without respect to the quality of the proposals, I go back to my proposal of a year ago that we elect Harper Lee Masson, agent of change:

Harper 2008

As I mentioned then, like Gov. Daniels, she is a significant agent of change. She is “bold.” She has little patience for negotiation and the bothersome niceties of rules and the opinions of others. She has a take charge personality. But is she a visionary leader to whom we should entrust the reins of government? Probably not, she’s two.