Archive for August, 2007

Fellow HA Directors Greg Magnuson, Scott Fluhr and I had the unexpected pleasure of talking the ear off of John Gizzi of Human Events during the MRLC. Following presidential races since 1976, Gizzi has seen and written about more in politics than any of us will probably see in our lifetimes. I hope you enjoy this interview. I can tell you we did.

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It’s just after 5:00pm and the site is finally back up! I apologize if you tried to get your daily dose of Hoosier Access and couldn’t. I wish I could tell you what exactly happened and why (none of us know), but since the site has been down Virginia Senator John Warner has announced he’s retired, Idaho Senator Larry Craig may resign and Fred Thompson has announced that he’s going to announce that he’s going to announce that he’s intending to run for President (a little joke there. I’m personally a Fred Head though I do not speak for the rest of my fellow Directors). So in light of the fact that we’ve approached the Labor Day weekend and it’s after 5:00 (meaning anyone who wanted to check the site today during work hours is gone) consider this post an open thread!

By the way it’s been a few weeks since we’ve heard from her (shocking I know) but enjoy this Cindy Sheehan “campaign” ad.

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The Taking Down Words blog posted a skewed article regarding the status of the labor market in Indiana. Fortunately it does not take very much effort to figure out that the criticism leveled at Governor Daniels is without merit. The long and short of the accusation is:

Mitch Daniels took office in January of 2005. During his tenure in office, 22,687 Hoosiers workers have been laid off or terminated, according to Workforce figures.

So the accusation is that 22,687 have been laid off in about two and a half years. The insinuation is that the labor market is very bad and Mitch’s announcements of new plant openings are a ruse.

Just in case Jennifer Wagner hasn’t worked in the private sector, job layoffs are a part of business. Layoffs are necessary so that companies can have as many people hired when things are going well and not too many when things are not going well. Another factor is that companies go out of business. I have seen numbers between 10% and 20% of all businesses stop operating each year. In other words, it is natural that there will be a number of layoffs. What is important is whether or not new jobs are being generated to replace the ones that are being lost.

The real numbers below the fold.
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I’m sure that most of you, by now, have heard about or seen the story of John McGoff’s press conference late this morning down on Monument Circle. I have to give the guy credit for having the money to buy a bow for, what I’m guessing was a rented for borrowed Cadillac to try to make a statement about alleged wasteful spending done by Congressman Dan Burton, whom McGoff is challenging in next years primary for the 5th Congressional district. What McGoff keeps on forgetting is that as a former elected official, he has a record too. And it’s a record he’d rather not have the voters of the 5th District see or even know about. Unfortunately, the voters of the 5th District who live in Marion County have felt all too often the affects of the wasteful spending that came out of the Marion County Coroner’s office when John McGoff was there (1997-2004). Consider the facts:

• During McGoff’s time as Coroner, his budget more than doubled growing over 106% from the previous Coroner’s budget. And this was during a time when all the county wide officials in Marion County were in the supposed safe hands of Republicans. (Source: Marion County Budget Reports Years ended 1998-2004)
• Now I’m never one to support Mayor Bart Peterson. But at one time, his supposed fiscal conservatism tried to break out. Who fought him? John McGoff. McGoff fought a hiring freeze and budget proposals that supposed to be fiscally responsible (Source: Indianapolis Star from March 8, 2003) and in 2004 he threatened to shut down the coroners office if he did not get adequate funding. To top that all off, he was threatening that as property taxes in Marion County shot up nearly 40%!
• Also, McGoff wasn’t the only one shelling out taxpayer money for bonuses for employees. (Who else has been accused of that? That’s right, Mayor Bart Peterson!) While taxpayers were further pinching their already strapped wallets due to excessive property tax hikes, McGoff handed out over $16,000 in bonuses to county employees. (Source: Indianapolis Star December 22, 2003)

Forgive me if I find John McGoff’s rant against Congressman Burton a little hypocritical. What really irritates me is that he didn’t even go after number one on the list of taxpayer funded vehicles in the Indiana delegation. Who would that be? That would be one Congresswoman Julia Carson. The Indianapolis Star reports that ” Rep. Julia Carson, D-Indianapolis, reported the delegation’s most expensive lease, a Chrysler 300 costing $768 a month for the first three months of the year.” Yet McGoff said nothing about her.

To paraphrase Dr. McGoff “I’m sure the average Hoosier taxpayer struggling to pay their own bills will be comforted to know that they were paying for Dr. McGoff’s soaring budgets, the pricey bonuses he doled out and appreciate his attempt to shut down the Coroner’s Office.” McGoff is trying to run as the fiscal conservative in this election, yet Congressman Dan Burton is the one who has been recognized as a “Hero of the Taxpayer” earning an award for his fiscal conservatism from the Americans for Tax Reform for his work during the 108th Congress (2003-2004).

John McGoff a fiscal conservative? His record says otherwise.

We had the pleasure of sitting down with Republican Leader in the Indiana House (and contributor to Hoosier Access), Brian Bosma during the MRLC. We asked him about the property tax issue, the speculation of a Special Session, the agenda the Republicans will have going into next years short session as well as the possible return of the Marriage Amendment. Check out our conversation below.

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Hat Tip to Advance Indiana for its piece today on County Sheriffs’ cuts of unpaid tax collections. According to the piece, County Sheriffs get to pocket 10% of unpaid taxes they collect. Similarly, constables pocket 1% of the worth of the documents they serve.

This system is terribly antiquated and must be reformed. Public servants should not earn a commission for doing what is required of them by law. This may have been necessary in Indiana’s primarily agrarian past, but not in 2007. Given the property tax crisis, imagine the tax relief we would see if this pocketed cash was still in government coffers.

Which begs the question, how much did Frank Anderson pocket from unpaid taxes?

During the MRLC, Greg, Scott and I had the great opportunity to talk with Politico.com’s Jonathan Martin after the Romney and Thompson’s speeches. We talked to him about everything ranging from state to national politics (he knows quite a bit about what’s going on in Indiana). We were able to post the audio of that interview earlier this week, thanks to Chris Spangle (aka, Abdul in the Morning’s right hand man). But because I know HA readers craved it (you did, didn’t you?), here is the video from that same interview.

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Hat Tip: VarvBlog
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Gary says regarding his latest drawing:

“If we had just increased spending on education back then, we wouldn’t still be getting the same results today. Right? Huh? . . . You mean, we did spend more money on education? . . . Uh, perhaps all of us taxpayers should start wearing those shirts.”

My recent post noting the interesting coincidence between a former lobbying client for Baron Hill’s chief of staff on one hand, and a nice earmark going to that former client on the other, was recently reposted over at Frugal Hoosiers.

It sure got Mr. Hill’s defenders to come crawling out of their holes, posting–no doubt–entirely from house.gov and Seymour IP addresses.

Their spin on the entire thing was uniform and their faux outrage on full display.

What, after all, could possibly be wrong with Baron Hill getting an earmark for an emergency room?

What indeed?

Setting aside my objections to earmarks in general, it is not the earmark itself that is so questionable in the actions of Congressman Hill and Ryan Guthrie–his chief of staff–but rather the circumstances that surround it.

It is those circumstances that Hill’s defenders seek to obfuscate and avoid in their high-spin comments at Frugal Hoosiers.

More after the leap.

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During the MRLC, fellow HA Directors Scott Fluhr, Greg Magnuson and I were able to attend the panel discussion on immigration hosted by WIBC’s Greg Garrison with panelists Congressman Mike Pence and former Congressman Mike Sodrel. Afterward, I was fortunate to spend a few minutes with Congressman Pence to get his views on what went wrong for Republicans nationally in 2006, what could be done differently in 2008 and what the chances are for Republicans to take back the House in 2008. It was a fun conversation that touched on other topics as well. Take a look.

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In May of this year, the municipal primaries held in Wayne County got a taste of a new experiment in voting. Secretary of State Todd Rokita used satellite voting centers across the county as way to gauge its effectiveness and reliability in voting. The experiment went off without a hitch to the point that Tippecanoe County also requested to experiment with satellite voting centers.The theme seems to be catching on.

After the debacle of a primary put on by the newly elected Democrat Marion County Clerk Beth White, where precincts opened late and worse yet, some precincts didn’t even open disenfranchising voters, Marion County GOP Chairman Tom John, yesterday, called for the use of satellite voting centers in Indianapolis in time for the upcoming municipal elections in November in front of a precinct that failed to open during May’s primary. Since the “snafu” the Marion County Election Board has been scrambling to come up with solutions to future problems in time for the general elections. John apparently saw this as long on talk and short on action.

Today, he offered a solution that would set up eight satellite voting centers that would be open for twenty one days in advance of the election and in addition he would like to see close to 400 of Marion County’s 914 voting precincts eliminated to cut down on the need to train volunteers and find inspectors to work the polls, which is an arduous task for any county clerk. Just ask Doris Anne Sadler.

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I had the pleasure of getting to interview Congressman Dan Burton during the MRLC. We were able to talk about what it’s been like on the campaign trail for him this election cycle, his stance on immigration as well as other topics.

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(cross posted at Josh in the Box)