Archive for November 29th, 2007

On November 7th Rep. Mike Pence introduced legislation into the House that would deny federal Title X funds to abortion providers such as Planned Parenthood. Earlier this year it was Pence who led what has been called one of the biggest pro-life battles of this Congress when he introduced an amendment to an appropriations bill stripping Title X funds from Planned Parenthood.

The amendment was ultimately defeated but it provided a very definite and clear choice for newly elected and newly returning Democrats to prove that they were indeed pro-life. Of Indiana’s three “new” Democratic congressmen, two voted for the Pence amendment and one voted against. That one “no” vote came from Rep. Baron Hill (D), who has stated that he is pro-life and pro-choice and that he doesn’t support overturning Roe v. Wade. How he reached that conclusion is rather interesting and perhaps it can be best explained by assuming that Rep. Hill is a very political individual who follows this reasoning:

Elected Official speaking to Constituents: “Some of my friends are for this bill, some of my friends are against this bill. I stand by my friends.”

But to get back to the Pence bill, the measure will insure that no family planning agency that provides abortions will receive federal tax dollars through the Title X funding mechanism. Already there is a ban in place preventing family planning groups from using tax dollars to perform abortions, however, federal funds can be used for such things as office expenses and other overhead.

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Sir Hailstone of the The Digital Farmers blog is pointing out now that former Indianapolis City-County Council Candidate Bruce Henry, whose name this week has started being thrown around as a potential congressional candidate in the 7th District, is now being pressed to respond to the growing rumors.

Heard from several folks about the rumored potential candidacy of a black Republican candidate for the 7th Congressional District. So is he or isn’t he?

At a recent township GOP club meeting, after reviewing the canvass and revealing that Bruce Henry lost a few key precincts by the narrowest of margins, leading to his loss. As Mr. Henry recently required what would turn into a poorly timed foot operation, he could not walk neighborhoods as most Council candidates. Whether this led to his loss we will never know.

Others tried to pin down Bruce as to his future plans - “Go back to work at IMPD”. “Will you run for Council again?” - “Maybe”. “How about other offices?” - “You never know”.

One finally asked Bruce point blank “So what’s this you’re running for Congress?” - “I have no idea where that came from” as he said with a smile.

Hoosier Access and RepublicansRadio.com are teaming up together a second time for a radio feed this Saturday, December 1st at the South Bend Chocolate Company in Indianapolis on the Circle. We will be recording from 12-2pm (please note time change below). With the recent developments of what’s going in the 7th Congressional as well prep for the upcoming General Assembly, we certainly have plenty to talk about.

This is an open invitation to candidates who are running for office as well as to the bloggers out there and anyone else who wants to be a part of the discussion.

If you want to send in a question, you can either leave it in this post or email me at contact@hoosieraccess.com. The feed will be heard on Republicansradio.com. Check it out!

Update - Due to scheduling conflicts, we are moving the time to start to 4:30pm and going to 6:30pm.

Update #2 - On Saturday we will have a special segment featuring Ryan McCann of Veritas Rex and Bil Browning of the Bilerico Project participating in a Point/Counter-Point discussion on the issues facing the upcoming General Assembly as well as talking about the bet that they made. I’m looking forward to this one. It’s going to be fun!

Nice.

It turns out that Keith Kerr, retired Colonel., U.S. Army; retired Brigadier General, California National Reserve, who submitted a YouTube question about gays in the military, is actually a member of Hillary Clinton’s Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transexual Americans For Hillary Steering Committee. He’s also part of a film production crew trying overturn the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy.

UPDATE: In the final seconds of the post-debate coverage, Anderson Cooper acknowledges that CNN messed this up and states that CNN did not know that Kerr has a position within the Clinton campaign and that had they known, they would have disclosed the association.

Open thread.

Did you watch the debate?

Who do you think won?

Who do you like or dislike?

Jim Shella reports that Democrats are looking to fill approximately a hundred empty precinct committee positions in Marion County.

Those positions would be able to vote in a caucus to select a Democrat to go on the special election ballot should Julia Carson pass away.

If I had to place odds on who they are putting into those precinct committee positions, I would guess the selections will make the coming caucus… shall we say… less competitive than it might otherwise be.

And with Marion County Democrats skirmishing as a part of a deepening civil war, a rigged caucus (or a caucus seen by the losers as rigged) can only make things worse.

Republicans, interestingly, have a similar number of vacancies.

I am sure that Tom John has his own favorite candidate to put up for the 7th District, too.
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The teachers unions dislike the Governor’s property tax reform plan?

I am shocked. Shocked, I say.

From the Courier-Journal:

INDIANAPOLIS — The state teachers’ union urged lawmakers yesterday not to shift funding for school operating costs from property taxes, saying that revenue is stable and protects education during economic downturns.

Leaders of the Indiana State Teachers Association said a tax plan offered by Gov. Mitch Daniels and introduced in the General Assembly could jeopardize school programs.

“We believe real property-tax relief can occur and, at the same time, adequate funding for public schools can be maintained,” said the association’s president, Nate Schnellenberger.

The governor’s plan eliminates property-tax levies that are dedicated to the school general fund and school transportation fund and moves those costs into the state budget to help reduce property-tax bills. The plan does the same with child-welfare costs.

The state would increase the sales tax by a percentage point — to 7 percent from 6 percent — to help pay those costs.

Already, the state pays for 85 percent of school operating costs, with the remaining 15 percent paid by real estate owners through property taxes. Daniels’ plan would eliminate that remainder.

So, um, why weren’t they complaining about this when that 85% slipped away from them?

Why is that remaining 15% so important?

Association leaders said that because the sales and income taxes that fund the state budget are more susceptible to recession, eliminating the share of school costs paid by property taxes could pose a problem. In tight times in the past, lawmakers have let schools generate more funds from property taxes to make up for shortfalls in state revenue.

Translation: In the past, the state has allowed property taxes to skyrocket during economic downturns, making those economic downturns worse.

He said the state could achieve similar savings for homeowners by taking over half the cost of school construction, which is currently paid entirely by property owners.

Translation: Please pay for new school construction. That’s more important than doing anything to fix property taxes or provide better education for children. Heck, pick up half of the cost of school construction, so that we can double what we are spending on school construction *cough* designer school architects like Jim Schellinger *cough* and you’ll kindly pick up the new portion of the tab.

Thanks, but no thanks. Indiana needs to spend more on teaching students, and less on constructing these fancy designer schools.
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