State Sen. Jim Merritt, chairman of the Senate Utilities and Technology Committee, wants the General Assembly to revisit the issue of “net metering”. Net Metering is an alternative energy installation – such as a windmill or solar cell array – that feeds the excess energy created by the installation back to the power grid for use by other electric customers. The electric meter would in essence “spin backwards” and if the alternative energy device generates more energy than the customer uses it would create a situation where the utility would pay the customer for the electricity generated.

Right now, net metering is only for homes and schools and has a limit of 10 kW per customer (kW or kWh? Electricity is billed in kWh)

From the IndyStar:

That rule allows some customers of investor-owned utilities to send excess electricity produced by wind turbines, solar panels and other renewable sources back into the electric grid and to be charged only for the net amount of power they actually use.

Why only investor owned utilities (ie Duke Energy, IPL, NIPSCO) and not REMC’s? That’s sticking it to rural Hoosiers if I’ve ever seen it. Farms can be a large contributor to alternate energy with windmills.
[Read More Below The Fold]

Indianapolis Star, January 25, 2009

To the Editor:

Regarding the January 20 editorial in the Indianapolis Star, I believe I have heard quite enough about “unity” in the wake of Barack Obama’s inauguration as President of the United States.

President Obama has a number of public policy goals that I and many other Americans disagree with, such as his support for abortion rights, his promise to increase taxes, and his support for “hate crime” legislation. It is foolish to expect these differences to be brushed aside in the name of “unity” or bipartisanship.

Obama’s political adversaries have both the right and the responsibility to point out where they believe his policies to be ineffective, counterproductive or destructive. That can and should that be done in a civil way, without personal attacks and unnecessarily inflammatory rhetoric, but it must be done.

Whether I like it or not, Obama is my President, and I wish him the best. But he does not get a holiday from criticism and commentary on his policies and/or the way he runs his administration. To suggest otherwise does a disservice to political discourse and sound public policy.

Scott Tibbs

I realize all too well that we live in a society today that falls for buzzwords and clever tag lines. Heck, in 16 years of “flacking”, I’m probably responsible for a few myself (just don’t ask me how successful they were). But even a jaded and well-worn political hack like myself was shocked that such an empty slogan as “Change We Can Believe In” had such a positive effect on the electorate this past November. I suppose I’m guilty of having way too much faith in voters then they have earned. In stark contrast, the Congressional race I just finished working on in Florida simply used the candidate’s last name with the word “Congress” underneath – and we won by 20%.

In regards to Chairman Obama (as I prefer to call him), how can a creation of the dirty and corrupt Chicago political machine portray himself as a reformer, especially without any actual work product reforming anything? I mean, piggybacking yourself onto Emil Jones’s reform bill in the Illinois State Senate does not a reformer make.

But, I do know a State Senator who actually cares about results and real reform, and he happens to be my good friend Mike Delph.

Something is going to get out of Washington to deal with the financial crisis, that is if Senate Democrats (and the President) have their way.  The Senate has already crafted legislation that includes the almighty conservative buzz words “tax cuts”.  But what the Senate Bailout plan is attached to and what it includes is not going to win over House conservatives at all.

Consider this; the Senate Wall Street Bailout plan is attached to the Democrats Energy Bill and happens to include some interesting pork projects and other oddities.  Chew on these for a bit:

• Sec. 308. Increase in limit on cover over of rum excise tax to Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands.
• Sec. 317. Seven-year cost recovery period for motorsports racing track facility
• Sec. 324. Extension of enhanced charitable deduction for contributions of book inventory.
• Extension and modification of duty suspension on wool products; wool research fund; wool duty refunds.
• Sec. 503. Exemption from excise tax for certain wooden arrows designed for use by children.
• Btw, those arrows?  Yeah, the wooden arrows must: “measure 5?16 of an inch or less in diameter,” and are “not suitable for use with a bow”

Follow all the interesting things that are added to this bill on Twitter at “Found in the Bill“.

Newsday.com reports that “College presidents from more than 100 schools” are calling for the national drinking age of 21 to be lowered to 18, arguing that lowering the drinking age would curb binge drinking. Indiana University is not part of the petition, although IU President Michael McRobbie “strongly believes people should be able to consume alcohol when they’re 18″, according to IU spokesman Larry MacIntyre. Herald-Times columnist Mike Leonard wrote a commentary on the topic that was published on Sunday.

(Read more after the leap)

——– Original Message ——–
Subject: Campaign finance reform in Indiana
Date: Wed, 06 Aug 2008 09:21:54 -0400
From: Scott Tibbs <tibbs1973@yahoo.com>
To: H61@IN.gov

Representative Pierce,

I read with concern in the Indianapolis Star that public financing has been proposed in Indiana, with the possibility of strict limits of campaign contributions. I think this is a bad idea and encourage you not to support this.

The first and most obvious problem with contribution limits is that it is a disadvantage to minor parties such as the Libertarian and Green parties. Enough Indiana voters have voted for the Libertarian candidate for Secretary of State over the past few elections to give the Libertarian party an automatic spot on the Indiana ballot, and minor parties serve a valuable purpose by holding the primary two parties accountable and giving the parties a political incentive to stand by their principles.

(Read more after the leap)

Governor Daniels spoke to a the Indianapolis Rotary Club yesterday and announced his “Taxpayer Protection Agenda” which is a two-step proposal which is to further strengthen Indiana’s protection of taxpayers.

In short this is what he’s proposing:

First, the governor called for final legislative passage of a constitutional amendment to make permanent the caps on property taxes contained in the landmark tax cut bill approved during the 2008 session of the Indiana General Assembly.

The second proposal, the Automatic Taxpayer Refund, would ensure that any tax revenues beyond those needed to maintain a balanced budget and adequate rainy day reserves be sent back to taxpayers in the form of a refund.

Audio of the Governor’s speech can be heard below.

Podcast: Play in new window

Published today in the WSJ

The Online Wall Street Journal describes meetings where retailer Wal-Mart tells managers that a Democrat president and increased Democrat majority in the US Senate could lead to “card check” being passed for workers’ “representation” by the mob labor unions. Presently companies can demand union votes held by secret ballot in an election. Under card check, mob union bosses can pressure employees with horse heads left in beds – by fitting non-complying employees with concrete shoes – through persuasion with a baseball bat to simply sign membership cards and once 50% of the employees in a company sign, the company is considered unionized.

“Unions consider the Employee Free Choice Act as vital to the survival of the labor movement, which currently represents 7.5% of private-sector workers, half the percentage it did 25 years ago. The Service Employees International Union said the legislation would enable it to organize a million workers a year, up from its current pace of 100,000 workers a year.”

Of course. When you can have employees simply fill out membership cards or, in the case of SEIU many of its targeted members either are minimally literate or cannot read English, have a organizer fill out the cards for the employee. Its just like the Democrats stuffing ballot boxes in Center Township (Marion County).

 ”The business-backed lobbying groups are running ads in states where a win by a Democratic Senate candidate would boost support for the legislation in the Senate, saying the loss of secret ballots exposes workers to bullying labor bosses. In one, they use an actor from the “Sopranos” TV series about mob life to hammer home their point.”

In states like Indiana with “closed shop” laws, employees could be forced to pay significant fees for little representation and contributions to political candidates the employee may not support, such as candidates that are anti-life and anti-freedom. Also, the employee can be without work with very little compensation if the union bosses call for a strike.

Which is why Indiana should step up and pass a Right To Work law. Nationally we must make sure laws like card check don’t pass. If you think jobs are hard to come by now, just wait until this passes and that’ll finish off what is left of US industry.

(I wanted to blog about this earlier, and just forgot with my vacation last week.)

My good friend, State Senator Jim Merritt has taken on a good fight.

Merritt said that he and State Rep Mike Murphy plan to introduce a bill that would amend the murder statute to include a fetus at any state of development.

“The expectation of a child is a remarkable feeling… to have that stolen from you is just tragic,” Merritt said.

Marion County Prosecutor Carl Brizzi has been calling for longer prison sentences for people convicted of harming a fetus during crimes against pregnant women since the arrest of a man who allegedly robbed a bank in Indianapolis and shot a bank teller. The man, Brian Kendrick, allegedly shot bank teller Katherin Shuffield, who was five months pregnant.

Kendrick has been charged with the shooting and faces four to 16 years if he is convicted.

Merritt and other supporters hope to change the feticide law during next year’s legislative session.

(Read more after the leap)

…you were thinking I was going to say “and all heck breaks loose” or “nothing really happens”.  Well, I guess one might think it’s a combination of both.

But the one thing that caught my eye wasn’t what happened in Indiana, but what happened in California.  As you probably have heard by now (and if you haven’t, where the heck have you been?!) the California Supreme Court struck down their voter approved state gay marriage ban.

Plenty of people have reason to be upset about this and for different reasons.  But I’m going to tell you why I am.

(Read more after the leap)

Anybody tired of hearing the mantra of “change” over and over without ever hearing what that change would be? For the last month we’ve heard the same empty message of change from presidential candidates and gubernatorial candidates, all of them Democrats, but have we ever asked ourselves what that change would be other than a different person in that particular office? So what is “change” exactly? Republican State Representative Jackie Walorski discusses in her recent blog post on Capitol Letters, what that represents.

It’s been fascinating to watch and listen to the Presidential candidates talk about “change”. Barack Obama is basing his entire campaign on “change”. I’m not sure if he’s talking about “change” for the sake of “change” or what, because he’s never really spelled out what exactly he would do to “change” anything in this country.

But, it’s equally interesting to read the editorials of several newspapers around Indiana. In Northern Indiana, the newspaper tone has been instructing it’s faithful readers to “embrace change” and to vote against Hoosier incumbents in November. Is that “change” for the sake of “change”? As a legislator, I’ve been involved in helping move Indiana forward in many areas. Indiana now leads the Midwest in job creation, we have our own “Big 3″ auto makers, employing thousands of Hoosiers. Our State has gone from bankrupt to having a cash balance on hand. We went from one of the worst child abuse States to one of the best in child protection. These “changes” weren’t easy.

Read the rest of Representative Walorski’s post here.