Archive for the ‘Legislation’ Category

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.

A couple of weeks ago, I urged our fellow Hoosier bloggers to call their congressman and ask them to sign onto and support the H.R. 5699, the Blogger Protection Act of 2008 which was introduced by Arizona Congressman Jeb Hensarling. Well it turns out only one of our congressmen did sign on and it was Congressman Mike Pence, though I know others discussed it. But it’s out there. It was assigned to the House Committee on Administration. Make sure to contact the members of the committee to push for a vote on this. If it doesn’t pass committee, it’s not going anywhere.

Read the text of H.R. 5699, the Blogger Protection Act of 2008 below the fold. There you will also find the members of the House Administration Committee. (more…)

Protect bloggers and blogging that is. Congressman Jeb Hensarling from Texas and Chairman of the Republican Study Committee (RSC) is seeking to protect bloggers from future unruly FEC regulations.

From the RSC Blog:

Two years ago, the Federal Election Commission (FEC) issued regulations that protected bloggers from being hampered by certain campaign finance laws. Under these regulations, bloggers cannot be considered to have made a contribution or expenditure on behalf of (or in opposition to) a candidate simply because they link to campaign websites or write about the positions of federal candidates. Additionally, blogs are treated as any other publication under the general media exemption from most campaign finance restrictions. Without such protections, bloggers could be subject to various limitations and reporting requirements under campaign finance law.

But these blogger protections are just regulatory—they are not in statute. As you may know, regulations can be changed without congressional action, and there’s no telling what a future FEC might decide to do. Furthermore, the FEC is currently defunct because of vacancies and a lack of quorum. Therefore, we shouldn’t put the freedom of bloggers in the regulatory hands of the FEC. Congress should protect them in law.

That’s why next week I’m introducing the Blogger Protection Act of 2008—to put the FEC’s regulatory protections of the freedom of bloggers into law.

I encourage all bloggers in Indiana whether you’re Republican, Democrat, or Independent, Conservative, Moderate or Liberal, to call your congressman and to ask them to sign onto or support Hensarling’s legislation.

Nathan commented in Scott’s “Winner” post earlier that no one is talking about losers in the property tax deal. Well the Star may ignore them, but the panel on Indiana Week in Review sure didn’t.

YouTube Direct 

(H/T - Frugal Hoosiers)

“Today is a great day for Indianapolis!”

-Indianapolis Mayor Greg Ballard

I briefly saw the Indy Mayor and his wife Winnie today while waiting for the start of Governor Daniels press conference after the official passage of the property tax legislation.  After I waived to them from across the hall, he came over, shook my hand and with a big smile shared with me those words.  He too was pretty elated with today’s victory for tax payers.

Baron always talks a good game.

The subject doesn’t matter; he can spin a yarn like few politicians in southern Indiana and soon have anyone thinking that he agrees with them, when he actually doesn’t and frequently has no intention of doing anything to carry through with what he just said.

The Congressional budget process is a perfect example of this.

Now, Baron talks a good game about the budget.

He likes to point to his budget votes as shining symbols of his centrist nature.

Even a cursory examination of the facts, however, shows this to be nothing but horse hockey.

(Read more after the leap) (more…)

Barring any crazy antics by Speaker Bauer (which can never be ruled out), we have a deal…a compromise if you will, on the property tax crisis. And it does include a constitutional amendment. Time to celebrate this compromise.

YouTube Direct 

I love that band!

Can anybody say, the end of the Short Session in the General Assembly? There are plenty of events on the schedule for Hoosier Access to cover, including a live blog of the closing hours of the General Assembly….that is if Pat Bauer doesn’t keep the Session from going into a Special Session as well as upcoming Hoosier Access Radio interviews with Lt. Governor Becky Skillman and 2nd CD candidate Luke Puckett. By the way, can anybody tell me why “The Hair” decided to not to bring the House into session all week when serious property tax reform needs to be passed? Does he want a special session to take place at tax payer expense? (Update - There’s been a compromise…Thank You!)

Anyway, the spotlight around here (being Indy) has been the 7th CD Special Election. With MC Juggernaut (aka Andre Carson) coming out victorious the battle for the Democrat primary has already begun in full force with David Orentlicher “officially” announcing yesterday, Woody Myers ready to run ads and Carolene Mays fundraising across the district. But this race has eight full weeks to percolate with fun stuff. My guess is, though, it won’t hardly take that long.

Let’s not forget that Indiana is actually going to mean something this year in presidential election. For starters, Barack Obama is gracing us with his empty message of “hope and change” (or maybe that was someone else’s message and he’s just “borrowing” it this year) this weekend. Oh to be a fly on the wall of his meetings with various super delegates. I can only imagine how many time disgraced former Democrat Governor and Hillary backing super-delagate of New York Elliot Spitzer will be brought up.

The thing is, the fun never stops around here, though we may pause to get some work done. Indiana’s most prominent conservative blog promises that! (Thanks TBB for the compliment!)

[This is a guest post from fellow Indiana Leadership Forum classmate and Director of Operations and Public Policy for the Indiana Family Institute, Ryan McCann. I asked him to write about the last week’s California’s Court of Appeals ruling on Homeschooling and how it could affect Indiana.]

Big Brother liberalism strikes in California…is Indiana next?

For years conservatives (including yours truly…here, here and here) have been sounding the alarm against the significant and growing problem of judicial activism. Liberalism infested and conquered most law schools many decades ago. However, until more recently the spawn of this corruption of the legal profession at least attempted to hide their ideological bias behind the tricky “penumbra” they keep magically finding in the Constitution.

However, in more recent history, marriage, property rights, religious liberty and now parental rights (to name only a few) have taken serious frontal assaults from a few black-robed tyrants. Most recently the California Court of Appeals ruled that parents have no legal right to home-school their children.

For those of you keeping score at home, the liberal ideology dominates much of American culture today including: the mainstream media (for example: CBS, ABC, NBC, CNN, the New York Times, most major newspapers…ring any bells?), the education system (Last time I checked the teachers unions were still a bastion of liberalism and they run much of the public school system. To make matters much worse, many colleges and universities have crusty Marxists from the 60’s entrenched in power), government bureaucracy (need I explain…really?), the courts, much of corporate America (Bill Gates, Tim Gil, etc.), even the church is threatened (only 50% of pastors have a biblical worldview according to George Barna).

Conservatives still have a fighting chance in some areas of public influence, but our last best hope is in the home. Conservatives don’t abort their babies and they teach their children the Truth. That is a threat to liberalism. Given this reality, is it any surprise that the home and parental rights are targeted? Will liberals be content with crushing parental rights in California? Were they content to declare sodomy a constitutional right in only one state? Were they happy to allow babies to be murdered within their mother’s wombs in only one state? Be vigilant Indiana.

“Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty.” - Thomas Jefferson

Hat tip - One News Now

Now that we’re in the final week of the General Assembly Session the stakes to find a solution to the property tax problem have increased.  For Hoosiers, the problem has always been the same: we’re watching our property tax bills go through the roof and we can’t afford that.  For Republicans at the Statehouse the problem has been finding a plan that provides immediate relief and leaves open the possibility of future, and more extensive reform, if revenues allow for it (here I am referring to the House GOP Caucus’ plan in January to try and eliminate residential property taxes, a goal that the Governor has said he supports for down the road).  For Democrats the plan has always been the same: help create the problem, then let the Republicans try to develop a solution, and then come back with your own “solution” when it’s too late. 

A few weeks ago we had the Democrats advocating a half-baked solution of indexing property tax caps to personal incomes.  Then in the past few days the Democrats unveiled a new plan (after the Republicans brought forward their compromise) that takes the Governor’s one percent cap on residential property and one percent sales tax increase and pretty much strips everything else away.  The referendums, gone; the cap on local spending, gone; the constitutional caps on property tax rates; gone.  The Democratic “plan” really amounts to a stripped down version of what Republicans have already brought forward.

Now the question is whether or not Speaker Bauer and his fellow caucus members will actually compromise on their “plan” and support the true compromise put forward by Republicans.  If the General Assembly fails to pass property tax reform before the end of the session at the end of this week, then Governor Daniels has raised the possibility of a special session.  I can’t imagine legislators, especially those facing primary races, enjoying being called back to finish the work they failed to do. 

Update: Brian Howey on Saturday posted a piece on property taxes that was not to friendly to Democrats.

[The Directors of Hoosier Access are pleased to have Lt. Governor Becky Skillman, who is giving us this exclusive, to give us her view on the current situation with the property legislation in the legislature.]

Property Tax Legislation Must Be Immediate and Permanent

By Lt. Gov. Becky Skillman

This week, Senate and House Republicans came together to outline their joint proposal for property tax reform, a plan that goes a long way towards providing Hoosier taxpayers immediate and permanent relief. Throughout the session, Governor Daniels has been accepting of modifications to his property tax proposal. He does, however, insist that the four basic pillars of the plan – immediate relief, permanent protection, assessment reform and local spending control – remain in place in the final version. The Republicans have maintained these must-haves.

The version of tax reform put forth by the two Republican caucuses reflects several concessions to Democrat members. The Governor has agreed to these compromises in order to provide the best solution possible to all Hoosiers. He has agreed to phase in the circuit breaker caps, raising the earned income tax credit, increasing the renters deduction, just to name a few. That said, the Governor and I expect the same cooperation from Democrats in both chambers.

As a former legislator myself, I am confident that all 150 legislators would prefer to pass a lasting and permanent property tax package now instead of going back year after year – as they have been doing – to tweak the law. While the Republican compromise plan is not anyone’s first choice, it is certainly better than status quo. And like the Governor has said, anyone who can’t agree on this plan is not ready to protect Hoosier homeowners.