Indianapolis Star Editorial writer Rishawn Biddle was fired this afternoon for comments seen as racially charged that appeared in his blog Expresso. Sources inside the Star say Biddle’s job as a columnist was to bring the community together, but instead divided it when he criticized a number of Black Politicians in Marion County. Those comments […]

For those of who missed me this morning, I was over at the Indiana Tax Court listening to arguments involving one the recent lawsuits over property taxes. The main issue I was following was the 65-percent increase in the Marion County income tax. The plaintiffs argued the tax was passed illegally because then City-County Councilor […]

The 7th Circuit Court of Appeals has dismissed a lawsuit challenging prayers delivered in the Indiana General Assembly. The Court did not rule on the substance of the case, but instead procedural matters. It said the plaintiffs in the case did not have standing to sue because they could not point to a significant legislative […]

I’ve just finished reading Peterson Plan III, incumbent Mayor Bart Peterson’s plan for the next four years. Having followed the Mayor closely for the past year, there isn’t much new in it. Many of the themes he’s talked about: property taxes, neighborhood building and economic development are nothing new. The Mayor did hit a salient […]

Addition by Subtraction I saw 73 new police recruits get sworn in Monday. I always welcome new police officers but we aren’t adding any new officers, because they will replace the 70-75 officers who will retire at the end of the year. The department has managed to add more officers on the street by moving […]

There are a couple items to report to get the week started and both, in a sense, are related to each other. First, Mayor Bart Peterson’s campaign has been push-polling over the weekend. I’ve got a number of e-mails from voters who were annoyed at the calls. They say the pollsters talked about Greg Ballard’s […]

Like most of you, I’ve been dissecting the Indianapolis Star’s latest poll on the Mayor’s race. It shows incumbent Bart Peterson leading challenger Greg Ballard 43-39. Libertarian Fred Peterson polls at five percent. Some are criticizing the poll saying it under-represents African-American voters, so the Star did some adjustments based on 2004 voting patterns. With […]

I know a lot of you are getting burned out on the election. We spent a half hour this morning talking about Dunkin’ Donuts coming to town. Democracy isn’t easy, but I think I have an idea to keep voters more engaged. Allow only people who pay taxes to vote. No! I take that back. […]

The critics are already coming out of the woodwork to attack Governor Mitch Daniels’ property tax reform/reduction plan. The plan would reduce property taxes by 35 percent by 2009 by capping a home’s property taxes at one percent of its assessed value, raising the sales tax one percent, the state would assume the costs of […]

Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels tonight unveiled his plan to reduce Hoosiers’ property taxes by an average of 35-percent in 2008. In a live broadcast tonight Daniels said a one-percent cap on residential taxes and a one percent increase in the state sales tax would help provide Hoosiers with more than three billion dollars in tax […]