Sunday Morning Posts
My wife and I are about to enjoy a quiet Sunday morning together so here are a few things to ponder…
Statehouse Stuff
- House Speaker Pat Bauer says he may look at government reform involving township trustees when lawmakers come back in January. With the problems regarding FSSA and delivery of services, Bauer says there needs to be an appropriate back up system in place to deliver services to the poor. Bauer says that might involve some reform of the township trustee structure.
- Bauer also tells me he won’t block a vote on property tax caps, however he wants to make sure there are more reforms and safeguards for the taxpayers. One area the Speaker is looking at is assessments. He says caps won’t do taxpayers any good if there aren’t some limits on how much assessments can increase. Stay tuned.
- Interesting note, although Indiana lost $46 million in revenue, there was one bright spot. Gambling revenue was up five percent. I guess now we know what people do when they have no job.
- An in case you were wondering, lawmakers are back November 17 for Organization Day.
Smoking Ban
- If you’re a fan of the smoking ban, good luck in getting it on the agenda Monday. From what I hear there aren’t enough votes to get it on the agenda. And even if it were, there aren’t enough to pass it so it may die on the vine. There is some question as to if a measure is tabled at the Council level whether it would die if not brought back by the next meeting. From my understanding of Council rules I know motions that fail to pass the full body can come back, I’m not sure about ones that are tabled by the full body. I’ll do some checking on this one.
- Speaking of Smoke Free Indy. In their push for a smoking ban, they may be crossing the line by engaging in what looks like political activity instead of advocacy. Smoke Free Indy is funded by the Academy of Family Physicians, which gets money from the Marion County Health Department. Smoke Free Indy isn’t a not-for-profit or registered lobbying group. However it has used its Facebook page to attack Mayor Greg Ballard and it’s blog page to go after the Libertarian Party. Smoke Free Indy will say it’s just engaging in advocacy, but you know what they say, where’s smoke…
Final Word on Wishard
- Despite the fact the Wishard referendum passed with more than 80-percent voter approval, opponents are now starting to allege fraud. They say there is no way the referendum could have won by unanimous vote in precincts so they are speculating some kind of sinister ballot box stuffing. They’ve even taken their theory to Star hoping to get media attention. If they keep this up they’ll get attention, just probably not the kind they want, but the kind they’re used to getting.
