Whenever I get into discussions about low voter turnout and the solutions to the “problem”, I always fall back on the title of this blog post.

I recently sat on a panel with former Marion County Clerk Beth White and IUPUI Professor Sheila Kennedy for the Indy Chamber about voter participation and why it was so low.

(You can actually listen to that spirited discussion here).

During the discussion I decided to engage in what most people think is political heresy, I said I don’t think low voter participation is a bad thing, especially if people aren’t going to get informed about the candidates and the issues.

As I have stated before on numerous platforms, a bunch of people coming together to make an uninformed decision doesn’t make it a good decision, it makes it a stupid decision.  I prefer people stay away from the voting booth if they have no idea what they’re doing.

However, if we must have more voter engagement, I think there are a few things we can do.

First, we should strive for a more informed voter.  This is why I thought legislation this past session which would have compelled high school students to take a civics test prior to graduation was a good idea.

Secondly, and most importantly, I think getting rid of gerrymandering will make for more competitive races and bring out more voters.

And third, no offense to my friends in politics, I think a better crop of candidates overall is more likely to attract more voters,  If you can find people who are smart, charismatic and passionate, you are likely to get more people to show up at the polls.

But fundamentally, it’s the voter’s responsibility to take civic engagement seriously enough to not only show up, but know exactly what they’re showing up over.  Honest people of good intentions  can debate what that level of knowledge should be, but just walking in and marking a ballot and leaving with no clue as to what you are voting for or about is much worse than staying home and doing nothing.

And if you don’t believe me, take a look around you the next time you go to the polling place.

I’ve been preoccupied this week with Statehouse matters so I haven’t had the chance to really chime on the situation in Baltimore.  Allow me to correct that now with a shout out and “you go girl” to Toya Graham, the Baltimore mother who has been seen around the world smacking her idiot son upside the head and pulling him out of the protests.

Graham has been hailed in many corners for taking action and criticized by others.   Since I am in the cheering section, allow me to address the criticism.  Some critics have said that if Graham had been a better parent, her son would not have been out there.  Not really, I have four brothers and come from a responsible, middle class two-parent household, but I still had one brother who had a penchant for finding trouble and my parents usually had to go out and find him.

Secondly, Graham has been criticized for smacking her son, with child psychologists saying she should not have used violence to get her point across and she was sending the wrong message. I am sure they will remember that if those same experts ever find their child in the middle of a protest, dressed in a hoodie to conceal his identity as he goes down to start destroying other people’s personal property and put his own life and safety at risk.

Thirdly, Graham has been attacked for saying the reason she was upset and lashed out was that she did not want her son to be another Freddie Gray.  Well, seeing how several police officers have been charged with murder and manslaughter in Gray’s death, excuse me for not getting upset over that point.

So let’s recap shall we.  A mom who told her hard-headed son to stay away from a bad situation that could put his life in danger finds out he disobeyed so she goes and gets him, smacks him upside the head and embarrasses him on national TV.  Drive 700 miles west and go back about 30 years and that would have been my mother doing the exact same thing under those circumstances.

You go girl!

Just when Indiana lawmakers thought they were past the controversy regarding the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) a religious group plans to call on them to revisit the issue.

The Indiana Pastors Association says it will deliver a letter to the Governor and lawmakers on Monday telling them the RFRA “fix” is an “attack on the First Amendment and religious liberty.”

RFRA supporters say the law was necessary to protect religious freedom while opponents said it would allow for discrimination against the LGBT community.

Lawmakers changed the law to say it could not be used a defense in cases involving discrimination, including sexual orientation and gender identity.

In an e-mail to supporters, the Association said they wanted to deliver “a clear message to our elected representatives that those that voted for the FIX and those that had anything to do with its passage opened the door for the trampling of our liberties, betrayed us, exhibited a cowardly capitulation, and have opened the door for oppression. ”

Both the Speaker and Senate President Pro Tempore say repeal is not going to happen.  David Long went so far to say this week that the group’s comments that the fix hurts religious liberty were “probably one of the most ignorant statements I’ve heard in a long time.”

And to make life even more interesting is that these guys are so far off the reservation that the Indiana Family Institute has told them to take a hike.  IFI has removed the Pastors Alliance as one of their subsidiary organizations, because guess what, even IFI thinks doing a press conference and bringing this back up is the worst idea since Eve decided to take a bite out of the apple.

The news conference is scheduled for 1 p.m. on Monday.  Hilarity will ensue at 1:03 p.m.

Earlier this week, I got to play judge at an event called “Hoosier Idol”.  It’s an annual event at the Indiana Roof Ballroom hosted by the Mental Health Association of Indiana.

Along with WISH-TV’s Jim Shella and WTHR-TV’s Angela Buchman, we got to judge a number of “legislative acts” just like the judges on American Idol.

Yes, Indiana lawmakers have a lot of hidden talents, and some of those talents should stay hidden.   (Hey, that’s my job as a judge).  But a lot of them can really surprise you.

State Senator Mark Messer plays the trumpet and the cello.  State Senator Melanie Wright has quite the dance moves  (The name of her troupe was “Right to Work It”).  State Senators Pete Miller and Erin Houchin could probably take their singing voices on the road to Vegas and there’s something about State Representative Cindy Kirchofer yodeling and wearing a traditional Swiss outfit that makes me want to grab a cup of hot chocolate.

The goal of the evening is to raise money for mental health.  And afterwards most of us go out and enjoy each others company over cocktails and conversation.

Not only was the evening a blast and for a good cause, I also felt it was good for what I call the “Statehouse psyche”.    Let’s face it, if you think Indiana has taken it on the chin in the past few weeks, you should been at ground zero when all this was going on.  It was not a fun place.

However, when everyone was in a place where they could not only have a good time, kid each other in good humor and  do their part, both Republican and Democrat, for a good cause it really helped change the atmosphere and did wonders for our own mental health.

I was glad to be a part of it and look forward to next year’s event, however, I’ll take a pass on the Elvis impersonator.

As Indiana lawmakers begin their budget negotiations in earnest, I figured now would be a good time to do a public service and let you know where the House, Senate and Governor’s Office stand. Here is the bird’s eye view of the budget plans.  I have links at the bottom for more specific details.    Note, lawmakers will also have to find a few hundred million dollars to trim because of an anticipated revenue shortfall.

We spend a lot of time talking about stagnant wages here in Indiana.   And while this may sound cruel, the individuals most responsible for this are the ones with either no skill set or they let they let skill set fall by the wayside.

Allow me to explain.  According to the most recent state revenue forecast Indiana is expected to fall short of about $156 million over the next few years in income tax collections, much of that is attributed to “wage growth uncertainty” despite gains in employment.  In English that means the jobs are being created, however the wages aren’t necessarily rising as a whole.

Instinctively, that would lead you to believe that while jobs are being created, they aren’t the “good paying jobs” that people need to make a living.  That’s not entirely true, in fact, the opposite tends to be true.  The “good paying jobs” are being created, the problem is finding the people to fill them.

Allow me to explain, over the last couple years, Indiana has gained about 100,000 jobs.  More than half of them pay above the average weekly wage of $813  (that’s a little more than $42,000 annually). Now get this, the largest growth sector has been in manufacturing, which pays on average $1,095 a week, nearly $57,000 annually.  That’s not a bad bit of change.  Throw in your spouse who works and you can have a comfortable lifestyle because Indiana is not that expensive a place to live. CNBC rated the state as the sixth cheapest in the nation.

Now let’s compare that to some other numbers, while Indiana has a high school completion rate of nearly 90 percent only 35 percent of Hoosiers between 25 and 64 had at least an associate’s degree.  That’s a pretty big drop off.  And even when we get people enrolled in higher education, there is still a completion issue.  Only 30 percent finish within four years and  50 percent finish within six years.

You see where this is going.  The facts are pretty clear, the more education and training you have, the more likely your income will rise.  Now this is where someone will some point out a very successful person who did not have any post-secondary education.  However I think we can all agree that for every exception, there are millions of people who are the rule.  And I can assure the ones who did well without a formal education aren’t hiring high school dropouts to manage their finances.

The state is doing its part to expand career readiness.  Whether it is reworking school curriculum to make students more college and career ready, programs through Ivy Tech (full disclosure, I teach there) or the free training programs through the Department of Workforce Development there are numerous opportunities for individuals to improve their lot in this world.  Unfortunately, not enough people are taking advantage of it.  If they were, maybe there wouldn’t be more than one million Hoosiers on some form of government assistance.

by Greg Ballard

It is often said that justice delayed is justice denied. The same could prove true about the Marion County Justice Complex project, which is now in the hands of the City-County Council.

During my administration, we have established a tremendous track record of working with the Council to tackle big projects that have been kicked down the road for 20 or 30 years. In doing so, we have stripped undue political influence out of the most basic city services, and we have protected taxpayers for decades to come.

Our water and wastewater systems were highly politicized and broken. We took on the challenge, first by renegotiating the city’s existing EPA Consent Decree, saving ratepayers more than $800 million and carrying out one of the city’s most important environmental projects.

We subsequently transferred water and wastewater assets for $1.9 billion to Citizens Energy Group – a move that is saving ratepayers millions annually beyond original projections and has provided record-levels of investment in infrastructure through RebuildIndy. Prior to RebuildIndy, the city repaired on-average one or two bridges annually. During a 2 ½ year period, RebuidIndy resulted in repair work on 60 bridges, road resurfacing throughout all parts of the city, sidewalk repair, and construction of new trails and bike lanes. This investment in neighborhoods combined with new mobility and connectivity options are drawing millennials and seniors into the city at a rate not seen in decades.

Parking meters were another broken, highly politicized system. Together, with the Council, we took on this challenge and created ParkIndy – a P3 partnership that has grown Indy’s parking meter revenue from $330,000 in 2010 to $3.3 million in 2014. And unlike other cities that opted to fix their parking systems by negotiating an up-front, one-time payment, Indianapolis created a revenue stream for future councils and mayoral administrations to direct.

We have proven that we know how to take on big challenges and address them in a way that results in enormous savings and efficiencies. The Justice Center is the next big fix, and after more than two years of work based on firm commitments from all of the project’s stakeholders, now is the time to get this deal done so that future mayors, future councils and future generations of residents are not burdened with it.

Some have suggested that this project should be delayed until after the coming mayoral election, but calls to put this project back in the political arena at this point indicate a willingness to sacrifice the city’s long-term financial health and public safety in exchange for short-term political gain. Make no mistake: delaying this project likely will kill it. If it somehow survives, the same project will cost hundreds of millions of dollars more and be full of political patronage.

We approached this project from day one in a genuine spirit of partnership with our stakeholders – the Sheriff, Courts, Council, Prosecutor and Public Defender. We all agreed, and we signed an MOU affirming our commitment to move forward. Together, we engaged in a competitive bid process. Together, we selected a winning bid team. Twice, all of the project stakeholders unanimously agreed to move forward in this direction, with this bid, using this P3 delivery model. The project has been public, open, transparent, and collaborative, and stakeholders have been engaged throughout the project, with more than 240 briefings and public meetings.

Why would we invest so much time and energy in one project? Because our current system is inherently unsafe. For more than 30 years, Indianapolis has needed a new jail and space for our courts. Inefficient, failing facilities threaten our public safety and carry a hefty annual operating price tag of more than $50 million – a number that will only rise in coming years with inflation and continued deterioration of physical assets. After decades of controversy that have included Federal court oversight and hundreds of millions spent on the court and jail systems, a comprehensive solution to our justice system’s inadequacies is within our vision and our grasp. After two years of study by all stakeholders and a yearlong competitive procurement process, we have a hard, committed bid in place to fix these ills. And as the City-County Council debates the proposed Justice Complex, taxpayers should demand that all political baggage be checked at the door.

Those who have tracked the Justice Center since its inception know that procedural delays have already blocked taxpayers from receiving at least $1.5 million in annual savings for the life of the project because of lower interest rates. In total, that’s $52.5 million we could have used to help fund IMPD officers or Pre-K education for low-income children. Doing nothing carries an even higher price tag. Operations costs will begin to accelerate in 2016 due to critical Jail I repairs, and that trajectory will saddle taxpayers with as much as $860 million in annual expenditures by 2050. Backing away from the bid now also places the reputation of the city at risk. At a time when P3s are becoming widely accepted as the way to address legacy infrastructure problems, the Justice Center project has drawn international attention. Who, in the future, will want to work with a city that walks away from a high-quality, committed bid?

By all means, the Council should ask tough questions and verify the financial calculations. But those advocating delay should bear the burden of proof to show that they have an alternative plan, and that they can deliver. It is an injustice to taxpayers to delay for the sake of politics.

Gregory A. Ballard, Mayor
City of Indianapolis

For the most part this legislative session, I’ve been pretty agnostic on the issue of repealing Indiana’s Common Construction Wage (CCW) law.

For those of you who don’t know what that is, it’s a law that allows local governments to set prevailing wages on public construction projects.  It’s been around since the early part of the last century.  Opponents say it increases the price of public projects by as much as 20-25%.   Supporters say it guarantees fair wages and quality assurance on public projects.

I have friends on both sides of the issue and both can make compelling cases for their positions, which is why I think the solution literally does lie somewhere in the middle.  Allow me to offer it.

The free market capitalist in me says lawmakers should move forward with repealing the CCW, but give local governments a lot more flexibility in the bidding process, preferably the same flexibility the private sector has.   A free market only works when both the buyer and seller can take advantage of it.

Right now under current law, if my memory serves me correctly, local governments must accept the lowest, responsive bid, which means the lowest bidder who can post a bond gets the work.  I argue, change that to the lowest, responsible bidder. That way, we can balance fiscal prudence with quality work.

We’ve all heard stories about someone who tried to do something on the cheap and all it did was end up costing more money in long haul.  There’s no reason taxpayers should have to suffer through that either.  They also shouldn’t have to suffer with increased costs of public projects.

This is why I think as lawmakers go forward with figuring out what to do with CCW, they might want to look at my suggestions.

 There is common ground, the question is will either side be willing to head in that direction.

You know what the big takeaway was from this week’s past controversy over the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA)?

No, it wasn’t the adage “it’s not what it is, it’s what it looks like.”  Nor was it “be careful what you pray for, you just might get it.”  No, the big lesson from this week’s RFRA controversy was that “money talks and b********* walks.”  (My uncle taught me that.)

To translate that into something less urban that basically means that when you want to get somebody’s attention, start messing with their money.  Or to put it in a more positive light,  capitalism can be the cure for what ails us.

There were examples of this all over Indianapolis, Gen Con, Angie’s List, SalesForce, the NCAA; a lot of big names were expressing their concerns over what they thought the potential discriminatory impact of RFRA could be. I know, this is where you say RFRA didn’t allow for discrimination and this is where I remind you of my first adage.   Enough people made enough noise about what they  would do with their money if something wasn’t done about RFRA,  lawmakers heard the message loud and clear and started down the road of fixing the problem.

And it wasn’t just the RFRA opponents who took advantage of capitalism.   Remember the story about the pizza place in Walkerton, IN whose owner said they would not cater a gay wedding because it violated their religious beliefs.  (Granted I don’t know any self-respecting couple, gay or straight that would do that, but I digress).   Well a bunch of people got mad and the owners had to close the place down.  Then a bunch of people got mad at the bunch of people who got mad at the pizzeria and started a GoFund Me campaign, and as I write this post, they’ve raised $800,000 for the owners.  Once again folks, the magic of capitalism.

Now does this mean we can scrape all anti-discrimination laws, of course not.  And I don’t have a problem adding sexual orientation and gender identity to the state’s civil rights code.   But if there’s one thing this experience should have taught us, when you can talk crazy all you want, but when you start, as my Uncle used to say, “messing with other folks’ money, it’s about to get deep and it’s about to get real.”