It’s Friday night and . . . I’m a middle aged father of two little kids. So I’m doing nothing tonight. But I hope the rest of you are out whooping it up and having some fun. Maybe I’ll crack open one of my Samuel Smith Taddy Porters and live a little.

Karl Kurtz has a great article for harcore legislative junkies entitled The Golden Age of State Legislatures over at The Thicket at State Legislatures. He takes a look at the dramatic changes that took place in state legislatures toward the middle and later parts of the 18th century (that’s the 1700s, Holmes.)

A couple of interesting points:

In the years just before Independence, the British clamped down on the colonial assemblies. Parliament suspended the New York Assembly in 1766, and the royal governor did the same in Massachusetts in 1768. Prevented from performing their lawmaking function, colonial assembly members turned instead to building strong constituency ties says University of Virginia historian Peter Onuf. They took a key role in mobilizing popular opinion against the crown.
. . .
The first Pennsylvania constitution was radically democratic: all bills had to be published, and final passage of bills in the unicameral did not occur until a second vote was held by a new legislature following an annual election. This made the people of Pennsylvania, in effect, “a second branch of the legislature,” says Onuf.

The unicameral structure soon came under attack for too much concentration of power. Bicameralism was favored as a double representation of the people—one more way to protect their liberty and property rights—and Pennsylvania revised its constitution to add a second chamber and a popularly elected governor. By the end of the 18th century, all of the states had adopted bicameral legislatures, annual elections and popularly elected governors.

A number of bills are on their way to the Governor as a result of the House concurring with the Senate’s amendments. They are:

Bill No.:HB 1033 Digest: Weather radios in manufactured homes.
Authors/Coauthors: Hoy, Pierce, Welch, Crouch
04/12/2007 H House concurred in Senate amendments; Roll Call 528: Yeas 70, Nays 10
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Bill No.: HB 1037 Digest: Home energy assistance sales tax exemption.
Authors/Coauthors: Micon, Day, Crawford, Murphy
04/12/2007 H House concurred in Senate amendments; Roll Call 529: Yeas 84, Nays 0
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Bill No.: HB 1065 Digest: Special fuel tax exemption for certain biofuels.
Authors/Coauthors: Micon, Grubb, Koch
04/12/2007 H House concurred in Senate amendments; Roll Call 530: Yeas 85, Nays 0
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Bill No.: HB 1075 Digest: Individual development accounts.
Authors/Coauthors: Day, Murphy, Bardon, V. Smith, Porter
04/12/2007 H House concurred in Senate amendments; Roll Call 531: Yeas 87, Nays 0
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Bill No.: HB 1214 Digest: Landlord-tenant law.
Authors/Coauthors: Pierce, Micon, Koch
04/12/2007 H House concurred in Senate amendments; Roll Call 532: Yeas 84, Nays 0
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Bill No.: HB 1324 Digest: Valuable metal dealers.
Authors/Coauthors: Crooks, Lutz, Bardon, Klinker
04/12/2007 H House concurred in Senate amendments; Roll Call 533: Yeas 87, Nays 0
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Bill No.: HB 1335 Digest: Coal mining.
Authors/Coauthors: Stilwell, Battles, Davis, Bell
04/12/2007 H House concurred in Senate amendments; Roll Call 534: Yeas 86, Nays 0
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Bill No.: HB 1387 Digest: Animal cruelty.
Authors/Coauthors: L. Lawson, Bardon, Neese, Denbo
04/12/2007 H House concurred in Senate amendments; Roll Call 535: Yeas 85, Nays 0
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Bill No.: HB 1489 Digest: Cancellation of nonpermanent teacher contracts.
Authors/Coauthors: Cheney, Behning, Soliday, Cheatham
04/12/2007 H House concurred in Senate amendments; Roll Call 536: Yeas 85, Nays 0
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Bill No.: HB 1595 Digest: Northwestern Indiana regional planning commission.
Authors/Coauthors: Dobis
04/12/2007 H House concurred in Senate amendments; Roll Call 537: Yeas 87, Nays 1
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Bill No.: HB 1654 Digest: Sex crime victims and polygraph examinations.
Authors/Coauthors: Dembowski, Elrod, C. Brown, L. Lawson
04/12/2007 H House concurred in Senate amendments; Roll Call 538: Yeas 81, Nays 0
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Bill No.: HB 1693 Digest: Motor carriers.
Authors/Coauthors: Cochran, Kuzman
04/12/2007 H House concurred in Senate amendments; Roll Call 539: Yeas 87, Nays 0

The Associated Press ran an article entitled Bush aides use of GOP e-mail probed.

The White House said Wednesday it had mishandled Republican Party-sponsored e-mail accounts used by nearly two dozen presidential aides, resulting in the loss of an undetermined number of e-mails concerning official White House business.

Oh come on. They’re not even trying anymore.

Congressional investigators looking into the administration’s firing of eight federal prosecutors already had the nongovernmental e-mail accounts in their sights because some White House aides used them to help plan the U.S. attorneys’ ouster. Democrats were questioning whether the use of the GOP-provided e-mail accounts was proof that the firings were political.

Democrats also have been asking if White House officials are purposely conducting sensitive official presidential business via nongovernmental accounts to get around a law requiring preservation – and eventual disclosure – of presidential records.

If the White House aides were using email accounts outside the White House, particularly from the RNC, I’d think that claims of executive privilege might be compromised. Executive privilege is well beyond my expertise, but if I were Sen. Leahy, I’d take a run at that potential weak spot in the stone wall.

Indiana native and author, Kurt Vonnegut died at age 84. Apparently he suffered irreversible brain injuries as a result of a fall several weeks ago.

By a vote of 44 to 5, the Senate adopted House Bill 1478. Voting “no” were Senators Rogers, Simpson, Skinner, Smith, and Tallian. This is Senator Kenley’s bill designed to ease the property tax hit — expected to be a 15% increase if the legislature does nothing — and to shift local government’s reliance on property taxes to something else.

I have to admit, my brain seized up about half way through the digest. It’s been a long day, sure, but i’s also a pretty complicated bill. But, in general, it accomplishes this by having the state assume some of the expenses traditionally borne by local government — such as juvenile detention fees and department of child services fees. In exchange, the state will phase out the property tax replacement credit — currently the mechanism by which the state essentially subsidizes the county property tax burden. It also allows local government to reduce property taxes by replacing them with a county adjusted gross income tax or county option income tax.

That’s my dumbed down version, anyway.

Also, if you want a very readable explanation of why property taxes will probably go up this year, check out the March 22, 2007 edition of Capital Comments by everybody’s favorite economist, Larry DeBoer. His guess (absent action by the General Assembly): a 17.5% increase. He lists five major items that will affect your property tax bill. Among those, there is the issue of trending — currently property taxes are based on the value of the property on March 1, 1999. Assessors are now required to “trend” the property — basically use recent data to adjust the value every year. Year-to-year, that might not be a big thing, but this year, they’ll have to use the March 1, 2005 value — a 6 year jump. There is also the issue of the property tax replacement credit – that big subsidy the state used to pay to local government to reduce the need for property taxes. A lot of the 2004 budget was balanced by substantially reducing the amount of that replacement credit. The State shifted its burdens down onto the counties.

So, I expect legislators to be very motivated to protect their constituents against a 17.5% property tax increase and would, therefore, be surprised if some version of this bill does not pass.
[tags]HB1478-2007, taxes[/tags]

Theodore Kim for the Indy Star has an article entitled Indiana Senate passes budget plan. Now the House & Senate have to hammer out their differences in conference. Lesley Stedman Weidenbener has a little more information in her Louisville Courier Journal article.

The Terre Haute TribStar has a brief article entitled Indiana Secretary of State takes action against local mortgage lender. I surprised to find out that the Secretary of State has a role in mortgage practices. Seems more like a problem for the Attorney General or the Department of Financial Institutions.

According to the report:

The Indiana Secretary of State’s office filed an official complaint today alleging fraudulent practices at a Terre Haute-based mortgage lending company, Affordable Lending on Wabash Avenue.

From the report, it looks like a couple of property owners and a title company called Hoosier Title were in on the scheme that involved at least 23 properties and loans worth $1.4 million.

Update The Indianapolis Star has an article here.

With respect to the Sec’y of States involvement:

The agency filed an administrative complaint Tuesday against two Terre Haute-area firms used by two investors whom the secretary of state claims falsified loan applications to borrow $1.4 million.

. . .

Filing an administrative complaint amounts to a recommendation that the state revoke the licenses of specific loan originators and brokers at Extreme, and bar them from doing business as loan brokers in Indiana.

It also asks that Hoosier Title, Burnett, Sommerville and Extreme, which does business as Affordable Lending, be ordered to repay mortgage banks the $1.4 million plus 8 percent interest.

The next step will be a hearing before the state’s securities division, which can revoke licenses and order the restitution payments. Its decision can be appealed to Marion Superior Court in Indianapolis.

Left in Aboite has an excellent post on the In God We Trust license plates which Hoosiers are apparently subsidizing to the tune of $1.5 million and climbing from the Highway Fund