A Citizen's Guide to Indiana

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Hoosier Advocate on Ellspermann candidacy

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Looks like there is a newish blog that might be worth watching going by the name of “Hoosier Advocate.” It describes itself as a blog for “independent, liberty-minded Hoosiers” and is based out of southwest Indiana.

Just an aside – when I hear “advocate” in publications, I think of gay issues. That does not appear to be this publication’s focus. Their use of “Democrat” instead of “Democratic” as an adjective is a verbal tic of sorts that gives good indication that someone leans politically to the right. The rest of the content so far seems to confirm that hypothesis. That notwithstanding, the writing seems solid.

Their most recent entry has to do with a Republican primary eligibility challenge to Sue Ellspermann’s efforts to run for the state House of Representatives against Russ Stilwell (D-Boonville). Hoosier Advocate states that she participated in Limbaugh’s “Operation Chaos” by voting in the Democratic presidential primary in 2008. We’ve seen in Tippecanoe County that that can throw a wrench into a Republican’s efforts to run in the Republican primary.

The issue isn’t so much that Ellspermann voted in the 2008 Democratic primary as that she failed to disclose this fact in her Declaration of Candidacy. Hoosier Advocate suggests that she forgot which primary she voted in. If that had not slipped her mind, she could have gotten the blessing of the chair of her county party. Now she has to deal with a challenge to her candidacy due to the incorrect information she certified in her declaration.

IN-04: Republican Primary Candidates

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May 4, 2010 primary:

Jon Acton (twitter) – According to his website, he’s a member of the Brownsburg School Board, has been a U.S. Government teacher at Avon and Edgewood, an assistant principal at Speedway and Edgewood, and head football coach at Avon and Edgewood. He is campaigning as Everyman.

Cheryl Denise Allen – I haven’t found much information on her yet. She’s from Martinsville, and I believe she’s an artist. But Google wasn’t turning up a web page.

Mike Campbell – I wasn’t immediately able to find information online I was confident had to do with this person.

Daniel Dunham – He’s from Mooresville. (And there is a guy with the same name from Idaho who is apparently very active on right wing Internet sites.)

Jim Hass – Again, nothing online that I could find. (This post isn’t turning out to be anywhere near as informative as I had hoped.)

Charlie Henderson – Mayor of Greenwood and former police chief. He is also, I believe, the uncle to state senator Brent Waltz. The mayor of the Indianapolis suburb wants to be “a voice of small town America.”

Brandt Hershman – He is a state senator and manager of Hershman Farms and was District Operations Director for Representative Steve Buyer since 1992. He also apparently worked at the White House from 1989-1991. He has to be counted as one of the top prospects for this seat.

LaRon “Formerly known as firefighter?” Keith – He looks to be a perennial type candidate, challenging Buyer last cycle when he couldn’t get the signatures needed to run for governor.

Todd Rokita – Our current Secretary of State. He’s a big name in this race. The knock against him seems to be that he’s in office for the sake of being in office – looking to the next big thing. (My big knock against him was that “faith-based voter fraud” warning paid for on the public dime where he made sure you knew his name and made sure to talk about “The Lord” in case you didn’t know he was a Christian.)

Mark Seitz – Mr. Seitz is pro-“Common Sense” (which, to me, always sounds like anti-“fancy book learnin.”) Looks like he’s been a Bloomington restaurateur, stock broker, mortgage industry service provider, and now works out of Greenwood where he “manages services that provide continuous emergency power to municipalities.” Stock market and mortgage industry? Not saying that Mr. Seitz had anything to do with it, but that’s like a who’s who of how our economy got wrecked over the past decade. He’s a Lambda Chi Alpha. I don’t have anything particular against them.

PJ Steffen – I don’t have any information on him. Mr. Steffen was kind enough to send me a link to his web page. He lives in the Avon area of Hendricks County and currently works for Rolls-Royce as an Assistant Chief Engineer and Manager in the Future Programs group. He describes himself as a social and fiscal conservative who believes the role of government should be limited. (This raises an interesting point in my mind. Typically, it seems to me, fiscal conservatives are intent on limiting the role of government whereas social conservatives often seem to envision a more active role for government in promulgating their vision of the proper morality.)

Eric Wathen (twitter) – A 6th generation Hoosier out of Brownsburg. (6th generation is something – I’m 5th generation, and that ancestor got to Indy in about 1850 or thereabouts) and another Lambda Chi. He is a civil engineer with a degree from Rose-Hulman and a Hendricks County Commissioner. Not bad for a 35 year old. He might be a dark horse to keep an eye on. He describes himself as “very conservative” and is also a fan of “common sense.”

Mike Young – A state senator out of Indianapolis. Among many other things he’s done as a state senator, one that jumped out at me is that he has proposed that the state government form a committee to study the “principles of firearms freedom.” Specifically “Firearms, firearm accessories, and ammunition that are manufactured in Indiana from basic materials without the inclusion of any significant parts imported from another state and are retained in Indiana should not be subject to federal law or federal regulation.” That’s a two-fer, states’ rights and guns. Bravo, sir, bravo! Of course, forming a government committee on the subject erodes the “small government” side of the ledger.

IN-02: Martin Dolan

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Martin Dolan, a candidate seeking the Republican nomination for the Second District of Indiana was kind enough to pass along a link to his website. His bio looks solid – though, I suppose a candidate’s website wouldn’t be doing its job if a bio looked otherwise.

He’s an IT guy with a military background and says he’s running because of what he sees as the ineffectiveness of President Obama and the current Congress. I disagree with some of his premises but won’t argue with them at the moment. Go to his site and judge for yourself.

Health Insurance is not Auto Insurance

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I saw some talking head on the cable teevee news making a specious comparison between health insurance and auto insurance. If we just treated health insurance more like auto insurance, he said, we’d have more competition in the health insurance market. We’d have little lizards on the television marketing insurance to us at low, low prices.

Problem is that our bodies are not cars and our policy goals with health insurance are different than those for auto insurance. By and large, we’re content to let people suck it up and go without a car if they can’t afford one (or if they can’t afford to insure it). It’s less common for us to tell people to suck it up and die if they can’t afford to keep their bodies in working order.

And that leads to the second point. As a policy matter, I don’t think we’ve ever decided whether we want people insured against accidents or the unexpected or for maintenance (or, probably, a little of both.) If the person doesn’t change the oil and the car breaks down, well that’s just what you get dummy. Change the damn oil. If someone has a lemon of a car – and it’s known to be a lemon – an insurance company isn’t going to insure against repairs. The person is expected to repair it at his or her own expense, buy another car that’s not a money pit, or do without.

You can’t do that with your body. We don’t have a lot of sympathy for the folks who don’t change the oil – they don’t exercise, they eat junk, they smoke, and they sit on the couch. Just like a car, you’re body is going to break down. But, even for these folks, we’re not quite willing to just let them die if they can’t afford the inevitable repairs.

We’re more sympathetic to those who bought a lemon – their bodies develop problems through no real fault of the owner. Some defects are unknown and unknowable in advance, but others can probably be calculated with sufficient information, genetic testing perhaps. If an insurer can determine that a potential insured is probably a lemon in advance, can we really expect them to insure against future maintenance that’s not so much unknown risk as strong probability?

With health insurance, we haven’t really decided whether we are spreading the danger of unknown risks (who is going to get hit by a careless driver? We know it’s somebody, we just don’t know who exactly). Or, are we spreading the cost of health care from the unhealthy to the healthy. Or, are we spreading the cost of health care from the poor to the rich?

The spreading and managing of risks, the impact of which can be estimated at the group level but the individual level of which is unknown, is typically what “insurance” is. The other policy choices – having the healthy subsidize the unhealthy or the rich subsidize the poor strike me as different animals even if they are perfectly valid policies. But, I think we have to know exactly what we’re trying to accomplish before we can design a system that is effective in meeting our goals.

Returned Without Amendment

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Here are some of the House bills (1000 – 1099) that have been returned by the Senate without Amendments and are ready for enrollment and delivery to the Governor for his signature.

1005 – Removes the age limit for teachers who hold an indefinite contract.

1008 – Allows a member of the 1977 police officers’ and firefighters’ pension and disability fund (1977 fund) to purchase at full actuarial cost service earned out of state in a position for which the 1977 fund would give credit if the service were earned in Indiana.

1021 – Provides that a debtor’s Indiana earned income tax credit is property that is exempt under the bankruptcy property exemption statute. (Current law provides only that a debtor’s federal earned income tax credit is exempt property.)

1044 – Provides that circuit court clerks and the clerk of the supreme court are not personally liable for acts or omissions in the performance of the clerks’ duties absent gross negligence or intentional disregard of the responsibilities of the office of clerk, however this does not prvent an action against the clerk’s bond for errors or omissions.

1050 – Allows a member of the 1977 police officers’ and firefighters’ pension and disability fund (1977 fund) to designate one or more beneficiaries to receive the 1977 fund member’s contributions plus interest if the 1977 fund member dies without receiving retirement or disability benefits and without a spouse, child, or parent entitled to receive survivor benefits.

1059 – Provides for mandatory provisional billing for property taxes first due and payable after 2010 if property tax bills were delayed in the immediately preceding year (unless a provisional statement was used in that immediately preceding year) and the county council or county treasurer determines that the county auditor has failed or will fail to deliver the abstract for that assessment date to the county treasurer before April 1 of the year following the assessment date. . . . Entitles a taxing unit to interest generated by the county on property tax collections if the county treasurer fails to meet the deadline for compliance with a request for advance distribution of the collections.

1061 – Reallocates distribution of the County identification security protection fee.

1062 – Enacts the uniform enforcement of foreign judgments act to permit the enforcement of a judgment of another state upon filing the judgment in the office of the clerk of the court.

1064 – Establishes a procedure to collect voluntary donations when hunting licenses are sold. Specifies that the proceeds must be used to process donated wild game related to feeding the state’s hungry.

1065 – Prohibits a person from enacting or enforcing a rule that prevents an employee from keeping a firearm in the employee’s car.

1068 – Limits public access to handgun licensure information.

1069 – Adds three members to the board of trustees of a commuter transportation district.

1076 – Eliminates the requirement that a local port authority contract be in the name of the political subdivision creating the authority. Specifies that a local port authority is an instrumentality of the state and may exercise certain powers independent of any political subdivision. Authorizes local port authorities to borrow money. Relocates bonding authority for local port authorities from the list of general powers to a separate section. Retains the requirement that a local port authority obtain the approval of the governing body that created the authority before entering contracts concerning royalties from natural or mineral resources of land owned by the authority and relocates the requirement from the list of general powers to a separate section.

1084 – Provides that the maximum weight limitation for a heavy duty vehicle that is equipped with an auxiliary power unit for climate control or electrical purposes is increased by 400 pounds. Provides that a motor carrier or an operator of a commercial motor vehicle that provides the intrastate commercial transport of one or more metal coils of a certain weight commits a Class A misdemeanor unless the operator of the commercial motor vehicle has been certified in proper load securement. Requires the department of revenue to adopt rules concerning the certification of commercial motor vehicle operators who transport one or more metal coils of a certain weight.

1099– Allows the board of animal health to assist organizations that represent poultry producers with issues related to poultry. Allows the board to adopt rules to establish standards governing the care of livestock and poultry.

General Assembly Undoing Unemployment Insurance Fix from 2009

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It looks like the General Assembly is bent on undoing one of its most useful accomplishments of the 2009 session: its attempt to fix the broken and bankrupt unemployment insurance fund. In 2009, they passed HB 1379 which was signed into law.

Now, via an amendment to SB 23 (h/t Jim Shella). The House approved the amendment by a vote of 95-5. The five voting “no” were Avery, Day, Tincher, Tyler, and Candelaria Reardon.

The Republican proposal in the Senate was to delay implementation of the 2009 compromise by a year. The nearly unanimous House proposal is to undo implementation entirely. I guess both House and Senate are counting on the federal government continuing to loan us money to pay unemployment benefits. Anyone who voted to undo the 2009 compromise-fix who pisses and moans about D.C. on the campaign trail should be questioned closely on this issue.

Update Niki Kelly, writing for the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette, has more.

Lawsuit over school funding

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Three school districts are teaming up to challenge inequities they perceive in the school funding formula. Hamilton Southeastern, Franklin Township Schools, and Middlebury Schools say that it’s unfair to have their per-pupil funding cut while their districts are growing to cushion the blow to other school districts in the state with stagnant or shrinking school populations (but, presumably, fixed costs that remain more or less constant.)

Indiana Attorney General Greg Zoeller (and Indiana Barrister’s Abdul) criticize the use of taxpayer dollars to bring (and defend) the suit.

Indiana Attorney General Greg Zoeller blasted the move, saying in a statement that tax money shouldn’t have to be used either to file the suit or defend the state against the allegations.

“In times of fiscal frugality, it seems wasteful for a school board to spend taxpayers’ money to pay for lawyers to sue the state — requiring me to use taxpayers’ money to go to court, where more taxpayers’ money will be spent to ask a judge to rule on what is essentially a public policy question for the legislature,” Zoeller said.

(First, am I the only one who is a little tired of people ‘blasting’ various things in news articles?)

This notion that units of government shouldn’t be able to use tax money to challenge taxing and fiscal policies that harm them is a little ridiculous. The translation is that they should just shut up and take it. And for Zoeller to double down on the argument complaining of the use of tax dollars to defend the suit is even sillier. Want to avoid spending tax dollars in this fashion? Give them what they want.

The truth is – and I tell my clients this – once you get the lawyers involved, everyone is probably going to lose (except, generally, the lawyers.) There are more efficient methods of dispute resolution. But, if the parties aren’t willing to resolve the dispute – because they think they’re absolutely right or the other side won’t compromise enough or whatever – then there has to be a method of dispute resolution aside from us beating each other over the head with rocks and clubs. Our legal system, for all its warts, is better (usually) than violence.

On the substance, do I think the Hamilton Southeastern lawsuit has merit? From what I’ve seen, not in particular. A constitutionally permissible system of education that is “general and uniform” and “wherein tuition shall be without charge, and equally open to all” probably doesn’t require any kind of per-pupil funding formula. After all, students are not equally expensive to educate.

Tax Policy Decisions Lead to Massive Teacher Reductions at TSC

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The impact of the property tax debacle is drifting to ever more local levels. The history is long and cumbersome, and I’ve documented no small part of it here. But, now it’s starting to look like it’s going to mess with my kid’s education, so I’m starting to take it a little personally. Today, as reported by Meranda Watling in the Lafayette Journal & Courier, our school corporation announced a reduction in force of about 20%.

Several of those teachers — the youngest and the ones in specialty areas, including elementary art, music and physical education — will soon receive “reduction in force” letters stating that their jobs may no longer exist in TSC this fall. Those 150 teachers represent 20.5 percent of all TSC teaching staff.

That was the unanimous decision of the TSC school board. The vote came after the board tabled the decision earlier this month and then listened Monday to more than 90 minutes of discussion and questions, both from the audience and from board members.

The reduction is expected to help TSC close a $7.8 million budget gap in its general fund this year.
. . .
Heather Brooks, co-president of the teachers union, said after the meeting that she continues to be disappointed by the lack of openness on the part of TSC’s administration. It wasn’t until last week, she said, that TSC administrators formally asked for negotiations with the teachers. And it wasn’t until the board meeting Monday that she heard any dollar figures put to the teachers union’s alternative budget cut proposals.

I suspect we can look for the usual suspects to deflect criticism about school programs crumbling in the wake of questionable tax policy decisions with some version of “teacher’s unions are to blame.” It’s an evergreen, all purpose, floor wax/dessert topping issue.

For my kids, it means bigger class sizes, less preparation time for the teachers with the bigger classes, and less instruction in “non-core” subjects like art and music (but what role have art & music played in human civilization, really?) Which is too bad, because Cole has really been showing an aptitude for such things.

Update Specifics having to do with the proposed cuts are here (pdf).

Coach Klinge Named Big Ten Coach of the Year

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I’ll be honest. I never followed college swimming, even a little, before last year. But, when a high school friend starts coaching, it perks up your interest. The Purdue Women’s Swim Team placed 4th at the Big Ten Championships, tying their highest mark last set in ’91 and ’92, and Coach John Klinge was named Big Ten Coach of the Year.

Klinge was voted the conference’s coach of the year by his peers after Purdue posted the highest score in program history at a Big Ten Championships. The 460 points eclipsed the previous standard of 431.5 set in 1991. The fourth-place finish ties the 1991 and 1992 squads for the highest placing at a conference championship meet. Purdue broke 17 program records and five freshman records during the Big Ten Championships. The team also recorded 94 season-best marks during the conference championship meet.

“This award is really a reflection of all the hard work the girls on the team did,” Klinge said. “They did it every day, and this is really a result of their continued hard work.”

John’s in his second year as Purdue head coach and, from what I can tell, has been working his ass off since he hit West Lafayette. Glad to see that hard work paying off. Congratulations to Coach Klinge and the Purdue women!

Running in the Streets

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Ivy Farguheson has an article in the Muncie Star Press that isn’t probably too important in the grand scheme of things, but I’m flagging it because it’s something I’ve experienced directly lately. Apparently running in the street because of the snow is not an isolated phenomenon. It’s what I have been doing and what folks in Muncie have been doing. In particular, it appears that the Indy Mini-Marathon is such a massive event that it influences behavior all over the state and months in advance.

The problem is that to get ready for the run, you have to start training well in advance. With the snow, the sidewalks are pretty treacherous. So, you have to run in the streets which are, by and large, clear. Fortunately, around here anyway, it’s not too tough to find streets that have low traffic.