A Citizen's Guide to Indiana

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Blame Pedro

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Tim Dickinson, writing for Rolling Stone, has a nicely written article entitled “Blame Pedro” which focuses on the growing nativist sentiment in the Republican Party and its potentially disastrous electoral implications.

An interesting historical note from Grover Norquist:

Looking at the same trend, Norquist points to an even more dire precedent: In 1884, the GOP attacked Democrats as the party of Romanism. “It cost them the Roman Catholic vote for 110 years,” he says. “So it is entirely possible for a political party to be that stupid. It is my hope that it is not possible for a party to be that stupid twice.”

By way of trying to explain why the GOP would go this route after President Bush and Karl Rove had been moderately successful in courting Hispanic votes, the article suggests:

But after the election, red-meat commentators like Sean Hannity and Rush Limbaugh needed a new scapegoat. “Right-wing radio couldn’t harp on the Democrats about the war or anything else because the GOP was basically in charge of every branch of government,” says Joe García, director of Hispanic strategy at NDN. “So they turned the resentment of white Americans to this new ‘threat.’ It’s not your fault you’re fucked economically, it’s not the president’s fault — so it must be Pedro’s fault.”

Politicians don’t escape the idea that their hostile to Latinos by qualifying that they are only against the illegal ones. To a lot of Latinos, you’re still saying, “I want to deport your mom.” Not, as it turns out, a winning electoral strategy.

Even more FLAGS!

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HB 1292 provides a purchasing preference for Indiana & U.S. flags manufactured in the United States with respect to such flags purchased by state or local government.

Again, I have no particular problem with the legislation. But, still, FLAGS!

A flag bill is kind of like Mr. Miyagi’s crane technique: “If done properly, no can defend.” Maybe the social conservatives could arrange to have the official version of the Indiana Constitution written on a flag and then propose an amendment to our new flag-constitution that banned gay marriage. Nobody could vote against *that*.

Edwards is out

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Well, darn. John Edwards is dropping out of the Presidential race. I can’t say I’m surprised, but it’s at least a little unfortunate. At the very least, he was pounding the drum about the economic situation of the middle class. That forced Obama and Clinton to pay attention to such issues. We will see if Edwards’ departure allows their attention to wander.

Senators Clinton and Obama will now be keen to win an endorsement from Edwards, yet he is playing his cards close to his chest. The former North Carolina senator will not immediately endorse either candidate, said one adviser, who spoke on a condition of anonymity in advance of the announcement.

As I’ve said frequently, I liked John well enough. But, watching the political shows, I’m sure I’m not the only one to see his wife Elizabeth and think, “Hmm, maybe she should be the one running for President.”

Clinton in Florida

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Josh Marshall at Talking Points Memo did a survey of media reports concerning Hillary Clinton and the Florida primary. His conclusion is that she did not get the kind of spin she wanted or expected out of the process. Most news outlets went with the pretty straightforward explanation that she won a primary with no delegates at stake. Consequently, the stories are not displayed as prominently.

Dana Milbank had one that has to hurt a little: “Much Ado About No Delegates: The only piece missing from Sen. Hillary Clinton’s Florida victory party Tuesday night was a victory.”

Time may tell if what she got out of Florida was worth it in light of the perception (by me, at least; and I suspect many others) that she acted dishonorably. Maybe my perception is colored by my profession. As a lawyer, I fight with other lawyers — sometimes tooth and nail. We all fight to win. But with most of us, if you agree to something, you can pretty much count on the other side to stick to the spirit of the agreement — even if, perhaps, you haven’t nailed down every subclause of the agreement. You act in good faith. Word gets around when a lawyer is one who doesn’t act in good faith. A lawyer with that kind of reputation is going to find it awfully hard to operate in the future.

State House Prayer

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Rumor has it that the ACLU of Indiana has decided it cannot devote resources to pursuing a Supreme Court review of the State House prayer case. As folks here might remember, Speaker Bosma oversaw some pretty strongly sectarian prayer as the official business of the Indiana House of Representatives. That practice was challenged in court. The District Court judge ruled that kind of sectarian prayer was inappropriate for government speech. (And let’s be clear – the speech was government speech, not individual speech. Different rules apply. Individuals were as free as ever to pray. It was simply harder for particular religious groups to mark their territory at the Indiana General Assembly). On review, the 7th Circuit did not reach the merits of whether the prayer was appropriate as government speech. Rather, it blazed a new trail in the obscure jurisprudence of “standing” and decided that the Plaintiffs were not proper parties to bring the case.

Apparently the thinking is that the chances of the Supreme Court taking the case is slim, and, if they did take the case, the chances for making the law worse are non-trivial.

I certainly appreciate the work of people like Mr. Hinrichs who was the lead plaintiff on the case (and the other plaintiffs as well — I just don’t remember their names off hand). I also appreciate the work of Ken Falk and the folks at the ACLU of Indiana. (And I say this as one currently involved in litigation with Mr. Falk on the other side.) These are the folks who throw a little salt down on the slippery slope so, even if we slide, perhaps we don’t slide so far away from our civil liberties. And they do it with not a great deal of financial reward.

Tough Crowd

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Apparently Gov. Daniels tried to sell his local government consolidation proposal to the Association of Indiana Counties. Not the friendliest crowd. First, it’s their oxen being gored by the proposals. But, perhaps more importantly, they have to be pissed at the Governor for continuously insisting that out of control local government spending is the cause of the recent property tax troubles.

Lest the propaganda get ahead of the truth, it bears repeating — the property tax situation is not the fault of local government. Only about 6% of the average 24% increase in property taxes is attributable to local government.

We got into this mess for a few reasons:
1. The Supreme Court threw out the old assessment rules which went easy on residential properties (particularly older residential properties) and shifted the burden to businesses. The Supreme Court’s order had the effect of shifting some of the burden from businesses to residential properties.

2. Elimination of the inventory tax. Again, a tax shift from business to residential property owners.

3. Trending. New trending rules were imposed that made residential properties play catch up in their assessment values. Again, an effective shift from businesses (that were already trending) to residential properties.

4. Shift from State to Local Government. The State had been effectively reducing property taxes on residential properties through tax credits. In 2005, it decided to balance the State budget by reducing those tax credits; balancing its budget on the backs of local government. Higher property taxes.

5. Increase in levies by local taxing units. This is the 6% part of the 24% average increase.

HJR 1: Nothing is certain but gay marriage and taxes?

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Speaking of germaneness and poison pills, Rep. Turner is seeking to amend House Joint Resolution 1. HJR 1 is the proposed “circuit breaker” amendment to the Indiana Constitution. It would allow the General Assembly to impose property taxes that are not uniform and equal in certain cases and would cap property taxes at 1% of owner occupied residential home value; 2% of renter occupied residential value; and 3% of any other real property value.

Apparently forgetting House Rule 80 requiring amendments to be germane, Rep. Turner has filed an amendment that would tack the anti-gay marriage amendment onto HJR 1.

(And, just for the record, I call it the “anti-gay marriage amendment” as a sort of short hand. But that fails to capture the true horror of this proposed amendment. Remember that its second subsection really ties the hands of the legislature to define the rights of any unmarried couple. “This Constitution or any other Indiana law may not be construed to require that marital status or the legal incidents of marriage be conferred upon unmarried couples or groups.” The fairest reading of this text is that, if married couples have a legal privilege of some sort, a court cannot enforce any law passed by the General Assembly that attempts to confer the same privilege on any unmarried couple; same sex or not.)

Presumably the proposed amendment will be ruled not germane to the property tax issue and won’t even get a vote. If that’s the case, Rep. Turner will be saved from himself. I can only imagine the hell he’d have to pay if property taxpayers in his district figured out that property tax restructuring failed because Rep. Turner was obsessed with the gays.

(Suddenly I have the Tootsie Roll jingle going through my head: “Whatever it is I think I see, becomes like gay marriage to me”).

HB 1047 – Local Time Zone Question

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So, I’m looking over the daily bill action and see that Rep. Leonard has offered an amendment to HB 1047 concerning putting a local time zone question on the ballot. I see that the amendment has failed by a vote of 36 to 57, so I think to myself, “hot time zone debate!” (Yeah, I need help). Anyway, so I look up the amendment, and what do I find?

Chapter 5. Right to Work

What the hell? Why would you bother putting a poison pill like “right to work” into a time zone bill that’s almost certainly doomed in the first place? It’s not germane. It’s not going to get added into the bill. And, even if it does, nobody’s going to cry too much if the time zone legislation doesn’t get to the desk of Mitch “Time = Money” Daniels.

In case you’re interested, here are the 36 Representatives who thought this amendment was both germane and a good idea.

Behning, Dodge, Hinkle, Richardson ,Bell, Duncan, Knollman, Ripley, Borror, Eberhart, Leonard, Saunders, Bosma, Elrod, Lutz, Smith, M, Brown,T, Foley, McClain, Steuerwald, Buell, Friend, Murphy, Thompson, Burton, Frizzell, Neese, Torr, Cherry, Gutwein, Noe, Turner, Davis, Harris, T, Pond, and Wolkins.

SB 150 – Physical Therapists

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SB 150 is an interesting bill. It allows a physical therapist to evaluate a patient without a referral. However, before the therapist may “treat” the patient, the therapist has to contact the doctor and get a referral.

It appears that the chiropractors got themselves an amendment to the bill. As amended, the physical therapists are not allowed to perform a spinal adjustment as part of their therapy unless they have specified training. Seems like that amendment wouldn’t be necessary if spinal adjustments were already beyond the scope of physical therapists treatment options.

FLAGS!

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SB 56 passed the Senate 47 to 0. It requires United States and state flags on the state capitol to be flown at half-staff for 24 consecutive hours within 30 days of the service related death of an Indiana resident who is a member of the armed forces of the United States or the Indiana National Guard.

I’m just surprised at how often I get to write about Flags! when covering the General Assembly. Who can blame legislators though – you can look like you’re doing something with respect to an emotional situation — flags are pretty much always about emotion — in such a way that you can be pretty sure your fellow legislators won’t vote against you.