A Citizen's Guide to Indiana

Masson's Blog

Roseland, Indiana

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This story from the Associated Press has a few interesting angles related to Indiana politics. In the town of Roseland, Indiana, the town marshal has asked to be laid off after working months for reduced pay.

Apparently, the Town of Roseland has been experiencing financial pressures when it failed to receive tax funds. I don’t know if these are the same tax funds, but I believe the State is withholding or has been slow to pay some tax funds from St. Joseph County (in which Roseland is located). (Upon further review, this may or may not be the case, but Roseland’s financial situation seems to go well beyond anything done to it by the State.) Roseland was unable to obtain a loan though it has received some donations. As a consequence, the town’s four paid police officers, including Town Marshal Jack Tiller, had their pay reduced to $6 per hour, and even after that, officers haven’t been receiving full paychecks and insurance coverage has been dropped.

Marshal Jack Tiller said in a letter to the town council president that he no longer could afford to work for the partial pay officers have received since this summer due to the town’s financial crunch.

“I have a family, and it is imperative that I support my children as I have a moral responsibility to them,” Tiller wrote in the letter submitted to Town Council President Charley Shields on Tuesday.

In response, Town Councilman David Snyder said Wednesday in a letter to [Town Council President Charley] Shields that Tiller “had abandoned his post and his men” and demanded Shields convene an emergency council meeting.

It is interesting to see Councilman Snyder commenting on issues related to money, family, and duty since he has previously been in the news with respect to such issues. Snyder was prosecuted by St. Joseph County Prosecutor, Michael Dvorak for about being in arrears to the tune of $90,000 for child support. Subsequently, Michael Dvorak’s son, Representative Ryan Dvorak, introduced legislation that “Requires a state or local government officeholder who has been subject to a judgment: (1) of at least $15,000 for delinquent child support payments; and (2) for more than 30 days; to be removed from office.” That bill appears to have been passed by a wide margin but died in the Senate without getting a committee hearing.

Trying to research the “expected tax funds,” I came across some other news reports that indicate that council member David Snyder and wife/(former) council member Dorothy Snyder are otherwise involved in some Roseland turmoil:

David Snyder was put in jail after David Snyder was ejected from a budget meeting Friday night, before being taken to the ground outside by a Roseland police officer.

The melee started because David Snyder protested after being given only one minute to speak by council member Charlie Shields. After a heated argument, laced with profanities, Shields kicked Snyder from the meeting.

Snyder slowly walked from the meeting, escorted by Officer Jack Tiller. When he got into the lobby, turned and said something to Tiller who appears to shove Snyder who falls hard into the glass door and outside.

NewsCenter 16’s camera then shows David Snyder on the ground outside the town hall with Officer Tiller on top of Snyder. There are calls for Snyder to stop resisting as the officer pounds Snyder’s head.

Holy, hell. Anyone in the area care to elaborate on just what the heck is going on in Roseland? (The South Bend Tribune has a Roseland archive going up to April 30, 2007, but I can’t get the linked articles to load at the moment.)

Dynasty

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Thinking about the very real possibility of a Hillary Clinton primary win and Presidency, it occurs to me that I am really bothered by the prospect of a Bush/Clinton Presidency for 24 – 28 consecutive years. That can’t be a healthy thing for the Republic.

Bauer: Most Hoosiers are Christians

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Advance Indiana has an article entitled Bauer Applauds Prayer Ruling: “The Majority Of People Are Christians” in which he notes a South Bend Tribune article entitled Bauer: Christian Majority justifies House prayer. The story quotes Democratic House Majority Leader, Pat Bauer as saying, ”

“The majority of people in this state are Christian,” Bauer said, pausing a few seconds before continuing, “but if you exclude a minority, then you have a problem.”

Bauer derided as “censorship” a November 2005 injunction, ordered by U.S. District Judge David Hamilton, against the House’s long-held tradition of preceding business with prayers that contain words such as Jesus Christ and savior.

“Censoring one particular religion is almost reverse discrimination,” Bauer said. “We’ve had the Jewish faith and even a Muslim over the years.”

Advance Indiana comments:

“The majority of us are Christians” comment is a frightening comment for people who are not Christians to hear from such a high-ranking member of their government. Bosma was taken to the woodshed by Jewish groups when he used a “2%” reference, which supposedly represented the percentage of Hoosiers who were Jewish. Let’s see if anyone complains about Bauer’s comment.

Don’t mind if I do, Advance Indiana. Bauer’s comment is most likely just pandering, but I’ll go ahead and take it at face value, anyway. The idea that the Christian majority somehow justifies government-sponsored sectarian prayer is exactly wrong. The Bill of Rights was enacted to protect minorities against the majority. The majority needs no such protections against the government because, by virtue of their majority, they control the government. Bauer is wrong about this being censorship, at least any sort of censorship with which we need to be concerned. The Constitution is all about setting boundaries and limitations on government power. The right to private speech is expansive and protected — the government is limited in its ability to restrict such private speech. The government’s right to speak is not protected, in fact it’s limited by the Constitution. One of the limitations on government speech is that the government is not allowed to endorse a particular religion.

Rep. Bauer’s predecessor as Speaker of the Indiana House admitted that — while the Minister of the Day was at the Speaker’s Podium, the House was in session, and nobody else was allowed to speak from the podium — that Minister of the Day was a governmental speaker. It’s simply inappropriate for the government to be leading revival-style, clap and sing-alongs in the nature of what Speaker Bosma allowed to transpire with the “Let’s Take a Walk with Jesus” episode.

Our Founders did a number of clever things when setting up our government that have allowed our republic to remain stable over the years. First, they limited the ability of government to become intertwined with religion. Back in the late 18th century when our government was being invented, memories of the religious wars that devastated Europe were still fresh, and our Founders recognized that combining the two makes for a toxic mix. Second, they recognized that the majority did not have carte blanche to dictate to the minority. Look around the world and you will quickly see that when a religious minority feels alienated from their country, bad things happen.

Maybe somebody can enlighten me, but what is gained from a sectarian prayer to open House proceedings? Because, to me, it resembles nothing so much as a dog peeing on a tree. I think certain vocal and politically influential segments of the Christian population simply feel a need to mark their territory. Vague assertions about “tradition” by proponents of sectarian government prayer do not do much to reduce this feeling.

Tax law suit hearing

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Lesley Stedman Weidenbener has an article in the Louisville Courier Journal on the class action tax lawsuit filed by attorney John Price against the State. The State is basically arguing that taxpayers can’t go stampeding directly to the tax court – they have to exhaust administrative remedies first. In the context of this suit, I’m not sure if it means going through the Dept. of Local Government Finance or perhaps through the local Property Tax Board of Appeals and then the Board of Tax Review. In any case, Price on behalf of the citizens he represents says that going the administrative route would be a waste of time. A cynical lawyer might suggest that this often seems to be the point of requiring administrative exhaustion. But, I don’t know any cynical lawyers.

The lawsuit also challenges the authority of Gov. Mitch Daniels and the Department of Local Government Finance to extend a deadline for local governments to impose income taxes as a way to reduce property taxes next year.

A law passed by the General Assembly in the spring set the deadline as Aug. 1, but Daniels and the agency extended it to the end of the year.

Price said the constitution prohibits Daniels from arbitrarily changing a state law.

Attorneys for the state didn’t argue the merits of that issue yesterday. Instead, Andrew Swain, chief counsel for the Indiana Attorney General’s tax section, said none of the plaintiffs had the right to challenge the state action because the matter is between the state and the counties.

In the back of my mind, I thought maybe there was some kind of safety valve the legislature had given the DLGF that ended up allowing the Governor to extend the deadlines. Apparently not. The Governor is just winging it. I imagine county councilors around the state will be a little hesitant to pass an income tax based on deadlines extended by the Governor without clear authority. (I don’t think they’d be eager to pass a tax increase in the first place – this would just add to the natural reluctance to raise taxes.)

Body’s Clock Never Adjusts to DST

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The e-mail is on a different machine so I don’t know who to credit for this, but they said that their life is ruled by the clock while their body is ruled by the sun. German researchers are reporting that our internal body clocks never really adjusts to Daylight Saving Time.

“When you change clocks to daylight savings time, you don’t change anything related to sun time,” explained lead researcher Till Roenneberg of Ludwig-Maximilians-University in Munich. “This is one of those human arrogances — that we can do whatever we want as long as we are disciplined. We forget that there is a biological clock that is as old as living organisms, a clock that cannot be fooled. The pure social change of time cannot fool the clock.”

People’s circadian rhythm — the body’s internal clock — follows the sun and changes depending on where you live. It actually changes in four-minute intervals, exactly the time it takes for the sun to cross one line of longitude, Roenneberg explained.

“The circadian clock does not change to the social change,” Roenneberg said. “During the winter, there is a beautiful tracking of dawn in human sleep behavior, which is completely and immediately interrupted when daylight savings time is introduced in March,” he said. It returns to normal this year when standard time returns on Nov. 4, he added.

RiShawn Biddle fired by Indy Star

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Apparently RiShawn Biddle, blogger and editorial writer for the Indy Star has been fired. I didn’t read the offending entry, but apparently he threw in a racial slur when talking about Marion/Indy City County Council President Monroe Gray. For what it’s worth, both men are black. Seems like a bit of a loss to me. I didn’t frequently agree with RiShawn’s columns, but he seemed like a nice enough guy.

Update Until such time as the Star deletes it, here is RiShawn’s offending column. (H/t stAllio!)

Seventh Circuit dismisses Legislative Prayer Case for technical reasons

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The Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals dismissed the Legislative Prayer Case, Hinrich v. Bosma on technical grounds, saying that the Plaintiffs did not have standing to sue because the taxpayer dollars used to support the “Minister of the Day” program, and therefore to support sectarian prayer by the Indiana House of Representatives, were not closely enough related to the content of the prayers to entitle Plaintiffs to bring suit as taxpayers.

I have not had time to read the opinion yet and am just reading the quoted materials provided by the Indiana Law Blog, but I wanted to make the reason for the dismissal more or less clear before the meme started going around that the 7th Circuit had some how made a determination that sectarian prayer as official business of the Indiana House of Representatives was permitted under the First Amendment. Instead, the 7th Circuit avoided answering that question one way or the other.

In his dissenting opinion, Judge Wood makes much the same point:

My colleagues have concluded that this lawsuit must be cut off at the threshold issue of standing. While I do not agree with them on this point, before turning to that question I wish to highlight the implications (or lack thereof) of their decision. Nothing in the majority opinion should be understood as a ruling one way or the other on the merits of the House’s procedures. Should someone come along who meets the majority’s concept of standing, the question whether the House may sponsor prayers at State expense urging everyone in the chamber to adhere to Christianity, or edicts declaring the room a “hallowed place,” or musical exhortations, revival style, to “talk with Jesus,” is an open one.

Judge Wood’s dissent also opens with a discussion, well worth reading, attributing much of America’s success in religious co-existence to the Founder’s balancing act — allowing individuals to practice their religion freely while restricting government’s ability to get involved with religion at all.

Hey Big Spender!

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Via David Lightman at the McClatchy Washington Bureau Bush is the biggest spender since LBJ, and arguably a bigger spender than LBJ.

George W. Bush, despite all his recent bravado about being an apostle of small government and budget-slashing, is the biggest spending president since Lyndon B. Johnson. In fact, he’s arguably an even bigger spender than LBJ.

“He’s a big government guy,” said Stephen Slivinski, the director of budget studies at Cato Institute, a libertarian research group.

The numbers are clear, credible and conclusive, added David Keating, the executive director of the Club for Growth, a budget-watchdog group.

“He’s a big spender,” Keating said. “No question about it.”

Take almost any yardstick and Bush generally exceeds the spending of his predecessors.

Discretionary spending — i.e. spending Congress and the President can control, not entitlements like Social Security and Medicare — shot up 5.3% per year for Bush’s first 6 years. Prior to Bush, Johnson had the highest increases at 4.6% per year. It was 3% under Ford, 2.4% under Carter, and 1.9% under Reagan. Clinton is not listed, meaning that discretionary spending went up less under his administration than under Reagan’s.

Now, near the end of the seventh year of his presidency, Bush is positioning himself as a tough fiscal conservative.

He says Congress is proposing to spend $22 billion more in fiscal 2008 than the $933 billion he requested for discretionary programs — and that the $22 billion extra would swell over five years to $205 billion.

Eventually, Bush said, “they’re going to have to raise taxes to pay for it.”

And so, the president told an Arkansas audience earlier this month, people should brace for “what they call a fiscal showdown in Washington.

. . .

Bush is getting tough on fiscal policy — after running up a record as the most profligate spender in at least 40 years.

Freedom v. Tyranny – Pats v. Colts

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Another of the posters from Charlie Weis Ate My Baby:

I saw that the Hoosier Pundit had this poster up as well under the title “Peyton Fights for FREEDOM.” On most things, I disagree with the Hoosier Pundit. Glad to see we can unite when the stakes are high enough. (Though, I’m waiting for the Hoosier Pundit post insinuating that Baron Hill is actually a Patriots fan.)

Daylight Saving Time actually results in no real savings

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LeAnn Ralph, writing for the Dunn County (Wisconsin – I believe) News has an article entitled Daylight Saving Time actually results in no real savings.

The United States started using DST during World War I as a way to save fuel needed to produce electric power. But even though DST is intended to save electricity, the total savings is minimal, Reardon said.

“During the summer months is when we get the most benefit … If we can decrease the amount of the time from when the sun sets until the time we go to bed, we save electricity,” he said.

Since people tend to spend time outside in the evenings, DST saves on the use of electric lights, televisions, microwaves, computers and other electrical gadgets and appliances, Reardon ex-plained.

The article then explains that DST has now been extended well beyond the summer months, this year going from March 11 to November 4.

Implementing DST earlier in the spring and later in the fall when it remains dark longer in the morning produces virtually no benefit because people keep their lights on longer in the morning.

“The energy savings is minuscule,” Reardon said, noting that the statistics used to calculate the savings of DST are from the 1970s. Current studies are needed to provide more up-to-date information.

Since the 70s, the typical house is chock full of things that use power regardless of light or dark; e.g. DVD players and computers. So, the overall energy saving is that much less significant as a percentage of total power used. So, essentially, Indiana has apparently adopted DST after its actual usefulness, such as it was, has passed. Now we’re just doing it because everyone else does it — an excuse that didn’t much fly with my parents, if memory serves. Well, that and all the job creation, of course.