A Citizen's Guide to Indiana

Masson's Blog

State – $23 million short on highway expansion

by 5 Comments

A project to reroute US 231 to go west of West Lafayette is on hold because the State doesn’t have enough money for the project. The State budgeted $75 million. The cost is now estimated at $98 million. Locals will have to come up with the $23 million for the project to go forward.

The original Major Moves plan was for the project to begin in 2007 and be completed by 2009. Now it won’t get started until at least 2009 and finish in 2011.

The delay in building the road is largely a result of the state’s underestimating how much it will cost to have utilities near the Purdue Airport moved out of the way of the proposed bypass, she said.

The project is also expensive because the state plans to have the road go under Airport Road and the nearby K.B.&S. railroad. To do that, the highway will have to be sunk between 30 and 35 feet below the ground at those two points, Calder said.

Fahey said one way to reduce the cost would be to alter the designs. That could be done by abandoning the plan to build the road below ground, but there is little inclination to make that change, she said.

“You don’t want to build a four-lane highway with at-grade crossings with railroads,” Fahey said.

I guess the Toll Road is out of our hands for the next 73 years. I suppose it would make a certain amount of sense to drag these projects out that long.

Daniels could raise a million dollars in a fundraiser

by Leave a Comment

One cool thing about being a rich guy who knows a lot of other rich guys and who prefers policies that benefit rich guys one and all — it’s a lot easier to raise money come re-election time.

Democrats knew that Republican Gov. Mitch Daniels would be able to raise a mountain of money for his re-election run next year, but $1 million tied to one event?

That’s how much Daniels stands to take in for a fundraiser Tuesday night at the sprawling Carmel home of Scott Jones, the multimillionaire high-tech entrepreneur says.

IN-04: A look at Steve Buyer’s last few races

by 8 Comments

As I’ve noted here before, Nels Ackerson is trying to get the Democratic nomination to challenge Steve Buyer for Indiana’s 4th Congressional seat. I suspect Mr. Ackerson is going to give Mr. Buyer a stiffer challenge than he has gotten in years past. One element of such a race is, inevitably, money. I think some reporting deadlines are either coming or going and we’ll get an early snapshot of this race in the near future. So, I thought it might be interesting to see how the money shook out for Mr. Buyer in the past few races.

For the 2006 race, Buyer raised $744,682 compared to $136,352 raised by David Sanders. From the report, it looks like Buyer got 77% of his money from PACS. Sanders’ race was substantially self-funded.

For the 2004 race, Buyer raised $661,525 of which 70% came from PACS. David Sanders raised about $21,392 which was about 50/50 – self-funded and individual contributions.

For the 2002 race, Buyer raised $945,973 of which 65% came from PACS and 30% was self-funded. Bill Abbott raised only $27,807. The 2002 race was a little unique in that it involved a reorganized district and, in the primary, Buyer had to square off against another incumbent, Brian Kerns.

For the 2000 race, Buyer raised $705,000 and his opponent Gregory Goodnight raised $455,000. And, in 1998, Buyer raised $346,000 and his opponent, David Steele raised $63,657.

So, what does it take to beat an incumbent? Well, in 2006, three Republican incumbents were defeated. In IN-02, Joe Donnelly beat Chris Chocola. Chocola raised $3.2 million compared to Donnelly’s $1.5 million. In IN-08, Brad Ellsworth beat John Hostettler. Ellsworth raised $1.7 million compared to Hostettler’s $586,000. And, in IN-09, Hill raised $1.9 million compared to Mike Sodrel’s $2.7 million. And, just for another data point, in IN-03, where Tom Hayhurst gave Mark Souder a pretty good run, but eventually lost, Hayhurst raised $690,000 compared to Souder’s $622,000.

Money isn’t everything. And, these fund raising numbers don’t paint the whole picture. MoveOn.org helped Donnelly out with an ad blitz against Chocola. The House Republican Campaign Committee provided financial assistance to Souder. And, plenty of other factors contribute besides. But, the fact is that Steve Buyer has not been tested by a Democratic opponent with resources comparable to his. It will be interesting to see whether Mr. Ackerson can get some traction and bring that impressive resume of his to bear against the incumbent from Monticello.

Federal Farm Subsidies

by 4 Comments

Sylvia Smith, writing for the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette, has an interesting article on farm subsidies, particularly the disaster relief program. She reports that growers and ranchers in 10 disaster prone state got more than half of the disaster relief. For example, North Dakota farmers received $1.9 billion over the same period that a comparable number of Hoosier farmers received $340 million.

The Environmental Working Group argues:

When Congress provides money to growers in the same states year after year for the same weather-related reasons, the Environmental Working Group’s president said, it encourages people to farm or ranch in climates that don’t make sense for agriculture.

“You have the government sending signals encouraging people to take chances … where Mother Nature is saying, ‘You’re pushing things,’ ” Ken Cook said Tuesday when his group released a report analyzing 21 years of disaster payments.

Senator Lugar has a plan:

Federal farm subsidies are already excessive, focused on only a handful of crops, and mostly go to farmers in a few states,” he said. “Over the past 10 years, farm subsidies have gone to just one out of three farmers with six percent of farms receiving more than 70 percent of that money – $120 billion.

“Adding ‘permanent disaster assistance’ only adds to this egregious system, targeting certain crops.”

Lugar has proposed a different approach: a combination of federally backed insurance and tax deferred savings accounts for farmers.

“All farmers could participate regardless of crop or animal raised,” he said. “This would be a more than adequate safety net at much less taxpayer expense, particularly given the changes that are occurring from biofuels production and economies of scale.”

We spend a ton of money on a pretty messed up farm system. Want smaller government? Farm welfare might be a rational first target, though politically it seems pretty impossible.

Indiana Constitution: Article I, Section 6

by 1 Comment

Article I, Section 6:

Section 6. No money shall be drawn from the treasury, for the benefit of any religious or theological institution.

This provision is generally what is known as a Blaine Amendment. The Blaine Amendments were generally passed out of a fear of the Catholic Church. Many Protestants had a fear of the incoming masses of Catholics and were afraid that the Catholics would take over the schools.

A prominent case involving this provision was State ex rel. Johnson v. Boyd, 28 N.E.2d 256 (Ind. 1940). It involved a situation where three Catholic schools educating about 800 students in Vincennes were going to close in the 30s. The City adopted a resolution and essentially assumed operation of the schools under much the same framework as had existed when the schools were formally designated as parochial schools.

In addition to other pictures the school rooms in each of said buildings had hanging on the walls, in view of said students, a picture of Jesus, The Holy Family, The Crucifixion, and George Washington. They also each have an American Flag and a Holy Water fount, in which is kept Holy Water for the use of the pupils. While teaching the teachers wore the characteristic robes of the orders to which they belonged and the sisters always wore a rosary and crucifix in view of the pupils.

On the grounds near each of said schools there is located a Roman Catholic Church, a rectory or Priests’ Home and a Sisters’ Home. Each morning immediately prior to the beginning of the school the pupils of each room were caused to attend at the nearby church where they were given religious instructions for thirty minutes by the parish priest. This particular service is said to be voluntary. So far as shown no pupil attending any of said schools has refused or failed to attend such morning services for religious instruction.

The teachers were all Catholic Sisters and Brothers who wore th e dress of their religious orders while teaching.

Surprisingly, the Supreme Court found no violation here. They said that as long as the teachers held a valid license and taught state curriculum, it didn’t matter that the teachers expressed their religious beliefs or that the school facilities were donated by religious institutions.

My quick review of the Westlaw annotations didn’t show any rulings by state courts under this provision of the Constitution that declared some government practice unconstitutional. However, there were one or two federal court decisions that did. So, this provision seems mostly toothless.

Church & State

by Leave a Comment

Ed Brayton has a nice post up entitled Rush Limbaugh’s Historical Ignorance in which Brayton debunks noted comedian, Rush Limbaugh’s, assertions about Thomas Jefferson and the separation of Church & State. The arguments put forth by comedian Limbaugh are pretty common by those who see church and state as two great tastes that taste great together, making the piece a good read even if one has no interest in Limbaugh’s comic stylings.

Batesville Herald Tribune on Judicial Mandates

by Leave a Comment

(Via the Indiana Law Blog) The Batesville Herald Tribune has an editorial entitled Judicial mandate not popular device. They are referring to the situation in Montgomery County where the local judges issued a mandate ordering the County Council to pay higher salaries for three classes of court employees. The newspaper’s central point is correct: County Councils have a right to be irritated by being told how much to pay a county employee.

[T]he judicial power of the state reaches from the Supreme Court at the state level all the way to the courts of general jurisdiction at the local level. So even though staffers who work for the courts are considered county employees, their pay can’t be controlled by the county council.

Any other department of the County just has to suck it up when budgets are too tight and employees don’t get paid enough. I’m a little torn in the Montgomery County case. The employees seem like good, hardworking folks and it’s nice that they’ll get a raise. In addition, I know some of the judges in Montgomery County and they are not the types to issue a mandate lightly. Still, if a Sheriff feels like his deputies aren’t getting paid enough, and he suffers from high turn over of deputies because of the compensation, the Sheriff can’t simply order the County Council to fork over more money. Same with the Highway Department, the Assessor’s Office, the Surveyor’s Office, the Treasurer, you name it.

I was, however, amused by the closing paragraph:

A judicial mandate is a device that should be used sparingly, if at all. If a need is compelling, judges should be able to draw on their background of advocacy to persuade county officials to go along with the request.

I don’t think I’ve ever seen a mandate where the judge didn’t first try to ask the Council for the money and persuade rather than force. Where are these counties where judges go around mandating first, asking questions later?

GOP Property Tax Proposal

by 2 Comments

Niki Kelly, writing for the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette has an article entitled, “GOP analyst has tax relief proposal.”

I didn’t get a good idea of just which Republicans were behind this proposal, just that the Senate Republican fiscal analyst presented it. Basically, the proposal would eliminate the property tax relief credits and homestead credits and use that money to pay for welfare levies and school general funds. The State would have to come up with an additional $400 million to make this work. Residential homeowners would see no change in their property taxes, landlords would see a 3% drop, and businesses would see a 12% drop.

The article further mentioned that Sen. Kenley has advised there won’t be any substantial property tax legislation going through on Organization Day in November. However, it seems likely that the General Assembly will ratify some deadline extensions made unilaterally (read – illegally until the General Assembly say otherwise) by the Governor.

Presidential Fund Raising

by 1 Comment

MyDD has the preliminary fund raising numbers for the 2008 Presidential Candidates. In order of funds raised for the quarter they are:

Barack Obama – $19 million
Hillary Clinton – $17 – 19 million
Rudy Giuliani – $10 million
Fred Thompson – $8 million
Mitt Romney – $8 million (The MyDD story has him at $15 million, Oliver Willis has him at $10 million including $7 million self-donated. So, I’m just using the $15 million as a total and the $7 million as a donation).
John Edwards – $7 million
Bill Richardson – $5.2 million

Kos has a post up suggesting that Edwards is making a poor strategic decision to opt for public funding in the primary and general while Obama is making a poor strategic decision to say that he will take public funding in the general if the Republican candidate does the same. Because the Democrats are killing the Republicans in fund raising this time around, Kos suggests, it shows a lack of the killer instinct to give the Republicans any quarter in this respect.

Iraq Relativity Theory

by 4 Comments

I’m working on a new view of government program analysis:

Anything that costs less than $2 or $3 billion per week but is more useful to the average U.S. citizen than the War in Iraq is automatically o.k. What do you think?