A Citizen's Guide to Indiana

Masson's Blog

Locking down the State House

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Jim Shella has a story about the new security measures at the State House. More cameras, limited access to the parking lot, doors lock a half hour earlier during the week, public access is limited to four hours per day on the weekends, and metal detectors are coming.

I understand the concerns, but I oppose the measures. The costs of security are incremental but the potential consequences of inadequate security could be tragic. That’s why security has a way of ratcheting up. There’s really no way to know when you have too much.

To me, part of living in a free and open society means that we have to trust our fellow citizens enough to allow ourselves access to our public spaces; particularly our democratic centers. I don’t think it’s healthy for the body politic to indulge itself in its fears. I believe have to be brave enough to risk tragedy. The alternative is a slow death of a million cuts in which we subject ourselves to ever more suspicion and security, magnifying our fears beyond their legitimate level and sowing distrust among citizens.

Advice on taxes

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The editorial boards of the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette and the Marion Chronicle Tribune have advice for the Governor and General Assembly with respect to taxation today. The Chronicle Tribune opposes the cigarette tax increase proposed by the Governor. The editors feel that it’s wrong to tax a behavior simply because it’s undesirable. The government should ban the behavior if it’s bad enough but taxing the behavior is apparently beyond the pale. The Chronicle Tribune opines that if we’re going to have taxes (conceding, almost reluctantly, that some are necessary), the money from them should be used for something related to the thing being taxed. They mention the gas tax as a means of paying for roads, which makes sense. But then they go too far. “Otherwise, [if the money from taxes is used for something unrelated to the thing being taxed], it’s just the government going after our wallets.” (You can tell where the hearts of the editorial board are by the taxes they list as other taxes that just go after our wallets: property taxes, capital gains taxes, and estate taxes. Not income taxes and sales taxes.)

That’s just silly. I don’t enjoy paying taxes, but it’s not government “just going after our wallets.” Governments provide necessary services. Without government, as Hobbes pointed out, the condition of humanity is that of war of all against all.

In such condition there is no place for industry, because the fruit thereof is uncertain: and consequently no culture of the earth; no navigation, nor use of the commodities that may be imported by sea; no commodious building; no instruments of moving and removing such things as require much force; no knowledge of the face of the earth; no account of time; no arts; no letters; no society; and which is worst of all, continual fear, and danger of violent death; and the life of man, solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short.

Freedom isn’t free, as they say, and taxes are one of the prices. Not just use taxes or reasonable facsimiles thereof; but general taxes as well. The cigarette tax I can take or leave. It’s palatable for politicians for the pernicious reasons cited by the Chronicle Tribune: it taxes an unsavory behavior of a minority of the populace. On the other hand, I’m not pure of heart. I really dislike smoking and if the tax imposed either reduces smoking or reduces the need for taxes on me, then I’ll win to a small degree one way or another.

Meanwhile, the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette’s editorial advises against temporarily suspending the state sales tax on certain goods, characterizing such a suspension as “political gimmickry” rather than sound fiscal planning. Noting that a temporary suspension could potentially help some Hoosiers with back-to-school expenses, the FWJG opines that “goods that are not taxable one weekend should not be taxable the next.” Instead, if lawmakers really want to address the back-to-school costs, they will provide textbooks for either no charge or a sharply reduced fee.

As part of its discussion the editorial says that a strong case may be made for exempting such things as gasoline and clothing from sales taxes as goods that fulfill basic needs. Unprepared food and prescriptions already enjoy such an exemption. However, any such decision should not be made on impulse. If lawmakers want to exempt gasoline from the sales tax, they would be forced to find a way to make up for the lost $300 million in revenue.

DST & Time Zone open thread

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My “Hot, Hot Heat” post, a one paragraph throw away about the heat and general grumbling about how DST means it stays hot an extra hour later, has generated 77 comments to date. So, obviously there was some desire to discuss Daylight Saving Time and the time zone issues. So, I thought I’d open up another thread so folks don’t have to scroll down 77 comments to get to the latest.

I’ll kick it off with a quote that Jim attributes to the inimitable Tom Heller:

“[T]he sun controls my body, but the clock controls my life.” The daily activities of life are governed by the clock we observe. But if the sun and that clock are out-of-sync, then I gotta believe there are costs incurred. Maybe not visible or obvious, but that doesn’t mean they’re not there. I think I may have suggested that excessive eating (carbohydrates in particular) may be related to sleep-deprivation or getting our bodies up and off to work or school before they’ve got a shot of daylight. Certainly, there are studies that link carbohydrate loading to depression. And if Dr. David Avery’s research is solid, there may be a link between Indiana’s unnaturally’advanced’ clock and a tendency to obesity among the state’s residents.

Chicago Tribune on IN-02, IN-08, IN-09

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Jeff Zeleny, writing for the Chicago Tribune, has an article on Indiana’s 3 closest Congressional races: IN-02, IN-08, and IN-09. He focuses on the fact that Indiana Democrats are more conservative than Democrats nationally and that Ellsworth, Hill, and Donnelly are trying to persuade voters who may have voted for President Bush in 2004 that they share similar policy preferences. Meanwhile, their opponents are desperate to paint them as “San Francisco liberals.”

Voters aren’t as concerned with the labels as they are with basic questions about government:

People have questions about the price of energy–why is it so high and what are we doing about it? The war in Iraq–what’s the plan? The rising cost of health care–what have we done? And they have questions about immigration–are we going to get a bill?

It looks like the national campaign committees, Republican and Democratic, will be pouring money into Indiana. Control of Congress may be determined by Hoosiers.

IN-03: Souder & term limits

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Mark Souder is a self-serving, oath-breaking schmuck. Sylvia Smith has a long article in the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette on the subject of Mark Souder’s pledge to serve no more than 6 terms as a Congressman. He made that pledge in 1994 and is now running for his 7th term. Ms. Smith diplomatically calls Souder’s position on term limits “versatile.”

In 1994, he ranked term limits as the second most important plank in his platform. Souder’s pretext for being forsworn on his pledge? Redistricting. After the decennial redistricting in which his district gained heavily Republican Kosciusko County and part of Elkhart County, Souder deemed his promises in 1994 “no longer operative.”

With that kind of logic, if Hayhurst succeeds in ousting Souder, I think Souder has a big future managing airline pensions.

The problem is not with Souder’s “new thinking” on term limits. There are very good reasons not to impose limits. The problem is with Souder’s decision to chuck a promise when it becomes inconvenient. Politicians who are serious about promoting “values” in this country have to know that value #1 is being true to one’s word. If you can’t keep a promise, you shouldn’t make it; and you certainly shouldn’t make it the second most important plank of your campaign. And the pretexts he comes up with to justify breaking his promise are so transparent as to be insulting. I’d almost respect him more if he just came out and said, “I just made up that term limit nonsense to get elected. Now that I’ve been elected, I want to stay in office as long as I possibly can.”

The article has the text of a September 1994 campaign commercial:
September 1994 radio commercial:

“Hi, I’m Mark Souder. This election isn’t about who’s the nicest or who smiles the best. It’s about our children’s future and about ideas. Ideas like the government not taking over health care. It’s about not sending troops into somewhere like Haiti unless our national security’s at stake. It’s about changing the way Congress works through term limits. Jill Long voted to support military intervention in Haiti. She sponsored the Clinton health plan and opposes term limits. Jill Long doesn’t vote with us in northeast Indiana anymore. I will. Now it’s your turn to vote.”

I have mixed feelings about health care, but I’m certainly on board with a politician who opposes sending troops where our national security is not involved. In that regard, I’ll take a dozen Haitis over one Iraq.

Chocola’s policies attacked; Donnelly’s personal history attacked

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James Wensits has an article in the South Bend Tribune entitled “Congressional race explodes.” The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee launched ads accusing Chocola of being in the pocket of “Big Oil” and voting against legislation that theoretically would have cracked down on “price gouging” by oil companies.

Meanwhile, the National Republican Congressional Committee issued a press release stating that in 2001 the IRS placed a lien against a Donnelly family business based in LaPorte for unpaid payroll taxes. Donnelly says, and his brother who runs the business confirms, that Donnelly did not have any active role in the business after 1997.

Are both claims misleading? Probably. Life is nuanced. Political campaigns can’t afford to be. But notice the difference in the attack strategies. The DCCC is going after Chocola over policy differences and his role as a public servant, specifically Chocola’s political relationship to the oil industry. Meanwhile, the NRCC is trying to go after Donnelly for things that have nothing to do with public policy. They dredge up late paid property taxes, and now a family business Donnelly has little to do with.

All is fair in love, war, and politics, I suppose; but I don’t think this is wise strategy by the Chocola campaign. I think the public is going to identify with a guy like Donnelly who gets his bills paid even if he has to juggle a little and pay things late on occasion, particularly if those bills are something like the much-hated property tax. Certainly, those sorts of every day struggles are more familiar to voters than the lifestyle of the ultra-rich Chocola who is worth 10s of millions of dollars, according to public records.

IN-09: Sodrel & Hill Agree to Aug. 31 debate

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David Mann reports that Baron Hill and Mike Sodrel, the Democratic and Republican candidates to represent the 9th Congressional District, have verbally agreed to an August 31, 2006 debate; format details are still being negotiated. WTIU will broadcast the debate.

Phil Meyer, WTIU station manager, says that he would prefer that Libertarian candidate Eric Schansberg be included in the debate, but that Schansberg’s participation would require the agreement of Hill and Sodrel. Apparently the Green Party candidate was included in the 2004 debate.

The 2004 debate had questions coming from a panel of journalists. The Sodrel campaign has said that it would prefer questions that also came from the audience, not solely from media organizations.

Bauer proposes repeal of gas tax sales tax on gas

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House Minority leader Pat Bauer has proposed a repeal of the gas tax sales tax on gas in light of high gas prices. I can’t agree with him on this one, but a modification might be appropriate. The current tax is 6 cents on the dollar.

Bauer said rising gasoline prices since Republican Gov. Mitch Daniels took office in January 2005 have generated $152 million more in gas sales taxes through July than the state would have gotten had prices remained the same. Bauer, D-South Bend, said gasoline was an essential commodity and Indiana should not be profiting from what he called price gouging by the oil industry.

“People are hurting, the middle class and poor people need relief to get to work,” Bauer said. “We don’t need to take partnership in this gouging.”

Unlike privatizing the toll road, I think gas taxes are an appropriate method of funding road construction and maintenance. Letting oil companies squeeze the State out of this method of funding roads would be bad policy. However, it would seem reasonable to set the tax at some number of cents per gallon rather than cents per dollar. I think there is going to be a correlation between gallons consumed, miles driven, and road construction and maintenance needed. I suspect the correlation between gallons consumed and necessary road maintenance is going to be closer than that between dollars spent and necessary road maintenance. Price of gasoline is going to be more variable than fuel economy.

So the legislature would probably be well advised to convert the tax from $0.06 per dollar to $0.0X per gallon where “X” reflects the average impact of the use of a gallon of gas on our roads.
Update This is something of a “nevermind” moment. As has been pointed out in the comments, Bauer’s remarks were directed at the sales tax on gas which is the standard 6% and were not directed at the excise tax which is, per the article if I’d bothered to read closely, 18 cents per gallon for the state and 18.4 cents per gallon for the federal government.

Beer, Glorious Beer

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As I’ve mentioned far too much in the past month or so, I have moved to Lafayette from Monticello. One of the great advantages of this move is access to liquor stores with a better beer selection. In Monticello, it was difficult to get anything much more exotic than Guinness. But, you give me an inch, and I want a foot. So now, rather than an adequate beer selection, I’m looking for the liquor store with the widest beer selection in the Lafayette area. Any suggestions?

This evening I went to the Village Bottle Shoppe on Northwestern & Lindberg Road in West Lafayette. It wasn’t bad, but really what I have in mind is something like the Big Red Liquors on Walnut Avenue in Bloomington. Back when I was in law school at IU, they had several long rows of six-packs stored warm and about half of that in the refrigerators. (According to Indianabeer.com, I should’ve gone to the Village Bottle Shoppe on Sagamore Parkway. Guess I’ll try that next.)

In case anybody was wondering, this evening I picked up a 6-pack of Robert the Bruce Scottish Ale from Three Floyds Brewing out of Munster, Indiana which was very tasty. I also picked up a 6-pack of Belle Gunness Stout from the Backroad Brewery out of LaPorte, Indiana. I haven’t had a chance to taste it yet.

Hot hot heat

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Wow, it’s been hot out there. Like, really hot. But that’s just Indiana for you. I probably can’t blame it on the politicians. But I can point out that Daylight Saving Time arranges the day such that the heat of the day affects us more. That “extra” hour of light also means an extra hour of heat. Since the sun doesn’t go down until later, the heat also doesn’t dissipate until later.