If Indiana lawmakers are close to a deal on property taxes,  they might want to speed up a bit.  There are three days left before lawmakers are forced to adjourn.  My sources tell me a lot of lawmakers are concerned about the possibilty of raising the sales tax without caps.  They also say a lone tax cap on residential property as proposed by House Speaker Pat Bauer would probably be ruled as unconsitutional since the Indiana Constitution requires all property be taxed in an equitable manner.   We’ll be broadcasting live from the State House tomorrow.

Note:  The Indiana Election Commission is having two hearings this afternoon.  One on whether John McCain is qualified to be on the ballot.  The second is over State Senator Brent Waltz and whether he resides in his district.

Extra Note:  Andre Carson’s win in the 7th Congressional District race not only makes him a Congressman, but also a super delegate in the Democratic Presidential race.  That also helps explain why Barack Obama called Carson right after his win last night to congratulate him.

By now you know Andre Carson, the grandson of the late Julia Carson, is on his way to Washington.  Carson won 54-43 percent over Republican State Representative Jon Elrod. Libertarian Sean Shepard got slightly less than three percent of the vote.  Turn out was about 18 percent or a total of 84,750 voters out of 466,000.

Carson told supporters he has to hit the ground running, and he’s right.  Some of his fellow Democratic challengers are already starting the campaign for the May primary.   State Representative David Orenlichter is announcing his candidacy today in Kennedy-King park.  Alons side of him will be Dr. Derek King the nephew of Dr. Martin Luther King.   Another challenger, Dr. Woody Meyers has already unveiled his campaign commercials.

It really should not surprise anyone that a Democrat in a predominately Democratic district won with a majority of Democratic votes.   So it will be interesting to see which Democratic comes out of the May primary.

What makes me think it will be a fun race is that Carson got less than nine percent of the registered vote in the 7th Congressional District.

Unless something changes soon, Andre Carson will be next Congressman from the 7th Congressional District. With about 80-percent of the votes counted Carson leads Elrod 53-44 percent.

Although Elrod led early in the evening, over the course of the evening vote count changed and Carson’s lead was cemented when eight Center Township precincts came in at about 9:30 p.m.

There are still some votes left to be counted so the race could tighten with 100 precincts left to be counted as this blog goes to print. Only about 15-percent of the registered voters showed up to the polls.

I’ll have more in the morning.

I spent a good chunk of the day making calls and talking to politicos across town about today’s race and here is what I’m able to conclude; barring some total last minute blowout whomever wins it will probably be pretty close.

The Elrod camp tells me they’re doing well in places where they need to, while Democrats say things are going as expected for them.

There appears to be very heavy on the south side of the district as well as Speedway which is heavily Republican.  Center Township was described lighter than usual for the morning crowd, but the key time to observe is between now and when the polls close at 6 p.m. because that is considered make or break time due to the heaviest turnout occurs during that time.

It could be close, folks.

This is the last week of the Indiana General Assembly and the only thing all sides in the property tax debate are saying is that they are still talking. I’m hearing rumblings that a breakthrough is being reached, but so far that is just rumblings.

The only “big” news this morning is that Republican State Senator Mike Delph and Democratic State Representative Vern Tincher say they’ve reached a compromise on an immigration reform bill and they hope that it will make into a conference committee report by the end of the week.

The bill would, among other things, Restore language creating penalties for individuals who are found guilty of transporting, shielding from detection, concealing or harboring an illegal alien for commercial or financial gain; Allow public contracts to be terminated with contractors or sub-contractors who knowingly employ illegal immigrants; Require the Superintendent of Indiana State Police to enter into a memorandum of understanding for a pilot project for the training and enforcement of federal immigration and custom laws; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: Authorize the Indiana Attorney General to investigate a complaint that an employer knowingly employed an illegal immigrant and to initiate administrative proceedings against an employer who is employing illegal immigrants before and Administrative Law Judge; Change the time frame for second and third offense from five years to seven years.

Delph says these changes are necessary because Hoosiers want something done about illegal immigration, however the changes Delph wants may come with built in constitutional challenges.  First, only the federal government can make the determination as to who is an illegal immigrant, not the states.   The State Labor Department does not determine the legal status of employees.

Secondly, the legislation requires employers to use the E-verify program to determine employee status.  The problem with E-verify opponents say is that you are forced to waive your 4th Amendment search and seizure rights.  It’s one thing to waive your rights in a voluntary, contractual capacity, but it’s another to require an employer waive their rights.

Third, there are several types of businesses that exempt from the legislation; some corporations, not-for-profit groups, public utilities and hospitals.  That could lead to some equal protection issues.

In addition bill supporters point to a recent Arizona court ruling pointing to similar law being upheld in that state, which is now before the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals.  However the federal courts in central Pennsylvannia struck down a similar law.

The older I get the less use I have for the current K-12 public education system as it currently exists.  I’m not talking about choice, vouchers and merit-based pay, which I am all for and would go a long way to fixing our education system, but my use for “educrats” gets smaller and smaller everyday.

I got a copy of a talking points memo, which the Superintendents of Marion County have been using to make their arguments against property tax reform, even though schools are anywhere from 24-75 percent of your property tax bill, depending on where you are in Indiana.

They oppose the circuit breaker, i.e. property tax caps because it would “harm school systems trying to educate children in districts with low assessed valuation.”  Never mind giving homeowners predictability with their tax bills.

They also oppose the referendum requirement , saying the  process would “cost too much and take too much time” to conduct a campaign and could only be done in May or November which means the designs and bidding would have to fit in that electoral time frame.

They are notorious silent on consolidating the upper management of school districts as pointed out in the Kernan-Shepard commission report.

Now I know none of this is new information; particularly as we go into what will hopefully be the last week of the General Assembly.  However to have the audacity  to actually write this stuff down in an e-mail, circulate it and tell other Superintendents to use it to fight against real, meaningful and permanent property tax reform and relief so average Hoosiers don’t have to worry about losing their homes, takes a hell of a lot of nerve.

I got a mailer yesterday from the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee at my downtown place that had a rather interesting message on it; “Had Enough (of George W. Bush), Vote Carson.”  I seem to recall having seen the “Had Enough” message somewhere before.  Oh well, I guess since it’s good enough the other guy, because it worked, it’s good enough for the DCCC.

With Indiana becoming more relevant in the race for the Democratic nomination for the Presidency and the fact that super delegates will likely determine who wins the nomination, here’s the list of the Indiana’s super delegates and where they stand…

Hilary Clinton (5) - Senator Evan Bayh, State Chairman Dan Parker, Joe Andrew (Former National Chairman), Phoebe Crane (DNC Member), Robert Pastrick (DNC Member)

Barak Obama (2) - Cordelia Lewis-Burks (State Vice-Chair), Connie Thurman (DNC Member)

Uncommitted (4) - Rep. Pete Visclosky (IN-1) , Rep. Baron Hill (IN-9), Rep. Brad Ellsworth (IN - 8), Rep. Joe Donnelly (IN-2).

If Andre Carson were to win the 7th Congressional District he would also become a super delegate.  However he has not stated publicly who he would support for President.

Indiana holds its primary on May 6.

Indiana House Democrats are offering up a one-percent constitutional cap on property tax assessments for homeowners. The proposal was unveiled today in a conference committee on HB 1001 which would cap property taxes.

The measure is in line with comments by Speaker Bauer earlier this week who said lawmakers may be trying to tackle too much this session in their efforts to reform property taxes. And he wanted to focus on relief for homeowners.

Statehouse Republicans held a news conference Thursday announcing sweeping property tax reforms. However a spokesman for House Democrats said they unveiled their plan in the committee because they felt it was the more appropriate forum.

As the candidates for the 7th Congressional District go into the final weekend of campaigning before the election, Republican Jon Elrod has unveiled his television ad.

Democrat Andre Carson is planning to do a tour of all the townships in the 7th District.  I  interviewed him this afternoon and will have it for you on Monday on Newstalk 1430.

Libertarian Sean Shepard  is also campaigning this weekend as well.