When it comes to the blogosphere there are a lot of days when I think I’m the only person who can grasp the obvious. Luckily, today is not one of them. Former WXNT-AM producer and now current Indiana Libertarian Party Executive Director Chris Spangle penned a blog post this week basically telling the Capitol Improvement Bankruptcy advocates to get a clue.
The Indianapolis City-County Council is currently moving forward with a plan to increase the hotel tax by one percent, in order to close the C.I.B.’s funding gap.
Spangle reminds the bankruptcy crowd that it is not an option because under federal law, the state would have to give the CIB authorization to file, which is not going to happen. In addition, Spangle makes an excellent point by reminding readers that the full implementation fo property tax caps kicks in next year and there is no way the Legislature is going to give local governments that type of out.
He also points out the practical effect of bankruptcy, because anyone who thinks that would drag the Colts back to the table to negotiate would have the unitended consquence of having every other booked convention looking for ways to get out of their agreements and likely scare off any future prospects.
Spangle closes his blog post by encouraging Libertarians to come up with viable alternatives other than bankruptcy such as privatization, more openness and reform of the C.I.B.
It’s defiinitely a piece worth reading. And although it states the obvious, sometimes it’s necessary to point that out especially when all people see is everything except what’s actually there.
But I told you so. 32-year old Shanisha Davis was atacked at the I-69 and Keystone off ramp by a panhandler while trying to give him some money. According to police reports, the woman saw the man with a sign that said will work for food, tried to give him $5, but but he pulled a knife on her and forced his way into the car.
Luckily Davis managed to get out with just a minor cut on her hand and police are still searching for the man and the stolen car. But this situation could have been a lot worse. The woman may not have been able to escape and something else could have happened.
I bring this up because I hope this will give the opponents of an anti-panhandling proposal something to think about. The measure which failed to pass last week would have banned panhandling at off ramps and near intersections. Democrats and Libertarians opposed it saying it restricted speech and intruded on the panhandlers liberty rights. Sorry folks, there is no right to carjack a woman at an off ramp.
Now there are those people who will say that an ordinance would have not made a difference. I disagree. Had their been an ordinance, the police would have had the authority to tell that panhandler at I-65 to get lost and go somewhere else and beg. But instead opponents are more concerned about his rights than those of the begger than people like Davis.
Well I hope they’re happy. And who knows, maybe the next woman who’s attacked by a panhandler at an off ramp won’t be so lucky.
A few items of note to start out your morning. Take them for what they are worth and feel free to discuss any of them.
Indiana Congressman Dan Burton has his name attached to two pieces of legislation regarding the President and that silly birth certificate issue. On the one hand, the Congressman is co-sponsoring a bill that would require candidates for federal office to show their birth certificate to prove their citizenship. On the other hand, Burton co-sponsored a House Resolution that would declare the President a natural-born citizen of the United States.
Republican State Senator Mike Delph may have challenger in the next election. Word is that Democrats are trying to recruit Democrat City-County Councilor Jose Evans to take on Delph in the next go around.
Stonewall Democrats says when it comes to David Orentlicher’s race for Marion County County Prosecutor, they’re just friends. Members of the group sent out an E-vite for a fundraiser for Orentlicher. When asked if it was an endorsement, a spokesman for the group says Orentlicher has been a friend of the LGBT community and they are just expressing their gratitude and that they would be willing to hold events for prosecutor candidates as well.
Speaking of Prosecutor’s race, there’s some talk that Marion County Democratic Chairman Ed Treacy is trying to recruit Marion County Clerk Beth White to run for Prosecutor if Linda Pence gets the appointment to U.S. Attorney for the Southern District.
If local attorney and Capital Improvement Board irritant Paul Ogden decides to run for Mayor as he has been hinting at on his we blog, he won’t get any help from theLibertarian Party. Executive Director Chris Spangle says Ogden is a Republican and his party is about electing Libertarians.
And here’s something you don’t hear everyday. Indianapolis may host the World Cup sometime between 2018 and 2022. Local officials say they received an inquiry about Indianapolis hosting World Cup Soccer and they plan to follow up.
It was a vote nobody wanted, but by 5-1, the City-County Council Rules and Policy Committee moved forward tonight with a plan that would increase the local hotel tax by one percent to help bail out the Capitol Improvement Board.
Republicans dominated the committee but each one said they were not crazy about raising the tax, but it was the only option given to them by General Assembly. Democrat Angela Mansfield was the only “no” vote. Democrats Joanne Sanders and Monroe Gray were not at the meeting.
Republican At-large member Barb Malone said while she would vote to get the measure to the full Council, she said there was no guarantee she would vote for the measure once it got there. And committee Chairman Bob Lutz said there was a 50-50 chance the measure would pass the full council.
Lutz said the City was dealt a bad hand by the General Assembly and it was the only hand they had to play. If the full Council passes the measures it opens the door to other state funding for the CIB.
Opponents of the measure offered their criticism of plan but short of calling for bankruptcy, which state law does not allow, they were short on alternatives to the current proposal.
You can hear interviews with all three Councilors below. A full Council vote is slated for next month.
Another day, another Indiana School District referendum. This time it’s the Hamilton Southeastern School District. The HSE Board voted Monday night to ask the taxpayers for a $5.5 million tax increase to make up for a funding shortfall.
In Marion County, Franklin and Perry Townships as well as Beech Grove are asking for more cash for schools and Wishard Hospital is asking for voters to approve hundreds of millions of dollars for a new Hospital.
I will admit to not being a huge fan of government by referendum and California is my example where people vote in programs but also vote against paying for them. But I actually think in this case, a referendum is a pretty good thing. Many local governments whine about being strapped for cash because of property tax caps and that the situation is only going to get worse when the full caps kick in in 2010. So the legislature gave them the ability to go to the voters and ask for more money.
Local governments are going to have to really make the case for these referenda if they want them to pass, but past history hasn’t been too kind. According the State Department of Local Government and Finance, only five of the last 17 school referenda in Indiana have passed.
With any luck, these school referenda will go down in flames, the locals will be strapped for cash, and then they will have focus on the “c” word as a way to stay open; c, of course, being consolidation and the madness can stop.
Tomorrow’s scheduled committee vote on a hotel tax as part of the state-city plan to address the the Capitol Improvement Board $47 million deficit may not take place until next Tuesday.
The measure is slated for a hearing by the Rules & Policy Committee, however Chairman Bob Lutz says some committee members may need more time to digest the proposal so he’s willing to wait a week. However, for the city to capture the hotel tax revenue by September 1st, it would have to pass the tax increase by August 10th.
The tax has been controversial for a number of reasons. Some Republicans have taken a no new tax pledge. Democrats are still feeling the burn from their 2007 County Income tax increase vote. And some sectors of the public are not thrilled about what they see as a plan to bailout sports teams owned by billionaires.
File this one under some people just don’t get it. An Indianapolis woman is upset that flyers have gone up in her neighborhood labelling her 17-year old son “dangerous.”
Now at first glance you might think the woman had a point until you realize her sone has been arrested 22 times over the last three years for crimes ranging from burglary to theft to escape.
My colleague Jack Rinehart at RTV 6 reported more than 100 flyers accusing the kid of being a thief and a drug addict went up in the neighborhood, but the mom tore them down.
She’s quoted as saying, ”He is a minor. Kids do have problems, but it’s not right for people to hang posters like that.”
Okay, let’s try to figure this one out. We have a kid that literally gets arrested about every other month for the past three years. One of the neighbors gets mad and decide they’re not going to take it anymore and put posters up warning everyone, please note the poster is factually accurate. And the mom of the juvenile delinquent makes excuses for his behavior.
What’s wrong with this picture? Have at it, folks.
When I twittered Friday night that two GOP Ward Chairman had been fired as Ward chairman (Liz Carlson and Chris Smith) I figured it would cause a tempest in a teacup type stir in the blogosphere even though most people in real life would care less because of the total inside baseball nature of the event.
Despite that the entire matter is still worth commenting on. Now I know what I expect from some of my critics “Abdul is in the pocket of Tom John and his Masters at Ice Miller so we shouldn’t listen to anything he says even though we read his blog several times a day and follow his Twitter feeds.” So now that I’ve said it for you, you don’t have waste their breath.
Should Liz Karlson (full disclosure is also a friend) and Chris Smith been fired as Ward Chairmen? To be honest, I don’t know. What I do know is political parties Republican, Democrat and Libertarian are all entitled to run their organizations as they see fit and have to live with the consequences of their actions.
Democrats have to deal with the fact that their County Chairman is always at odd with the State party and that may have cost Linda Pence a U.S. Attorney nominee. Libertarians had a Holocaust denier working for them and recently let them go.
Now if you’re one of the people who think the Marion County GOP is going down the wrong road, then might I suggest you stop whining and crying on blogs and go do something about it. I find it ironic that blogger Gary Welsh goes on ad nauseum about Tom John (another unhealthy fatuation) in, but when it came down to the Chairman vote this past March, Welsh stood there in the room and voted for John just like everyone else did not stand up to offer any dissent. I guess it’s easier to take pot shots from your computer rather than grow a vertebrae and be a real leader in your party.
But I digress.
If you don’t like the way your political party is run. Take it back or go start your own.
Just remember, consequences have actions and that works both ways. There will always be struggles inside political parties for power, some just occur more publicly and each side takes its victories and its lumps. Third, inside baseball political fights are like snow blowing across the Interstate, unless it’s a blizzard, for most people it’s insignificant and they could care less.
I went to the post office today to pick up passport applications for my fiance and me; we honeymoon in St. Martin later this year. While there, I was reading through some paperwork and noticed something all the people who keep harping on this Barack Obama birth certificate nonsense, might want to check.
The requirements for getting a passport include proving you’re a U.S. Citizen which includes providing a birth certificate.
This is my favorite section.
When applying for a U.S. passport in person, evidence of U.S. citizenship must be submitted with Form DS-11. All documentation submitted as citizenship evidence will be returned to you. These documents will be delivered with your newly issued U.S. passport or in a separate mailing.
A previously issued undamaged passport.
A certified birth certificate issued by the city, county or state.
A consular report of of birth abroad or certificate of birth.
Naturalization certificate.
Certificate of Citizenship.
*A certified birth certificate has a registrar’s raised, embossed, impressed or multicolored seal, registrar’s signature, and the date the certificate was filed with the registrar’s office, which must be within 1 year of your birth. Please note, some short (abstract) versions of birth certificates may not be acceptable for passport purposes.
So assuming the President has a passport, which he more than likely does because he and Michele traveled before he became President, the odds are he submitted his Hawaiian birth certificate to the State Department and they signed off on it and would have caught it if it was a fake; so odds are the President is a citizen.
And assuming these rules were not in place when Obama applied for a passport years ago wouldn’t his place of birth be in his passport file? And wouldn’t that information have gotten out by now if he wasn’t born in the United States? This is the problem with conspiracy theorists, they tend see everything except what’s staring them right in the face.
You want to argue against Obama? There are plenty of real issues out there. Use health care reform, cap and trade, spending, deficits; something for real. Otherwise you guys just look like a bunch nuts in search of squirrels.
And by the way, if the Clintons couldn’t beat this guy, what makes you think you’ll have better luck?
A couple items popped up on my radar screen Wednesday that probably didn’t get much attention in the local media, so here they are now.
Marion County Sheriff Frank Anderson is reportedly rebuilding his office’s gang unit and traffic branch. I’m confused as to why Anderson is doing this. Most of his enforcement duties were transferred to the Mayor’s office last year when Ballard took over IMPD. However, if Anderson does have the manpower to duplicate the functions of IMPD, maybe his office doesn’t need as much money and can have his budget cut as the Administration looks to cut $20 million to balance the budget.
And just so you don’t think I’m picking on Democrats today, 5th District Congressman Dan Burton has gotten my attention as well and I can see why so many people are running against him.
Burton has agreed to co-sponsor a bill that would require candidates to show their birth certificates to prove their citizenship. In other words, Burton has joined the Obama “not really a citizen and why won’t he show us his birth certificate even though if we saw it we would call it a fake” crowd. A spokesman for the Congressman says the bill is a good idea because ”If candidates provided that information to the Federal Election Commission you wouldn’t have all this hullaballoo. You don’t want to needlessly expose presidents to crazy conspiracy theories.” No offense but from the stories that have been running around the 5th District for years regarding Burton you would think he would be the last person talking about anybody’s birth certificate.