JLT; In Living Color
Democratic gubernatorial candidate Jill Long Thompson made the rounds this morning talking jobs and reform to three Indianapolis African-American organizations.
Thompson addressed the Concerned Clergy, 100 Black Men and the Indiana Democratic African-American Caucus.
Thompson said Indiana has lost too many jobs and needs to do more to create “green” jobs as well as assist companies that are already here. She also attacked the Governor’s privatization/modernization of FSSA intake services, saying it was responsible for a lack of Hoosiers getting necessary services.
She addressed the need for education reform and says the state needs to do more to improve graduation rates as well as increase opportunities for vocational education and more re-entry programs for ex-offenders.
She also attacked Governor Mitch Daniels’ Major Moves program, saying the $3.8 billion Indiana received for the lease of the toll road will be long gone by the time the 75-year lease expires.
August 9th, 2008 at 12:02 pm
Wait a minute….I thought Mitch “sold” the toll road. No it is leased? (I need a “rolleyes” smiley here)
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JLT is not running for governor on what she can bring to the office. She is running for governor on negativity toward the present governor who has done a HELL of a job in just 4 years.
August 9th, 2008 at 12:26 pm
alright then Statler
Maybe Mitch is better than your average Repub.
But whoever authored that ridiculous lease deal, with all proceeds being spent in the first eight years, should be hung by their thumbs. A shameful wasting of our children’s assets.
Leasing in and of itself isn’t a bad idea. But unless the money is invested for porportionate release throughout the term, it’s fiscally unsound.
But then, Mitch did do the budget for Bush. Clearly, creative accounting is one of his strong suits.
Talk to any Republican north of Muncie. They speak of Mitch through gritted teeth. I do think most of them will vote for him, but they don’t like him.
August 9th, 2008 at 1:17 pm
If slam-dunk cases like elderly, widows, handicapped and similar responsible citizens can’t get the help they had before the mechanics of privatization, then privatization needs a kick in the tail. I wouldn’t blame JLT for finding specific examples and publicizing them to the rooftops.
August 9th, 2008 at 2:04 pm
Geesh get over the lease deal, please. The broken down old toll road wasn’t able to support itself or make repairs so how is the lease bad? As for the money running out, for sure it will once a Democrat is elected as they have proven to be fiscally irresponsible with taxpayers dollars. The governor has been working to clean up the fraudulent messes left behind from Democrats and I suspect the lease was the only way he could oust the corruption on the old toll road run by the Bowerland hacks.
August 9th, 2008 at 2:08 pm
So maybe we should have just doubled the income tax that 50% of Hoosiers pay (the other half are illegal aliens and “poverty level” people who get tax refunds even though they pay NO taxes) to fix the deplorable roads in this state?
August 9th, 2008 at 2:49 pm
Sreetfighter: I paid very close attention to the arguments pro and con on the Toll Road. The gov’s people never used corruption as a reason to privatize the road.
Nice rewriting of history. I can’t stand the Speaker either, but his name is “Bauer,” not “Bower.” And if you pay close attention, his end of the toll road wasn’t where corruption occured in the region: it was further west, near E. Chicago, et al, and not affiliated with the Toll Road per sey. If you’re gonna pop off so glibly, at least get some basics correct.
I travel the Toll Road at least once a month, and have for 25 years. It was not broken-down anywhere where I used it, but, I only used about half of it.
The plain fact is, Mitch and his crew had a decent idea to raise money. They just structured the income stream too close-together. It’s Pro Forma 101, and they flunked. Hugely.
Our kids will pay the price.
August 9th, 2008 at 3:47 pm
Jill Long would not speak to black people before when she was running for congress. Now that she wants to be governor, she needs their vote. A typical racist democrat. She only commes into the black community at election time pandering to a select few.
August 9th, 2008 at 5:25 pm
My favorite muppet pal Statler called JLT out beautifully. Besides the dumb “green jobs” she keeps talking about, there is nothing positive in her campaign. It is all about how bad Mitch is and how bad our state of Indiana is – in typical Democrat fashion.
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think again – please tell me where you would have got the money to make the tons of improvements to highways and roads (and new jobs) we have already done in this state since the lease. The roads needed to be improved, and not just the toll road that you will only talk about. $400 million in four years, where would you have got that money – besides raising taxes or increasing the budget defecit left by Dems? If you can answer that, then you can keep on complaining about the toll road.
August 9th, 2008 at 5:42 pm
Jerry, back away form the pipe. I’m not complaining about the toll road deal, only its structure. It flunks basic economics.
I’d have spread the payments out much longer. If you win the big lotto, you probably want to take the cash-out option, instead of having the lottery pay you over 40 years.
But a governmental entity needs to take a more fiscally-prudent approach.
For your information, the state is only about 12-14% ahead of its already-planned road projects. The windfall isn’t being spent in large amounts yet. In other words, there was money in the budget, mostly from gas and wheel taxes, for many of the projects you now see. The governor is smart enough to drag all of them under the tagline “Major Moves” because it’s damned good politics.
There was no deficit in road projects under Dems. Not even close. You’re buying the hype because they’ve done a good job of pushing it, but truth be told: most road projects are planned 4-8 years in advance. They’re moved up or back a year or so depending on many factors, but through Dem and Repub governors, that train has kept on chugging pretty consistently.
But north of, say, Muncie, even Republicans ar grousing. He ought to cakewalk into another term. but he wn’t. It’ll be a lot tougher than he thought it would be.
August 9th, 2008 at 6:09 pm
Think Again – keep smoking the pipe. Wow, I guess you don’t like earning interest to further help our state and economy!?!? It seems you are implying you want more of that money spent now, which isn’t a big suprise. Due to the defecit in the early 2000′s, we were going to be forced to cut spending in every category except education (IBJ Dec 2002.) You basically say being 12 – 14% ahead of already planned road project is no big deal, well that’s easy to say, but if spending would have been cut further due to no road lease we would have been behind rather than ahead. I would argue there would have been no improvements to 465 / 69 which have already helped traffic, and the plan to widen I-69 around Fishers would have stayed at the over 10 year mark versus now only a few years away. While there may have been no defecit in the road project budget under Dems, there was a total budget defecit which can affect every service as IBJ pointed out. The fact that you’ve talked to several people north of Muncie doesn’t mean anything…and it will be a cakewalk as JLT has nothing to offer but negativity.
August 9th, 2008 at 10:41 pm
TA….you’re damn right I would take the one time payoff. I can invest my money a lot better than someone else can, not to mention that businesses (and lotteries) can fail, leaving NO income. Getting the money up front was the best thing Mitch could do. If that company he leased it to goes belly up, who cares? We already have been paid in FULL. Why can’t you people see that?
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Now that we have the EXTRA money and wheel and gasoline taxes are staying the same and/or rising, we are still ahead of the game.
August 11th, 2008 at 7:44 am
How to save the Government Millions
Sometimes it’s just too difficult to decide for whom to vote, here’s something that may help. Does it?
The NamPow: How to save the government MILLIONS
A president’s pension currently is $191,300 per year. Assuming the next president lives to age 80.
Sen McCain would receive ZERO pensions as he would reach 80 at the end of two terms as president.
Sen Obama would be retired for 26 years after two terms and would receive $4,973,800 in pension.
Therefore it would certainly make economic sense to elect McCain in November.
How’s that for non partisan thinking???
Voters should remember the state was bankrupt when Daniels took office. There was no surplus to speak of . Previous administrations [Bayh, Obannon, Kernern], 16 years of taxing and spending left this state in one hell-of-a -mess financially. The democrats have blamed the governor for selling off Indiana toll roads in order to pay the state’s debts, when realistically, it was a long term lease. Don’t they know the difference between the two? They have also blamed him for the loss of manufacturing jobs in the state, when realistically those plants planned closings under their administrations.
In the city of Indianapolis, 8 years under Peterson and the democrat controlled city-county council and 40 years of congressional representatives did not solve the problems with our public transportaion system. Yet they blame the republican party for the lack of jobs and an inadequate public bus system. Major Moves project has brought more jobs and economic stability to the state presently.