I sat down with Indiana House Speaker Brian Bosma Tuesday to talk about the session that begins today.  We talked about the budget, education reform, local government reform, unemployment compensation, smoking ban legislation, social issues and the potential for a walkout by the Democrats.  You can hear the interview below.  Each segment is about five minutes long.

Bosma #1

Bosma #2

Bosma #3

I’ll be at the Statehouse this afternoon.  For frequent updates you can follow me on Twitter and Facebook.  I plan to do a lot of that this session so feel free to come along for the ride.

It’s not everyday that you get a chance to talk to the Indiana Superintendent of Public Instruction and the head of the Indiana State Teachers Association at the same time, but this morning I did.

Both Dr. Tony Bennett and Nate Schnellenbeger appeared at a joint news conference promoting mentoring by the Indiana Youth Institute.  Shortly afterward I, along with my fellow brothers and sisters in the media, asked the two of them about collective bargaining, teacher accountability, school choice and whether the two sides can reach an agreement on these contentious education issues.   The audio is below.   It’s split into three parts; each is about 5 minutes in length.

Tony & Nate #1

Tony & Nate #2

Tony & Nate #3

I have a few items of interest to report to you this morning.

The Indiana Department of Education is investigating “irregularities” in recent ISTEP tests.  According to the DOE, a number of elementary tests came back with a high number of erasures which raised some red flags in the Office.   DOE Chief of Staff Heather Neal won’t say the erasures are the product of cheating, but they have put school districts on notice about the problem.   In addition, Indianapolis Public School Officials reportedly called in dozens of elementary school teachers for questioning regarding the matter.

Although Indiana lawmakers expect to have their hands full when dealing with the budget this upcoming session, the problem may not be as bad as originally thought.  I’ve been speaking to a number of lawmakers and budget experts over the past few days and lot of them say the State should be able to make it without too much pain.  The consensus is that between slightly improving finances and the fact Governor Mitch Daniels has already made a lot of cuts in prior years is helping the state weather this latest financial storm.

With a year still left in his term, Beech Grove Mayor Joe Wright announced Monday night he was stepping down immediately.   It is strongly believed that Beech Grove’s finances were the main reason behind Wright’s resignation.  A replacement could come in two weeks when Beech Grove precinct committeemen come together.

The Bilerico Project recently reported that Indianapolis may be sitting on its on “Eddie Long” type scandal.   The blog was short on details but I’ve been doing some checking around and there seems to be a lot more legs to this story than you might think.  Stick around for this one.

Although the Indiana General Assembly is still a couple days away from convening, I’ve started to skim through some of the bills that are being filed so see what’s on the minds of lawmakers.

I’ve maintained on this blog and in other media that the best thing the Republican-controlled legislature can do is focus on jobs and education reform.  If a bill has nothing to do with creating jobs, putting more money in the pockets of Hoosiers, improving education or bringing more accountability and transparency to government, what’s the point?

So when I saw Senate Bill 50 all I could do was scratch my head and ask is this legislation really necessary?  The measure would require any woman seeking an abortion to get an ultrasound at least 18 hours before the procedure.  I assume the logic of this is that the woman who went through all the internal processes of whether to have the procedure will change her mind when she sees the images.   Of course such a bill could also have the reverse effect and make the woman even more determined to have the abortion.

For me the bigger question is does this bill create a job?  Do mandatory ultrasounds improve education or make Indiana more competitive in the marketplace?  Does it streamline local government?   It does put more money in the pockets of Hoosiers, but only because it forces the woman to pay for the ultrasound.  Other than that, what purpose does it really serve?

And before anyone accuses me of not wanting to protect the unborn, I have two responses.  First if you want to protect the unborn make sure the there’s an economic climate where the already born can prosper and you’ll find that the abortion issue tends to take care of itself.  Also, making sure people who are not prepared to deal with the responsibility of children never get pregnant in the first place because they have access to contraceptives solves a multitude of issues.

And legislation like this really won’t stop abortion because if a woman really wants one,  all she has to do is hop on I-74 west or I-65 north and drive a couple hours.

Indiana has a lot of crucial issues to face,  I don’t see this as being one of them right now.

With the start of the new year comes the new year’s resolutions.   We all have goals to lose weight, quit smoking, be better people, or in my case finish that novel that’s been sitting in my laptop for three years.   I’m not sure what resolutions some of my favorite politicos in Indiana made for the year, but I can speculate …

Mitch Daniels – Fix the schools, keep the state afloat, job creation and keep the crazies in my party down to a small roar.

Brian Bosma – See Mitch’s resolution.

David Long – See Mitch’s resolution.

Pat Bauer – Pick a nice day to walk out and bring the House to a halt.

Vi Simpson – See Bauer, but make sure you do it on a day where there are only 33 Republicans in the Senate.

Indianapolis Mayor Greg Ballard – Get to 50.1.

Melina Kennedy, Jose Evans, Ron Gibson – Get to 34, and then get to 50.1.

Council Democrats and Republicans – Get to 15.

Libertarians – Get to 1.

Mike Pence -Get to 4750 North Meridian.

Dick Lugar – Get back to 306 Hart Senate Office Building.

Lugar Potential Challenger – Get some name ID an organization and a few million bucks and then try to get to 306 Hart Senate Office Building.

Tony Bennett – Learn the words to “Happy Days are Here Again”

Indiana Teachers Unions – Learn the words to ‘Tied to the Whipping Post”

Indiana Republicans – Don’t forget, this is as about as good as it will get.

Indiana Democrats -Don’t forget, this will be as about as bad as it will get.

Marion County Prosecutor Terry Curry – Get some red paint to put a giant target on David Bisard.

Public Safety Director Frank Straub & FOP President Bill Owensby -Keep talking to each other.

Marion County Democratic Chair Ed Treacy – Watch what you say about people of color, you never know what might show up on a blog.

Marion County Republican Chair Kyle Walker – Make sure lots of people are watching when you talk to and about people of color so it can show up on a blog.

Abdul – Keep stirring the pot because you’re too old to smoke it!

As tradition dictates,  it’s time for my top 10 state and local stories of 2010.  My criteria were pretty simple; magnitude and impact.  So with that said, here we go.

10.  Hoosiers overwhelmingly pass property tax caps.  Not only is local government put on a leash, but the leash gets tightened.

9.  Duke Energy scandal erupts once again demonstrating if you’re going to be up to no good, don’t use e-mail to do it.

8.  Tim Durham scandal takes Carl Brizzi out of the race for Marion County Prosecutor.   Ed Treacy gives him honorary membership to the Marion County Democratic Party.

7.  Speaking of Democrats,  Marion County Democrats build a firewall and score victories as 99% of the rest of the state goes red.

6.  IMPD Problems.  David Bisard and Brandon Johnson case show that no matter hard hundreds of people work and do their jobs, it doesn’t take much for all that to be shot to hell and to bring Al Sharpton and his non-ozone friendly hair to town.

5.  Lt. Governor Becky Skillman decides not to get into the race for Governor, clearing the way for Mike Pence to score the GOP nomination and for Indiana Democrats to worry even more about being out of the Governor’s mansion for another eight years.

4.  Carmel Schools become poster child for what *NOT* to do when 15-year old boys are assaulted on your school buses and locker rooms.

3.   Speculation swirls about Mitch Daniels running for President.  Did anyone ask Cheri what she thought?

2.   Indiana Republicans score a quorum-proof majority in the State Senate and more importantly a 60-seat majority in the House.  Democrats, in part, respond by re-electing same leadership that was partially responsible for their losses in the first place.

1.  Evan Bayh bolts, twice.  The rest is history.

Happy New Year.

Indiana lawmakers are going to have their hands full this upcoming session fixing the state’s unemployment insurance trust fund.  The fund is $2 billion in the hole so it will likely require an increase in the premiums employers pay as well a reduction in the amount paid out in benefits.   Indiana already has one of the highest reimbursement rates in the country for the unemployed, as well as some of the lowest premiums on a per capita basis.   It’s pretty much common sense that a system like this can’t survive.

However, raising premiums and cutting benefits will only get lawmakers there part of the way.  Indiana is also going to have to make some serious structural changes to the way it shells out money for people out of work.

For example, let’s say we have two workers who both make $30,000 a year and they lose their jobs.  Worker A was in construction and only worked about nine months out of the year, while Worker B was in retail and they worked the full 12 months.  Under Indiana’s current system, your unemployment reimbursement is based on your highest quarter (3 months) of earnings for the year.   And the more you make, the higher your reimbursement.    Since Worker A only worked 39 weeks out of the year their quarterly salary is higher than the person in retail, so they get reimbursed at a higher rate.

According to the Indiana Department of Workforce Development, Worker A would be reimbursed up to 68% of his salary at $390 a week, while worker B would only be reimbursed 55% of his salary to the tune of $320 a week.  So you have one person who only works part of the year getting more money than someone who works year round.  Lawmakers are going to have to change that formula so a worker’s pay is “equalized” over the entire year.  It’s more fair to all the workers and it doesn’t bankrupt the state.

Lawmakers hope to have the unemployment trust fund solvent by 2020.  Higher premiums, adjusted benefits and getting more people to work will be part of that equation, however until Indiana gets everyone on the same footing, all this is going to do is repeat itself down the road and we’ll be right back where we started.

I’m taking a semi-vacation this week, which means I sleep until 7 a.m.  However I still try to keep up to speed on what my friends in other media outlets are chatting about.  My friends over at the Indianapolis Star Tuesday opined about the need for a statewide smoking ban and how the tobacco lobby is the reason a comprehensive ban can’t pass in this state.

Of course I disagree with the good people over on North Pennsylvania Street.  And full disclosure, I do enjoy a good cigar on occasion.  I have no problem banning smoking in places where no one has a choice to be there; a school, government building, etc.  However, in a place where the consumer, the worker and the patron all have choices,  the free market should be able to take care of this problem.   I have yet to meet one person in a cigar bar who chained to a chair and singing old Negro spirituals about freedom.

But I digress.  The Star Editorial misses two major points.  First, it is not the tobacco lobby that has derailed a more comprehensive smoking ban at either the city or state level, it has been the anti-smoking crowd who have been their own worst enemies.   Whenever reasonable compromises were offered, such a job boards to identify smoking vs. non-smoking establishments for employees, the creation of tobacco cessation programs, exemptions for cigar bars and private clubs, the anti-smoking people said “no”.  They could have a ban tomorrow if they were willing to compromise.

Secondly, and most importantly, if the anti-smoking crowd was really serious they would pass a measure that banned smoking in cars where children are present, apartments and homes where children are present as well.   Remember, their big argument has always been about secondhand smoke exposure and the 600,000 people who “die” annually because of second hand smoke.  Well, riddle me this.  Who is more likely to be exposed to second hand smoke, the person who walks into a bar, can’t deal with the smoke who leaves, or the 8-year old whose mom or dad is lighting up in the car with the windows closed or the fumes from the apartment next door?

A smoking ban will not stop the people who need to be protected from secondhand smoke from being exposed.  By going after smoking in a bar or place where everyone has a choice, the anti-smoking folks are ignoring places where individuals have no choice, homes and cars.  If they were serious, that’s where they would focus their attention, instead of my Davidoffs and Arturo Fuentes.

It’s no big secret that education reform will be one of the top priorities for lawmakers to address when they come back in January.   Apart from more accountability and better ways to measure teacher and school performance, lawmakers are also expected to tackle collective bargaining.   I doubt if there will be a serious effort to repeal collective bargaining in schools, but someone really should limit teacher contracts to wages and benefits.

You may recall I posted a list of some contractual provisions in agreements from across the state that have nothing to do with educating kids, well here are some more as of December 2010.

• No teacher shall receive a salary less than they received in the previous school year.
• Teachers must only work 120 days a year to receive full annual credit for pay increases.
• Union President allowed 55 days of leave per school year for union business.
• Union shall have the right to use school facilities and equipment at no cost.
• Schools may only be reconstructed in a manner endorsed by the union, which includes shared decision making for both building level and system-wide restructuring.
• Teacher student contact time must not exceed 5.666 hours per day.
• No transcripts are allowed for any meetings between parents and teachers when discussing disputed matters.
• Teachers must be disciplined 5 separate times in response to 5 separate acts of misconduct before the contract may be canceled.
• The board shall provide to retired teachers $14,000 annually for health insurance premiums until the retiree is eligible for Medicare.
• Show choir director exempt from RIF (Reduction in workforce).
• All relative humidity in excess of 60% shall be eliminated.
• All carpet shall be vacuumed using a filtration system that “filters at greater than 99% efficient at 0.3 micron and that prevents particulates from entering the workplace.
• Intercom systems and electronic devices shall not be used for teacher evaluations.

If you can make a connection about how any of these provisions can create a better environment for learning and improve the quality of education in the classroom, please let me know.  I don’t see it.

The guys and gals over at JibJab have done their annual look back at 2010.  It’s not bad, although last year’s was funnier.  I’m putting together my own top 10 list that will go up later this week, focusing mostly on state and local stories.  In the meantime, enjoy.