I’ve been glancing at some of the proposals being introduced in the Indiana General Assembly.  Here are some of the more interesting ones.

SB 18 – Ban sending a text message while driving, says nothing about reading them.

SB 25 – Bans property owners from prohibiting firearms on their land if the weapon is locked in a vehicle.  So much for private property rights.

SB 31 – Puts limits on the height of motorcycle handlebars; born to be mild.

SB 59 – Allows great-grandparents to visitation rights with great-grandchildren under certain circumstances.  Great.

SB 68 – Allows Sunday motorcycle sales.  Now if only I could get that for alcohol.

SB 95 – Bans smoking in public places.  Haven’t we gone down this road already?

SB 111 – Not only bans texting while driving, but qualifies you for the habitual traffic violator status.

SB 118 – Allows Election Day alcohol sales.  Now let’s see if drunk Hoosiers get better results than sober ones.

SB 163 – Confiscates the gaming winnings of individuals who owe back child support. The bright side of this is that you can get out of arrears in one slot machine pull if you’re lucky.

Having followed legislative bodies for more than 15 years I wonder sometimes what went down to make some these bills necessary, and then I realize I really don’t want to know.

Indiana lawmakers are tripping over themselves to offer up ethics reform proposals. House Speaker Pat Bauer offered up a plan last year and Senate Republicans put out a proposal as well.

The measures include “cooling off” periods where lawmakers would have to wait for a year or so before going to professionally lobby their former counterparts. There’s disclosures of gifts of more than $50 in value, limits on fund-raising on the Executive branch, bans on conflicts of interests where forms lobby multiple sides of an issue, requiring University officials to register as lobbyists and there would be a ban of elected officials from appearing in most public service announcements paid for with taxpayer dollars.

Frankly, I think this is all a bit much.   What I see happening is a race to see who can be “the most ethical” lawmaker while leaving loopholes big enough to drive a 767 through.  The best reform is full disclosure and educating a lazy public to use that information to make informed decisions.  Although it’s nice to think of the lobbyist and the lawmaker having steak dinner in a smoke-filled back room while something sinister is going on, real life doesn’t work that way.  In real life a lot of  lobbyists enjoy buying lunch because they get reimbursed by the clients. 

Also in real life, if you sit down and actually talk to a lobbyist they will complain about being all but “shaken down” for campaign contributions by some lawmakers who don’t know when to quit.  So perhaps a rule banning campaign contributions registered lobbyists and advocacy groups might be the way to go?  I think I just heard a pin drop.

Take it from the guy from Illinois where Governors usually end up in jail, Indiana’s “ethical” climate is nowhere near as bad as some people would like to think it is.  If you want more reform, then simply do more disclosure.   Mandate that within 72 hours of receiving any donation or gift, lawmakers must disclose it and the information should be put on the Internet where everyone can see it.   And if you want a cooling off period, how about a thawing off period instead, where if a lawmaker leaves the General Assembly to go lobby, they can’t do it until the end of the biennium. 

And while we’re at it, let’s ban local governments from lobbying the legislature.  The main reason why government reform has stalled is because lawmakers get earfuls and possible primary challenges from the locals back home if they push reform too far? 

Sunshine is always the best disinfectant and putting limits on democracy has never been a good idea.  Citizens, whether they belong to a local not-for-profit or big law firm, have the right to address their government with their grievances.  Now all this could be solved with public funding of political campaigns, but seeing how no one is going down that road, open the curtains and let the sunshine in.

Happy New Year!   Here is my list of the 10 things to look at in 2010, not necessarily in any particular order.

1. Will Republicans take the House of Representatives this November?
2. Will any incumbent Democratic Congressman lose?
3. How many local governments will be forced to consolidate due to tax caps and declining home value assessments?
4. How much of a roll will Democrats in the 5th District play in determining whether Dan Burton wins in the May primary.
5. Which Republican will announce first that he or she is running for Governor in 2012?
6. Will potential Democratic candidates for Governor in 2012 stop imploding?
7. Will Greg Ballard get a major public policy victory (i.e. fix the water company fiasco) in 2011?
8. Will Marion County Democrats rally around Melina Kennedy for Mayor or will they gravitate towards Brian Williams, Kathy Davis or Jose Evans?
9. Will local GOP infighting in the 9th District (which I hear is pretty bad) guarantee the re-election of incumbent Baron Hill?
10. Will Tea Party advocates be organized to actually form a 4th party in Indiana that will make a difference instead of  noise?

If  you think I missed something, feel free to add it.

This post is a little tricky as I’ve only been hanging around Indianapolis since the Fall of 2004.  But I think I’ve done enough research to fill in the gaps for the biggest news stories of the decade (although the decade doesn’t end until December 31, 2010).  If I missed something, let me know.

2000 –  Bart Peterson sworn in as first Democratic Mayor of Indianapolis in years.

2001 – 9/11.

2002 – Economy takes major toll on state,  calamity slated to repeat in six years.

2003 – Indiana Governor Frank O’Bannon dies in office after suffering massive stroke in Chicago.

2004 – Mitch Daniels elected Governor of Indiana.  Republicans control both chambers of the Legislature.

2005 – Indiana lawmakers join 20th Century by passing Daylight Savings Time.

2006 –  Indiana voters turn state congressional delegation more blue, throwing out three Republican Congressmen.  State delegation goes from 7-2 (R) to 5-4 (D).

2007 –  Political novice Greg Ballard rides wave of taxpayer discontent into office sweeping out two-term incumbent Bart Peterson.  Election also becomes catalyst for property tax reform.   Julia Carson passes away.

2008 – Mitch Daniels easily re-elected to second term at the same time Barack Obama becomes the first Democrat to win Indiana since 1964.

2009 – Slow, stagnant economy wipes out a lot of jobs and Indiana’s billion-dollar plus surplus.

2010 – Property tax caps fully kick-in.  Chaos ensues at local level, could consolidation be far behind?

As tradition dictates, it’s time for my Top 10 local news stories for 2009.

10.  Proposed tougher smoking ban rises from the ashes only to be extinguished by common sense.

9.    Tea parties start to form in Indiana, but most local meetings never get past talking about the Federal Reserve.  Will Mike Sodrel be their savior?

8.    Wishard referendum passes overwhelmingly.  First wing to be dedicated to conspiracy theorists whose heads exploded after it passed.

7.  School referendums across the state get mixed results, proving that if you value your community, your community will value you.

6.  ISTA comes under investigation by the feds, gets taken out as major player in Indiana politics for now, and just when state Democrats needed them the most.

5.  Indiana lawmakers stay late because of the budget.  They come back early to move forward on property tax caps.   Never let it be said that political ideology can’t play second fiddle to political reality.

4.   Local financier Tim Durham comes under investigation by the feds; living proof that sometimes in your quest for attention you get exactly what you want, just not how you wanted it.

3.    Hamilton Avenue murderers James Stewart and Desmond Turner, and attempted cop killer Brian Reese all found guilty as sin.  Justice does work, it just takes a while sometimes.

2.  Economy kicks Indiana in the rear end.  Luckily, Indiana is a place that will allow it to kick back.

1.  Abdul gets married.  Luckiest woman in the world is officially taken off the market.

Tomorrow, the big stories of the 2000s.

WARNING:  If you are someone who is easily offended or overly sensitive, I suggest you skip today’s post.

I’ve been doing my end of the year look at the city’s murder rate.  I say murder rate because murder (an unlawful killing)  is different from homicide (a killing), police action shootings and shootings done in self-defense.   Unless someone gets whacked in the next couple days Indianapolis should come in at about 100 murders, one of the lowest numbers since 1997. 

However, out of those 100 or so murders, 57% were African-American and 53% were black men, and a third of the murders were black men under 30 killed by firearms. 

It’s never a good thing when 25 % of the city’s population account for more than half the killings.  We can speculate and debate the reasons for the high murder rate.  But more importantly I hope that in 2010 one New Year’s Resolution will be for Indianapolis’ black community to stand up and say “enough is enough” and start to do a better job of policing its own and work to improve conditions that cause these kinds of problem in the first place.

Every political pundit and news organization is putting together its list of top stories of the 2000s.*   I will spare you my diatribe of how the decade doesn’t really end until next year and offer some perspective on events as well.

I think I can honestly say we close out the decade the way started, divided and a little nervous.   Think about it.  The first two big events of the year 2000 were the Y2K bug and the Presidential election which put George W. Bush into office, despite losing the popular vote. 

We united after 9-11, but things went south again right after the U.S. invasion of Iraq. As Iraq deteriorated we went back to divided government in 2006 and in 2008, the financial meltdown began.

We elected the first African-American President (although there are still some crazies who don’t think he’s a citizen, funny how that happens when the black guy shows up).  But by the end of the year, his approval ratings hovered about 50-percent, luckily that is based more on performance than pigmentation.

There was some things that brought us together, I call them Facebook and Twitter.  We saw an explosion of reality television.  Michael Jackson died and so did Tiger Woods’ clean cut image. 

I think what’s most symbolic about the 2000s is that unlike the 70s, 80s and 90s we could never agree on what exactly to call the first decade of the 21st century. 

I like to think of them as over.

*I’ll be putting up my top 10 lists over the course of week.  It’s no fun to simply curse the bandwagon.  You have to drive it every once in a while.

I wanted take a moment and wish friend and foe alike a Merry Christmas and joyful holiday season.   This will be the the third Christmas for me and Mrs. Shabazz, but our first one as a married couple, so this should prove to be interesting and a lot of fun.

I’ll have some new thoughts up Sunday.  Take care and save your receipts.

Remember, there is no such thing as bad publicity!  Or is there?