I promised on WXNT-AM the other day that if I found my copy of Dr. Eugene White’s contract I would post it.

Here it is.

eugene-white-ips-agreement

Property taxes are due today.   If you’re in Marion County you’re paying your 2008 reconciliation bill.   Although 65% of property taxpayers saw either a decrease or no change in their property tax bills, 35%  saw an increase.

And while I don’t think repealing property taxes will work, I firmly believe that if you want to pay less taxes, you need to have less government.   There are more than 60 taxing units in Marion County.

Schools obviously take up the biggest chunk of your tax bill,  they are followed by township government which is about another 16%.

Remember that when you’re writing your check today.

I hope you are sitting down for this blog post, but I am about to defend Indianapolis Public School Superintendent Eugene White.

I know it surprised me too, especially since Dr. White has made some rather unflattering public remarks in the past regarding yours truly, but someone has to be the adult in the room.

There’s been some consternation regarding a recent $17,000 bonus White received.  $7,000 was for half the IPS elementary students making ISTEP, the remaining $10,000 was because the board thought IPS was moving in the right direction.

Now personally I think IPS is on the same course as the  Titanic and if the future Mrs. Shabazz and I have children the last place they’re going to school is in IPS.  However, like I said, I can’t get mad at Dr. White,  I can get mad at the IPS school board members because they are the ones who are writing the checks and negotiated the contract.

Of course this is the same school district that was over at the legislature complaining about losing millions of dollars and having to layoff teachers, but it found money to White a $17,000 raise and to hire his son, so I should not be surprised.

This is why I don’t hate the player, but the game.

I’m getting the details right now, but apparently the U.S. Secret Service is paying a visit to a Plainfield man right now over an e-mail he forwarded saying someone needs to “take out” Barack Obama.

I don’t have the e-mail yet or the name, but I’m understand the Secret Service was at the man’s house for at least three hours asking some questions.  A relative reportedly forwarded the e-mail to them.

From what I’ve gathered the man is not a bad person but definitely exercised some bad judgment.  Plus, I don’t think it helps to make threats regarding the life of any President, much less the first Black one; especially when you reportedly just bought a semi-automatic weapon a few months ago.

Michael Jackson is getting buried today and hopefully all the media hoopla will be put in the ground with him.   It’s no big secret MJ had some “issues” at best, but some of the comments are just silly.   The chatter class has been going on and on about Jackson, however if you look at almost any artist, there’s something in their past that isn’t too flattering.  Frank Sinatra had mob ties and Elvis Presley was a racist and had drug issues.

I point you to The Smoking Gun website which has lots of photos of stars behaving badly.  And I’m sure if you look hard enough, you’ll find someone you like.

Here are a few examples…

• Johnny Cash – Drug Possession
• Jerry “Lee” Lewis – married his 13-year old cousin.
• Glen Campbell – DUI & Hit Run
• Kiefer Sutherland – DUI
• Mel Gibson – what more needs to be said.

Even my favorite baseball coach, Tony LaRussa, of the St. Louis Cardinals has an issue or two under his belt.

So while I don’t excuse bad behavior, I just remind people when you start throwing the sticks, make sure you don’t pick up a boomerang by  mistake.

To be honest, I never fully got Sarah Palin.   Now all you anti-Obama people can go into your usual rants but I frankly could care less this morning.

However, when she announced she getting out of politics, for now, I was scratching my head because her reasons weren’t adding up.

She complained about the media, what politician doesn’t?  Complaining about the media is like complaining about the weather.  You can talk about it, but there’s nothing you can do about it.

She complained that the ethics investigations she had to fend off were bankrupting her family.  No offense but if Sarah Palin can draw crowds of thousands at the drop of a hat, why would she have trouble raising money for a legal defense fund, absent an Alaska law that makes that impossible?

If she had higher office aspirations, I don’t see how she gets through a field of tough Republican challengers who are going to pounce on the fact that she quit before finishing her term and that if she abandoned the voters of Alaska because life got too tough, then what would she do if she got elected to the Presidency.

Like I said, I’ve never been a big Palin fan because I thought there much better GOP women candidates who could have run with John McCain, however if she’s pulling a Nixon, maybe we won’t have her to kick around anymore.

I’ve been taking it easy this weekend, but still managed to pick up a few tidbits here and there.  Personally, I’m waiting for the other shoe to drop regarding soon to be former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin.  No one quits their job with more than 18 months left in their term on a holiday weekend because they don’t like the pressure.  There’ something else going on here folks.

Meanwhile, here’s some local things to ponder…

There’s talk that the latest CIB plan was brought in part by some City-County Council Republicans who did not want to vote for a tax increase so they approached Sen. Mike Young to come up with the current plan.  And per Young, he was goofy enough and annoyed enough of his colleagues and got it done.

It looks like Marion County Democrats are declaring war on one of their own.  My sources tell me they are not happy with Mary Ann Sullivan because she voted for the budget and supports charter schools and consolidation.  So I am hearing the party will try not to slate her and run someone against her in the next election.  John Barnes may also be on that list.

Speaking of schools, lawmakers removed a provision in state law that would have prohibited schools from using ISTEP test results to evaluate teacher performance.

Although the Decatur township Trustee is fighting consolidation, the office is taking out more than$1 million in loans to keep the office and fire department going, part of that is going for raises.

Although the Mayor and Governor had a “rocky” relationship this past session, I hear efforts are being made to patch things up as soon as possible.

The state’s effort to fix its unemployment insurance trust fund may be only getting worse, even with the latest round of tax increases, the deficit in the fund is expected to grow to $3.5 billion.

You hear anything else, let us know.

I’m not going to spend too much time here today.  I’ve got the day off and plan to spend it getting caught up on some much needed sleep.  But as I was on the Interstate yesterday I heard numerous stories about how small towns were cancelling their 4th of July celebrations because they were short on funds.

And in all that time, I did not hear about one community that decided to go into a joint agreement with another community and do a regional fireworks show.  It was nothing but whining and complaining instead of looking for viable solutions and alternatives.

And the more I listened, the more I thought that if these guys can’t even figure out how to go in together on fireworks, how will they ever figure out how to survive when property tax caps fully kick in January and they have to make serious calls regarding police, fire and public safety.

Happy 4th!

Mitch Daniels and Pat Bauer did not agree on much over the past six months, but one thing both men agree on is neither one of them wants to deal with Capital Improvement Board issue next session.

I’m paraphrasing here, but Daniels said “as long as he’s Governor, he never wants to see another CIB bill.”  Bauer blamed the CIB as the reason for the special session saying it caused resentment among out-state lawmakers whose communities had their own needs and thought Indianapolis was getting special treatment.

So what’s a Mayor, who did not create this mess but unfortunately owns it, to do?

Well I still think the Mayor can beat the shortfall in part by collecting all non-pacer revenue from Conseco Fieldhouse which is $7-9 million.  That would go a long way to close the gap.

But in the event that doesn’t work, if you can beat em, privatize them.   That’s right, turn the management of Conseco Fieldhouse, the Convention Center and Lucas Oil Stadium over to a private company.   In exchange for the private company eating the operating expenses, the city can let them keep most of  the profits.

Think of of as renting your home through a private management company.  You get a portion of the rent and they take care of the rest.  I frankly don’t see any other way out for the city, unless it is willing to make the deep cuts necessary to make this work.  And from what I’ve been able to gather, there’s no stomach for that either.

So Mr. Mayor, my advice,  turn the management of the CIB properties over to a third party.   Let them run them and keep a million or two for the city coffers.  If your critics say you are washing your hands of the whole thing, tell them you’re just doing what everybody else is.

You know how the rest of the song goes.  So now that the special session is over, we go down the list of the major players and figure who won and who will live to fight another day.  So with all that said…

Governor Mitch Daniels

• Big Winner!  He got the budget he wanted and kept the surplus.  He stayed on message and drove the debate.  He also walked right up to the brink and the Legislature blinked.

House Speaker Pat Bauer

• Talk about fighting a war on two fronts.  Between having to fight the Governor on one hand and members of his own caucus, particularly the Black caucus, on the other hand.  He did have a major victory on the unemployment insurance fund.

Senate Protempore David Long

• Although there was never any question, Republicans would get a budget out of the Senate, I will give the big guy credit for keeping an orderly process the whole time and keeping a civil atmosphere in his chamber.

State Senator Luke Kenley

• Once again proved he is one of the smartest people in Indiana.

State Representative Bill Crawford

• I think we are looking at the final days of Bill Crawford.  Throughout the session he looked tired and somewhat discombobulated.   He stood his ground and fought for IPS,  but in the end the best he could do was mitigate damages.

Republican Leader Brian Bosma

• The groundwork has been laid for 2010.  With redistricting and tax caps both at stake in the next election, the House GOP scored a major victory by getting the budget they wanted.

Democratic Leader Vi Simpson

• Although Democrats have as about as much power in the State Senate as the former President of Honduras, Simpson gave an impassioned warning about the need to change the school funding formula on the last day of special session.  And from my vantage point, that message did not fall on deaf ears.

Greg Ballard

• Whereas the Mayor of Indianapolis had some big wins last year, this year was different.  Losses on government reform and the CIB, the Mayor really took it on the chin.  He had some smaller legislative victories but lost the big ones.  I still think there is an opportunity to fix the CIB which I will expand on tomorrow, but it will require the Mayor to do something he hates doing, play politics.

ISTA

• Talk about a bad millennium.  Between the scandal involving the health insurance fund and cuts in school funding and now the seeds for real choice being planted in Indiana, ISTA may not be around much longer.

School Choice Lobby

• They won because ISTA lost.

Labor

• By scoring a victory on the unemployment insurance fund, labor in Indiana proved that it can still get things done and show up in force.

Business

• The business community almost took it as much on the chin as the Mayor’s office.   It suffered losses in both government reform and unemployment insurance.   I think the consequences are going to be a lot of cash for House Republicans but not so much for their Senate counterparts.

The Taxpayers

• I’ll let you make the call.