There’s been a negative mailer circulating in the 5th Congressional District attacking Republican candidate John McGoff for his position on immigration.  However the people floating the mailer may want to also take a look at incumbent Dan Burton’s record.

While I was under the weather I was doing dome reading of HR 5456.  It was introduced by Dan Burton back in 2006 in response to the illegal immigration crisis.   Under Section 6 of the Resolution the bill gave illegal aliens six months to register with the Department of Homeland Security.  Once registered the illegals would get temporary ID cards and later permanent ID cards.  They would later get temporary residency status and later permanent residency status.  

This looks like amnesty to me.  I wonder when the negative mailers will go out about this.

This week was tough on your favorite blogger/pundit. I was hit with whatever bug is running around. I don’t get sick very often, but when I do it’s a killer. (Superman in a room full of kryptonite is the best analogy). What made it worse was I couldn’t take time off from my 20-million jobs or end up getting way behind on the big issues of the day. Luckily, I just barely managed to keep up. Now that I’m better, I want to give you guys a preview of next week’s postings.

I plan to sit down and talking to Mayor Greg Ballard about his first few weeks in office, and I will ask about his appointment of Bob Grand as the head of the Capital Improvement Board and whether that runs contrary to his campaign pledges regarding lobbyist and government.

I’ll also be talking with Chief Justice Randall Shepard about the Indiana Constitution and what it means and how it should be interpreted, particularly when it comes to property taxes and the nature and structure of local government. I’ve noticed a lot of postings lately about the state constitution so if you’ve got a question for the Chief Justice, feel free to submit it.

We’re also going to take a close look at the 7th Congressional District with State Rep Carolene Mays having filed for the primary as well as David Orentlicher and former state Health Commissioner Woody Meyers is expected to file as well to challenge Andre Carson for the job, we’ll see if the machine that got Carson slated a few weeks ago is still running smooth, or might there still be civil war in the air.

It is so nice to be back at full strength. When I couldn’t finish my steak dinner and martini earlier this week, I knew it was going to bad.

See you Monday.

Although today was the deadline for the completion of the reassessment of commercial and industrial property, Marion County Assessor Greg Bowes says the project will take about two more weeks.  Bowes says Manatron, the company doing the assessment, need a couple more weeks to guarantee accuracy in it’s work.  Bowes says they got approval from the department of Local Government and Finance for the extension.  He also says they should still be able to make their assessment deadline, despite the two-week delay, because better assessment numbers will likely turn into less review time, and the assessments should be done by the Spring.

And they did.  Indianapolis Mayor Greg Ballard and Marion County Sheriff Frank Anderson announced a deal this afternoon over the future of the Metropolitan Police Department.   Under the agreement, Ballard will get operational control of IMPD.  However, in exchange for the department, Ballard agrees to consult with Anderson on several matters, including the selection of the public safety director as well as the Chief of Police.  Ultimately, the Mayor would have the final say on those hires.

The two also agree to not engage the State Legislature in altering the statutory power of the Sheriff, in other words they won’t use lawmakers to make sure IMPD stays under the Mayor or goes back to the Sheriff.

Anderson said it was time to put politics aside and do what was best for the taxpayers of Marion County.  Ballard said the transfer of IMPD was not a coup d’etat, but the passing of the baton by teammates.

The two agreed to work together to deal with Marion’s County crime problem.

The Public Safety Committee is meeting tonight to vote on the proposal.  It is expected to pass since Republicans have a majority on the Council.  A number of activists were expected to protest the transfer of power.  This agreement just might make those protests a moot point.

Note: The Public Safety Committee voted 6-2 to approve the transfer.  All Republicans and Democrat Vernon Brown voted for it. A full vote is expected at the next Council meeting.

Tonight is the City-County Council’s Public Safety Committee’s hearing on an ordinance that will transfer control of the Metropolitan Police Department from Sheriff Frank Anderson to Mayor Greg Ballard. Opponents plan to show up and make the following four arguments.

It lowers accountability in public safety by having two appointed officials in charge as opposed to one elected official. It takes public input out of public safety because we as the Indianapolis community will no longer vote on who is responsible for IMPD. It will cost money to move IMPD to the Mayor’s office, which could be spent on actually enhancing public safety. We already voted on who should run IMPD in the Sheriff’s last election. Crime decreased significantly once the Sheriff had control of IMPD.

Let’s walk through these.

1. It lowers accountability in public safety by having two appointed officials in charge as opposed to one elected official. There will be one person in charge of the Police Department, The Mayor.
2. It takes public input out of public safety because we as the Indianapolis community will no longer vote on who is responsible for IMPD. Yes the public will be able to vote on who is responsible for IMPD, he’s called the Mayor.
3. It will cost money to move IMPD to the Mayor’s office, which could be spent on actually enhancing public safety. Any transition costs will be nominal. Actually the taxpayers will save money because that’s less hours Kevin Murray, the Sheriff’s attorney, will get to bill.
4. We already voted on who should run IMPD in the Sheriff’s last election. IMPD didn’t even exist when Frank was re-elected.
5. Crime decreased significantly once the Sheriff had control of IMPD. Whatever! Actually crime has gone up since Frank was elected Sheriff, Don’t believe me, click here.

The sad thing is that there are some philosophical arguments you can debate for the Sheriff to be in charge of law enforcement, however if this is the best that the people who want to keep Frank in power can make, I feel for them.

Indiana House Democrats and Republicans are blaming each other over the death of a bill that would have codified Governor Mitch Daniels’ property tax assessment caps into the state Constitution. House Joint Resolution 1 would have capped resident property tax assessments at 1 percent of a home’s value, 2 percent for rental property and 3 percent for commercial property.

However, HJR-1 was pulled when Republicans offered a number of amendments to it.  Democrats say the amendment that killed the deal was one that would have eliminated residential property taxes. They argue that the elimination of residential property taxes was not part of the Governor’s plan and such a formula was unworkable. And they had to protect the integrity of the process and stop Republicans from destroying the Governor’s plan.

Meanwhile Republicans say the elimination of residential property taxes was part of their 10-point property tax reform plan. And they argue the Governor said the elimination of residential property taxes was a fine idea if they could make it work. And the GOP said their plan would have reduced property taxes by 75 percent in four years. They say House Speaker Pat Bauer does not want a Constitutional amendment on property taxes.

Despite these two stark contrasts, there are two things both sides agree on.  First, the Senate has a version of the same bill. Second, both sides proposed the amendment banning same sex marriage which had nothing to do with the death of HJR-1, contrary to what has written in the blogosphere.

In the property tax debate, I argue the schools have been the worst offenders. They are anywhere from 40-80 percent of the property tax problem. They complained about caps on assessments. They also fought against referendums on school projects in order to keep costs under control. And if all that wasn’t bad enough, here’s a prime example of a school district that doesn’t get it.

According to the Franklin Township Informer, Franklin Township Schools in Marion County collected more than $36,000 in revenue from its Pepsi vending machines. The funds were collected from January 2005 to October 2007. Initially school was allowed to the profits from the vending machines, however a policy change left only $2,500 at each school.

So what did the school district do with the leftover cash? Check this out.  According to detailed records, the district spent $581.00 on an administration breakfast. $473 went to Bobby Jones Beef and Brew restaurant. More than $5,400 was spent on staff retirement lunches or parties. Franklin Township also spent $467 on donuts for a school bus tour. $73 was spent at Kabuto Japanese Steakhouse.  The district also spent more than $500 on flowers for various occasions. And here’s the kicker, the district spend $355 on a piano for a retirement party.

But perhaps the most disturbing expenditure of all was $1,500 to a group called  Stand Up For Education, the money was used to put down on a bond deposit to fight against a remonstrance for a school building project.  So in other words, the school used taxpayers’ dollars to fight against individuals who didn’t want their property taxes increased because of new construction.

When asked if any of these expenses were the proper use of vending machine funds, Franklin Township School Director of Business James McWhirt told the paper, “It’s not the taxpayers’ money. There are no restrictions on how it is spent, it is open-ended.” 

That’s obvious.

The State Board of Accounts does not audit these funds per se, however such funds should generally be used for the benefit of the student body as a whole, rather than a select group of students or administrators.

Could someone tell me how retirement parties, pianos, donuts, flowers, and meals at a Japanese Steakhouse benefit the students as a whole?

I knew it was too good to be true. There it was, a property tax crisis of near Biblical proportion. Citizens were mad; politicians were scared, real change was a possibility.  And then, my world of reform started to turn into dust.

Over in the Indiana State Senate, the new policy has become protecting fellow elected officials rather than look out for the taxpayers. Amendments to government reform legislation will leave the township assessors intact in Marion County, as well as the small claims courts and would only allow a referendum to decide whether a County Executive should replace County Commissioners.

To add insult to injury, on the House side of the Capitol building there’s talk that any effort to eliminate township trustees is dead as well as fire consolidation in Marion County.

This is ridiculous! The taxpayers have demanded lawmakers get their act in gear and deliver real reform. You cannot have real meaningful reform unless you eliminate the government that raises the taxes. The culprits behind all this are Conservative Republican Senator Mike Young and Liberal Democrat Representative Bill Crawford. Young wants to protect the Assessor and Crawford the Trustees.

The funny thing is neither of these guys agrees on much of anything because of their respective political philosophies, but I guess when it comes to protecting your friends and ignoring the property taxpayers, both walk arm in arm.

There were quite a few things happening around town this afternoon.  Here they are…

The Concerned Clergy, a small group of Black pastors, plan to protest Thursday’s Public Safety Committee meeting over handing control of the police department from Sheriff Frank Anderson to Mayor Greg Ballard.  According to my sources, the group won’t protest under the guise of power being taken away from the Black Sheriff (because they read my blog and realized Anderson has endorsed the very white Kerry Forestal) but instead will try to argue that the city is trying to engage in discrimination and limit the hiring  and promotion of Black officers by trying to get out of a consent decree on past racial hiring practices.

My sources tell me State Senator Jim Merritt’s local government reform plan may be awaiting a death sentence in the House of Representatives.  Apparently some lawmakers are more concerned about protecting the township  trustees than the taxpayers’ hard-earned money.

Marion County Clerk Beth White has unveiled plans on how the March 11 special election to fill the vacancy left by the late Julia Carson will work.  White says there will be about 300 polling locations.  She says she has about half of the 445 inspectors that she needs.  Mayor Greg Ballard told me this afternoon that he plans to give city employees the day off if they agree to work the polls.

And speaking of Mayors, the Mayor named two more appointments today.  Nick Weber, former aide to Senator Dick Lugar is taking over as the Deputy Mayor for Economic Development.  Weber says his focus will be on workforce development as well as bringing new employers to the city.  The Mayor also named former Marion County Clerk of the Courts Sarah Taylor as the head of Constituent Services.  She says she wants to improve the response time on the Mayor’s Action call line.

Indiana State Senator Luke Kenley (R-Noblesville) says he’s pleased Indiana House members passed out Governor Daniels property tax reform plan, but he says there are “a lot of warts” on the bill that the Senate is going to have to clean up.

House members passed tax reform with $350 million of  new spending they including a tax credit for renters and and earned income credit to offset the increase in the state sales tax.  Kenley, the Senate’s point man on property taxes,  said it was easy to vote for the measure without having to spell how they will be paid for and he expects the Senate to make numerous changes to the bill.

In addition, Kenley downplayed the assignment of SJR-8 (the constitutional amendment which would have eliminated property taxes) to a summer study committee. Kenley says the study committee assignment does not mean the bill the dead, but instead it gives lawmakers a chance to really see of property taxes can be eliminated in a responsible manner.  He also points out that many of the reforms that are being debated right now came out his summer study committee on property taxes.