The winner of last night’s mayoral debate was incumbent Bart Peterson. I watched the debate several times before coming to this conclusion. For the record, no candidate said anything they had not said already a million times before. (Such is the curse of attending dozens of mayoral forums and following the issues closer than about anyone else in town.) So this time I looked at style, not substance.

Incumbent Bart Peterson tried to come across as “Reganesque” in his presentation. He tried to convey a message of optimism and that the city’s best days were still ahead of it by all joining hands and working together. Republican challenger Greg Ballard had a delivery that was stiff, stilted and robotic. And he left several opportunities on the table to score some crucial hits against the incumbent. Libertarian Fred Peterson had some interesting ideas but tended to come across at times as a “grumpy old man.”

Overall, no candidate did anything to change any impressions the voters might have so in essence, the incumbent Mayor won because neither candidate gave the voters a reason to think they were a viable alternative.

But the news isn’t all bad, there are three more debates scheduled and the candidates all have a chance to make a better impression. Unfortunately for them, yours truly is participating on one of the panels so they better really come prepared.

Marion County Republicans say they’re trying to do their part to help Clerk Beth White fill poll inspector slots for the November election, but she’s turning them down. The GOP says it send White a list of 200 potential polling inspectors to fill vacancies but she turned down nearly half of them.

White’s office says they did turn down inspectors but 27 names on the list had already accepted inspector positions and they took another 38 names from the list. Another eight individuals were not registered to vote as required by law, according to White.

The Clerk also told the Republicans that she had already filled spots suggested by Republicans for 97 poll workers but would use them in open areas. However Marion County Republican Party Executive Director Kyle Walker said they wanted the inspectors to be in precincts that would require the most attention. He said White should take the GOP up on their offer and moved her people around to accommodate the Republican workers.

As for the remaining poll workers, White said they did not have contact information for 29 of them and would not fill any precincts until she received it. A spokesman for the Office says they are still looking for polling inspectors to work Election Day.

Walker says he’s disappointed White would turn away willing poll workers.

Election Day is November 6.

I’ve been a big critic of Indianapolis Public Schools but lately they have scored some major points with me. I sat with Superintendent Eugene White and talked about academic performance, property taxes and of course uniforms.

As you probably watched on television, there were a lot of angry parents at Tech High School over the suspensions of more than 100 students because they violated the dress codes.

I don’t know which is worse, the kids who don’t get it or the idiot parents who have no clue. IPS debated the uniform policy for months and parents and students have had weeks to adjust. There really isn’t anything to discuss here.

Parents who have a problem with kids in uniforms should probably get ready for their sons and daughters to wear another kind of uniform in a few years, a prison uniform.

Every time some asks me if I favor getting rid of property taxes, I tell them no. I’m in favor of getting rid of the government that’s responsible for the property taxes. On the road to reform those who have yelled the loudest are those seeking the elimination of property taxes, there are a number of plans to replace the revenue; the problem with those plans is that they don’t work.

To eliminate property taxes in Indiana, you would have to find an extra $6 billion somewhere else. Proponents argue raising the state sales and income taxes; capping levy growth and having the state take over some functions currently funded by property taxes like schools and child welfare. Let’s walk through each of these.

To replace property taxes with sales and income taxes every expert says you have to raise the respective tax rates to about 15%. Now you can lower the rate if you are willing to broaden the base and tax items that currently aren’t being taxed: professional services, food, all retail purchases. And there would also be a distribution issue. Should counties get back all the money they send to Indianapolis in the form of taxes or should the state keep the money and distribute it where it’s needed most?

Capping the levy is a good idea. But a better idea would be to reverse the way levies are done. In Indiana local governments set their budgets that become the levies. There are some controls, but what this boils down to is the government setting its budget on what it wants to spend. This is the equivalent of your child basing their allowance on how much they want to spend that week.

And finally, there’s the control issue. If the state takes over schools and child welfare, then the state gets to make all the decisions and the locals are out of the loop. If you don’t think this is a likely scenario, might I suggest you take a long look at Lucas Oil Stadium. I also find it interesting that the further Hoosiers are away from Indianapolis, the less they tend to like the mandates that come from the Capitol. So if you think some folks are grouchy now, just wait.

To solve the property tax problem, I go back to my old premises, there is too much government and too much spending in Indiana. There are too many taxing districts, too many counties, and too many elected and appointed officials. If you want lower taxes, you have to have less government to go along with it. Property taxes are not evil. There is certain logic to the land helping pay for benefits it receives. Schools, police, fire, roads and sewers are all paid for with property taxes. And if you reform the government, you can get the tax relief.

The blogosphere is going a buzz today with “commentary” regarding Indianapolis Mayor Bart Peterson’s appearance at a tax forum at the Light of the World Church. The forum started at 5 p.m. and lasted a couple hours. The Mayor had to leave early, which usually is no big deal because he is a busy person with heavy schedule. However what’s stirring the controversy is before the Mayor left he told the audience he had to go to another inter-faith meeting. Later that night he is on national television at the Colts’ game with a 110-year woman who had never attended a game. That raised the ire of the bloggers who’ve accused the Mayor of lying.

I am not going out on that limb. However it doesn’t look good when you tell the audience in a church that you’re on your way to an interfaith meeting and less than an hour later you show up on television at a football game, it doesn’t do much for your credibility. I’m sure the Mayor has a logical explanation for his actions. And I’m sure a lot of people would like to hear it.

NOTE: Deputy Mayor Steve Campbell called me this morning to tell me the Mayor recorded the interview prior to coming the tax forum and then went to the interfaith event.

As much as I like Mayor Bart Peterson personally, his act is starting to wear a little thin. An ordinance has been introduced to eliminate take home cars for non-public safety city county employees. It was sponsored by several city-county Councilors. I have never understood why the ordinance was necessary because most of the departments that have take-home cars are under the Mayor’s control.

However when asked by my brothers in the press, the Mayor responded, that a council backed ordinance would be easier to get that done. Because the city, up until two years ago, had no control over other office budgets and comptroller Bob Clifford says they have a hard enough time keeping track of what they have now.

The Mayor could have easily issued an executive order and clamped down on the practice. According to a list of employees who had take home cars, most were in public works, metropolitan development and parks and recreations. All those offices are under the direct control of the Mayor. And even he can use his influence with the sheriff to ask him to scale back on take-home cars for non-essential employees. And the last I checked the Mayor still runs the fire department so an executive order would work there also.

If this city can’t keep track of a few cars, it really makes me wonder what else they can’t keep track of? I’ll bet your share of Monday’s 65-percent tax increase it involves more of your hard-earned money. Like I said, I personally like the Mayor, but this is getting real old, real quick.

A good friend in broadcasting is calling it quits on Monday. Fellow broadcaster Jeff Pigeon of WIBC is leaving his job Monday. Despite whatever is taking place on Monument Circle, Jeff is a good guy and good broadcaster. We shared numerous cocktails downstairs at Nicki Blaines in the evenings but still managing to make it to work on time in the early hours. He will do well in whatever or wherever his career takes him. Good luck, my friend.

Anyone who has ever watched “Star Trek; The Next Generation” knows that title is the standard line of the Borg, a cyborg-race of creatures who assimilate other cultures. I use that line to describe the excluded cities of Marion County. I moderated the city of Lawrence mayoral candidate’s forum last night.

They addressed a number of issues: crime, taxes, economic development, etc. However there was an underlying theme that Lawrence should be “separate” from Indianapolis. They wanted control of the major roads and zoning. I really don’t understand this need to be separate. If you look at a map of Indianapolis, it all looks the same. And if you drive through town, it all looks the same. Everyone looks like a resident of Indianapolis to me.

And if these people truly wanted to be “liberated” they would assume control of all their local functions and them smile when they got the bill. There is no reason that Beech Grove residents should pay for two library systems or Lawrence residents pay for three fire departments. Make them all one. Assimilate everyone. Resistance is futile.

There are a couple of interesting stories this morning out of the townships that are reflective of the current political climate here in Indiana.

A plan is being floated amongst the Indiana Assessor’s Association to consolidate (yes, you read that correctly) all the assessor offices across the state and put them under the Indiana Department of Revenue (IDOR). Under the plan IDOR would have an assessment administrator who would oversee assessments and the state would be divided into 10 assessment districts with roughly the same number of parcels. The Assessors say such a system would allow for greater consistency across the state, result in more fair and equitable assessments and remove politics from assessing. As big a critic as I am of township government, I have to give it to these guys for putting forward a thoughtful proposal and for deciding to get on the train as opposed to being under it.

I wish I could say the same thing for the Lawrence Township Board. The board voted Tuesday night 5-2 against consolidating the Lawrence Township fire department with the Indianapolis Fire Department. The vote was along party lines and opponents said they needed more time to study the plan. Lawrence Township Trustee Mike Hobbes says he doesn’t know what the board’s problem is as they were given all the consolidation information back in July and there have been two public hearings since then. The board says it wants another public hearing in late October. The township had to borrow $1.8 million in emergency loans to keep its fire department afloat and the Daniels administration has made it clear the days of emergency loans to keep township government afloat are pretty much over. I don’t know what is going through the township board’s thought process, but in an age where taxpayers are clamoring for less government, this might be the time to give the people what they want.

And you thought township government was outdated and boring. I agree it is outdated, but never boring.

The U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to hear the case involving Indiana’s Voter ID law. The law requires voters show a government picture ID before they vote. State Democrats challenged the law saying it was unconstitutional and disenfranchised poor and minority voters. Republicans say it was necessary to prevent voter fraud. The court will hear the case early next year. The 7th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the law last year.

It will be interesting to see this develop in the election backdrop next year. However, I can’t but help notice a little bit of hypocrisy by some of my Democratic friends who claimed voter ID would disenfranchise thousands of voters, even though they couldn’t produce one person who was turned away from the polls and on top of that they had more than 10,000 straight ticket voters in Marion County in last November’s election who apparently had no problem voting.

And to add insult to injury, they were quiet as church mice this past May when a number of polling places didn’t open in Marion County and at least 3500 identifiable voters were disenfranchised because their polling places never opened.

Court is now definitely in session.