One of my favorite films is Casablanca.   And while you would think my favorite character would be Humphrey Bogart’s  Rick Blaine (totally understandable), it is actually Claude Raine’s character Capt. Louis Renault, particularly the scene above when he tells Rick he is closing down the Club because he is  “shocked to find that there is gambling taking place there”.    I have that same reaction when I look at the reaction my Democratic friends are having regarding SB 621 which would reform Marion County government.

You would swear listening to their moaning and gnashing of teeth that this was truly the end of the world and a clear sign of universal Armageddon.   However, my informal poll of regular people who have to work for a living tells me otherwise.

This past Saturday I guest hosted “Unity in the Community” on AM 1310, with Indianapolis Mayor Greg Ballard.  The Mayor and I talked about SB 621 which would give his office more budget authority, control of his appointments and it would also eliminate the at-larges.  Democrats have said this the biggest land grab since World War II Europe, however the Mayor said he would be perfectly comfortable with a Democratic Mayor having the same authority.

What was actually even more telling was when we took the phone calls.  Not one person called about SB 621.  There were calls about streets and sidewalks.  Some people wanted to know about certain city services, but not one person called in to say, please Mr. Mayor, stop your blatant power grab!  You should not have the authority to choose your own Department heads without having to run back to the City-County Council every year to get them re-appointed.  No one called in to say “Greg Ballard, you are an evil man for wanting to get Sheriff john Layton’s spending under control because we the taxpayers have an extra $20 million just laying around for his amusement and entertainment!”   And not one person came out of the woodwork to say “save our at-larges”.  Even in my bi-weekly column in the Indianapolis Star the only person who complained was a Democratic elected official.

What’s more interesting has been the Democrats’ promise to withhold their support of mass transit if the GOP moves forward with SB 621.  I think it is fair to say that they would rather keep four of their friends in their part-time jobs rather than make sure thousands of their constituents have the means to get to work and become economically empowered and self-sufficient.  They must not realize that Greg Ballard is their best and only chance to get mass transit if they get a Democratic Mayor in 2015 Stevie Wonder and Ray Charles will see mass transit in this town before they do.

And the icing on the cake still remains that for all the crying about representation and diluting voter rights, I did not hear a peep out of my Democratic friends when the Council reduced Republican representation on Council Committees to ensure they had a super-majority in most cases.

Ah, the joy of outrage.  Now if you will excuse me, I have to go collect my winnings.

In my bi-weekly column in the Indianapolis Star I write the reaction by the Marion  County Democrats to SB 621 (Marion County Government Reorganization) is doing their cause more harm than good.

Click here to read more.

Indiana House Republicans unveiled a You Tube ad this week that pushes back against accusations by Americans for Prosperity that they are big spenders by pointing what they say is proven record of fiscal management and tax cuts.

I got an  e-mail the other day from someone asking why I don’t blog as much on Indiana Barrister.  Two reasons, time and money.

As you all know I write Indy Politics,  and I also write for the Indianapolis Star, the Statehouse File, NUVO and the Indianapolis Recorder.  I also have another couple projects I do some work for as well.   Doing all that takes up a lot of time, also there is money attached to those other endeavors, unlike here which I do for free.

However, you can’t ignore your first love or it will go away, so I promise to do this  more often.  Also despite the best efforts of some people who I like, although disagree with,  the insanity that tends to permeate the Indiana blogosphere these days is running crazy, I figure the return of a voice of reason is long overdue.

It’s good to be back.

For the most part I have been agnostic about whether Indiana should stay in or opt out of Common Core.  For those of you who don’t wear tinfoil hats or are waiting for the black helicopters to come by your house or for that matter just have a life, Common Core is a set of national standards designed by educators and other professionals to come up with a way to measure student performance across the country.

For example, how does a middle school in DeKalb County, Ind., compare with one in DeKalb County, Ill., or DeKalb County, Ga., for that matter?   Under the old system, it would be hard to tell because an eighth-grader taking a pre-algebra class might be getting three different types of instruction. With Common Core you don’t necessarily get a homogenized system of learning, but you do get metrics and measures that would allow you to better compare how those students are learning.

Now this is the point where the conspiracy theorists come flying out of the woodwork calling Common Core “a massive takeover of  local education by the federal government” or some other such rhetoric.  The other grand conspiracy is that this is a move by education textbook publishers to control the curriculum and in turn, sell school districts more books.   Now, granted, I will not sit here and write that there is no possibility that there is someone out there with ulterior motives that may not be in the best interests of children pushing these national standards, but, heck, you can get that with any school board election.

Here is why Common Core makes sense to me at this point.  I am all for local control of education, to a point.  However, the days when a kid just graduated from high school and jaunted off to college got a four-year degree and then went off to work, are disappearing and getting a lot more complicated.   Hoosier students are competing for seats with students from out of state and if someone from Indianapolis or Evansville attends school out of state then they are the competition for the local kids.   This matters because the ACT and SAT (you remember those standardized exams) are in the process of, guess what, adopting their exams to reflect Common Core.   You see where this going?

So, if your state opts out of Common Core, which the states have the perfect right to do, that state puts its college-bound student populations at risk, both at home and away, because if colleges and universities are using standardized test scores from the ACT and SAT as part of their admission standards, and those exams are incorporating the Common Core curriculum as part of their testing, do you really want your college-bound kid to be at that kind of disadvantage?   If so, I recommend you don’t turn his or her bedroom into your office or den just yet.

Common Core is not this horrible, evil, New World Order, Trilateral Commission, Council on Foreign Relations plot to turn the children of the world into mindless automatons for the Rothschilds and Bilderbergers.  It is simply a way to better track student performance.   Is it perfect? Not by any means.  But if Indiana opts out of it, the end result in the long term won’t be pretty.

In response to pressure by the Governor’s office to push a 10-percent income tax cut, House Speaker Brian Bosma penned a letter last month to all 92 Republican County Chairmen in Indiana explaining his hesitancy to adopt the measure.   A copy of the letter is below.

Back in August 2011, I wrote a blog post about my departure from what was then Newstalk 1430, WXNT.   Like I said then it wasn’t a local decision, but a corporate one.   Well, literally a year and a half later we are back on the air on terrestrial radio here in Indianapolis, and in the most odd of ways.

On Fridays, I will be sharing the airspace with former rival, now co-host, Amos Brown on AM 1310, the light.  “Afternoons with Amos” will still exist, Monday thru Thursday, except now on Fridays from 1-3 p.m.,  it will be “Amos & Abdul”.  It’s a tie-in to the television program we do together on WHMB-TV (Thursdays at 11 p.m. & Sundays at 6 p.m);  which by the way, I call Crossfire, with a tan.   Amos will continue to provide his “progressive” prospective, while I will continue to defend the GOP Establishment  (There, I said it so you don’t have too.)

I think it will be a great program and a great compliment to the community.  It also means that when the Mayor delivers his State of the City address on March 8, the two of us will be there to offer commentary and opinion.

And here is something else to ponder, I don’t think there is another format like this anywhere in the country, either on radio, television or cable.  If there is, I couldn’t find it anywhere.

Of course we both have our detractors, which is perfectly fine with me.  However, I think life in this town is about to get even more interesting than ever.  I hope you’ll tune in.

I think it’s interesting the political class in the great Hoosier state is all abuzz over the “budget battle” between Governor Mike Pence and Indiana House Republicans over the fact that the House Rs did not include Pence’s 10-percent income tax in their initial budget.

Of course it’s news when the Governor and House Republican lawmakers disagree, but there are couple things to keep in perspective.  First, anyone who has been paying attention knows that the House leadership has not been crazy about the income tax idea without a better handle on the state’s finances which will get with the April revenue forecasts.  Second if this is Indiana’s biggest problem, we’re in pretty good shape.

Allow me to map out a few things, I recently took a look at both Pence’s and the House Rs budget plans.  Here’s what they look like side-by-side.

Overall spending

• Pence  – Approximately $29.2 billion over the biennium
• HRs – Approximately $30.076 billion over the biennium

Reserves

• Pence – Capped at 12.5% for the biennium
• HRs – $1.9 Bil (12.6% in FY 2014), $2.1 Bil (13.9% in FY 2015)

Tax cuts

• Pence – 10% cut in income tax
• HRs – Speed up phase out of inheritance tax to January 1, 2018 instead of January 1, 2022.

Education

• Pence – 2% potential increase, automatic 1% increase in first year, year two increase based on performance
• HRs – 3.3% total increase  ($344 million total), 2% increase in first year, 1% increase in year two.  Also an additional $16.7 mil to reward performance
• Both fund Full-Day Kindergarten.

Roads

• Pence – One-time $347 million increase, from the surplus that would have gone to non pre-1996 teacher pensions.
• HRs –  $250 million permanent  increase by shifting dollars from state sales tax on gasoline

DCS

• Pence – $35 million more for caseworkers, supervisors and child protection hotline
• HRs – $40 million increase.

So let me see if I get this.  We’re spending more money on schools and roads. The Department of Child Services is getting more money.  We’re keeping a budget surplus of at least 12% and the big issue is whether we should cut income taxes to stimulate the economy or speed up the phase out of the inheritance tax?

What’s the big deal here again?  I don’t know if you’ve looked at the budget problems that have been hitting other states lately but I’ll take Indiana’s budget problems any day.  I’ll take budget surpluses over massive debt.  I’ll take more dollars for schools and roads over less any day of the week.  And if you can do all and cut taxes at the exact time?! Once again, what am I missing here?  I can assure you that if you drove a couple hours in any direction on I-65, I-69, I-74 or

I-70 I will bet you a Davidoff Cigar and martini that the elected officials you spoke would gladly trade places with Indiana right now.

I don’t worry about early legislative squabbles, especially over what taxes to cut because I can assure you it beats the alternative discussion that is likely taking place in other states.

I never thought I would live to see the day that I would have to reference an Ice Cube film in order to make my point that folks need to chill out when it comes to criticism that Governor Mike Pence isn’t moving fast enough.

For those of you over 40 and melanin-challenged, Ice Cube is a rapper-turned-actor. He was a hard core “gangster rapper” in his early career and later changed his image somewhat as he got older. Part of that transformation was starring in the film “Are We There Yet.”

The plot was really simple – make that simplistic. Ice Cube plays a bachelor who is dating a single mom. When the mom’s job conflicts with travel plans, Ice agrees to take the kids on the road and meet up with her later. While on the road, a series of madcap hilarity (sarcasm) ensues. And in the end, all’s well that ends well.

I couldn’t help but think of that film as the chorus of critics began to rise regarding Gov. Mike Pence. House Democratic Leader Scott Pelath offered an end of first quarter assessment of the governor’s performance for the legislative session, saying he was squandering time and not moving fast enough to create jobs.  A number of my fellow pundits and analysts have echoed those comments, saying Pence was doing more wandering than taking Indiana anywhere.

With all due respect to my friends and political colleagues, relax people! The man hasn’t even been in office a month yet. I’m not sure what exactly it is people want the governor to have accomplished 23 days into the job, but if you take a look at his record, he’s not off to a bad start. When you break down his “Roadmap for Indiana,” more than 60 percent of the governor’s agenda has found a home in a House or Senate bill, executive order or the governor’s proposed budget.

On the jobs front, Pence has made 12 jobs announcements, presided over two ribbon cuttings, and by the time this goes to print, six economic development roundtables. And by the way, those 12 jobs announcements equal about 1,054 projected new jobs and nearly $100 million in new investment in Indiana.

And please note: On any given day Pence is out making the case for his income tax cut to Hoosiers outside of Indianapolis.

So once again, what more do people want the governor to do? I know for a lot of people there is a comparison to former Gov. Mitch Daniels, who came in like gangbusters and literally rewrote the book on state government operations. However, Mike Pence is not Mitch Daniels and 2013 is not 2005. Indiana is not on the verge of bankruptcy with a bloated state government that is the laughing stock of the nation.

Instead Indiana has become a model for the nation. If you don’t think so, why did Michigan pass right to work? Why is Ohio looking at cutting taxes? And why in the past couple years have 21 Illinois companies made plans to move all or parts of their operations to Indiana, accounting for 1,870 new jobs and more than $320.9 million in capital investment?

It would be one thing if we were halfway through Pence’s term and Indiana was pretty stagnant. But give the man at least a month. Or – if I can use the roadmap as part of the analogy – can we at least get out of the driveway before we start complaining about the driver?

You have to see it to believe it.  Click here for more details.