Suspending Gas Tax a Good Idea

House Democrat Minority Leader Patrick's Bauer call to suspend Indiana's sales tax on gas is a good idea, but why does it take the Governor to declare an energy emergency?  Yes, fuel prices are higher than what we've been used to, but that hasn't slowed our consumption down.  We're far from a state of emergency. 

There are many other good reasons to suspend the tax.  If there were no 6% surcharge on fuel, not only would individual pocketbooks benefit, making it easier to provide for family needs, savings and consumer purchases, but small businesses would retain much needed funds that could be put to use in better ways, perhaps by hiring another employee or funding research and development or purchasing another building or vehicle to help the business grow.  All facets of the economy would benefit.

The General Assembly should not stop there, however.  A temporary suspension is not the complete answer.  The state should permanently cut the sales tax rate in half to 3% for all goods and services.  This would benefit the state, individuals and small business much more than a temporary suspension of the sales tax on gas.

Indiana Election Law -- The Inside Joke They Don't Want You to Hear

Democrats and Republicans have done it again. They've colluded to keep twelve Libertarian candidates around the state off the ballot. How? Simple. They've passed yet another law designed to trip up Indiana's Libertarian Party. As if minimum vote percentages for ballot access and for major party status weren't enough, the General Assembly just this year passed a law that went into effect upon passage that is clearly aimed at the state's third largest party.

Mike Kole, the Libertarian's Secretary of State candidate, reports that the party filed their post-convention vacancy candidates' paperwork with the Indiana Election Division just like they always have. Not good enough, according to the IED, though. The candidates were required to file a "10-day notice of intent" to fill the vacancies with the IED. The law gives no reason for the notice, and it provides no form for doing so. It seems to serve no function other than to frustrate Libertarian candidacies.

This is reminiscent of the attempt by the Kernan and Daniels' campaigns to keep Libertarian gubernatorial candidate Kenn Gividen from the debates in 2004. It harms the voters by taking away their choices, and it violates the spirit of free and open elections. In some of the races where the Libs were scratched, there was either no Republican or Democrat candidate. In other words, in those races, the General Assembly has ensured victory for their party mates.

Like the public outcry over the Gividen snub resulted in Gividen being allowed in the debates, Indiana voters should scream for election law reform. This is a prime example of why Indiana's election law needs gutted and replaced with common sense.

Observation on the Middle East

The story I see today is that Secretary of State Rice's trip to the Middle East to broker a peace deal was a failure.  That's a curious premise, because it has appeared from the beginning of the latest conflict that the Bush administration has not been actively pursuing peace.  The statements out of Washington were that there should be no cease fire until a lasting solution was found.  

Seriously?  It seems that a cease fire would be the first step to brokering a deal.  Stop the shooting.  Stop the bombing.  Stop the killing.  Stop it all so leaders can talk.  Who is going to want negotiate while their citizens are being slaughtered?  who is going to take time out from defending themselves, whichever side, to talk across a table to the enemy?  With the elevated tension in the region, it seems making those involved step back and take a breath would more likely result in a lasting peace accord rather than piling on.

While the United States should probably not be involved in this conflict at all, if it is going to participate, it should at least be a productive force for both immediate and lasting peace.

Chris Matthews on Tiger Woods

I'm not sure whether to give this thumbs down to Chris Matthews or to my local television station. The Chris Matthews Show airs on Sunday mornings in my market. This week, Chris did a piece on the relationship between Tiger Woods and his father, Earl. It was a nice feature, but at the end, when Chris was wrapping it up, he stated something like, "This week, Tiger's out there competing. . . without his dad."

If the show was to air earlier in the week, thumbs down to my local station for not doing so. However, I suspect it's not the station's fault.

This thumbs down goes to you, Chris. It was big news Friday afternoon that Tiger did not make the cut for the U.S. Open, the first time he missed the cut on a major in his career. Tiger's not out there competing this weekend. It would have been smart to go back and edit your piece to reflect that. As it stands, rather than thinking about Tiger, Earl and Fathers Day, you left your viewers thinking, "I didn't realize that show was taped so far in advance."

What Would You Do If the Government Asked You to Change Your Name?

That's exactly what's happening in parts of China.  In the country's evolving computer state-id card system, there is a glitch in the identification-reader software.  More than four thousand rarely-used characters are unidentifiable by the existing program, and Chinese citizens with surnames containing the rarely-used characters are being encouraged to change their unusual surnames to more common variants so that the software will be able to pick them up.  

Would you be willing to change your last name so that the government's databases were correct?  If the government required you to make such a change in order to travel, pay taxes, or use a credit card, would you?  This is China, but it hits closer to home than what you might think.  If the Real ID legislation currently pending in Congress passes, we all will have to make choices.  We will be faced with either submitting to a national identification system or not being able to open a bank account, not having legal internet access, not being able to purchase a plane ticket and, perhaps, not being legally able to hold a job.  

Think about it, and think about what our country was founded upon. 

Earning a Degree in High School -- An Idea Whose Time Has Come

Bravo to Indianapolis Mayor Bart Peterson for approving a charter for the Lawrence Early College High School for Science and Technologies, an early-college high school in Indiana. The curriculum at the school will be a combination of both high school and college courses, enabling some students simultaneously to earn a high school diploma and an associate's degree.

This is an exciting opportunity for teens who excel in school to knock out many of those boring and unchallenging first and second year college courses without paying excessive tuition and essentially wasting those early college semesters, giving those that go on to bachelors programs a head start and those that don't a degree that will give them a leg up in getting an entry level job out of school.

There are some questions, however. While a high school education is required to be given at no charge according to the state constitution, college courses do not fall under that provision. Will the State end up footing the bill for the students' tuition, ie. property taxes? Will the state and federal governments' financial aid programs be accessible? Will the students pay for the college portion directly? Will the college portion of the program be subject to federal and state standards, like high schools?

Let's hope the feds and the State stay out of the way on this one. In order to work, this program is going to have to have the ability to change quickly and without governmental interference. This is a good idea. Let's make sure it succeeds.

Is the Indiana Lottery Far Behind?

If there was any doubt as to whether the sale of Indiana's toll road was a partisan issue, any question has been resolved.  During the ramrodding of HB 1008 there was a feeling that Republicans would vote for its passage and Democrats would vote against, and the votes in both chambers did, indeed, follow party lines.  Common sense would tell you that looking at the issue objectively, there would be some people for the sale and some against and that doubts on either side would be present within both the Republican and the Democratic ranks, and if we had a General Assembly that was concerned about the residents of Indiana rather than retaining power, those doubts would have been reflected in the vote on the bill.  We would have had Republicans voting for and some against and we would have had some Democrats voting for and others against.  That's common sense.  But we're talking government here, so prudence is not a virtue we expect.  

In Illinois, the governor, a Democrat, has proposed "leasing" the state lottery.  Substantially the same set of facts we had with the toll road issue here in Indiana.  And Democrats can't wait to get in line behind him to show their support for the idea.  Republicans, on the other hand, can't get to the press fast enough to voice their opinion that it's a bad idea and other options should be looked at.  Sound familiar?

It really matters not at all whether a Republican or a Democrat proposes an idea.  In today's party-line government (and I realize that partisanship is nothing new), whether the idea is good is not an issue.  We are essentially guaranteed that the members of the party who proposed the idea are going to vote for it, and the the other major party's members will vote against it, regardless of the party's tenents. 

So once Governor Daniels proposes "leasing" the Indiana lottery, we can surely expect the Republican General Assembly to push it through without thought.

Is that really the right way to govern?

Why Did Indiana Suddenly Change the Fireworks Law?

Was it a rare bout of rationality that caused a change in the nonsensical fireworks law that allowed their purchase but forbid their use? No. Note this from today's Indianapolis Star:

The law allows fireworks to be used only on the user's property, and they can only be purchased by someone 18 and older, state officials said. Homeland security and fire department officials said the biggest change is the age restriction. The law also adds a 5 percent safety fee on all fireworks sales beginning June 1 to benefit public safety programs like firefighter training.

Yes, the change in the law was just a smoke screen (ahem) to implement a new tax. Our money-hungry Republican legislature and governor are now allowing us to purchase the same fireworks we bought last year, but with a 5% surcharge. Once again, this shows that any perceived difference between the Democrats and the Republicans is not real. Well, maybe the Dems would have made it a 10% tax and required each purchase be accompanied by a pair of goggles...

Reps and Dems Blow Reporting Deadline

In at least two Indiana counties the major parties have let the campaign finance reporting deadline pass without filing their reports. This would be a big no-no for one of the other parties and would warrant a heavy fine. Let's see what happens here.

How can we continue to trust the Republicans and Democrats to get our elections right when they can't follow their own rules -- the rules implemented to throw hurdles in front of third parties and to keep power concentrated in the status quo? How about opening a seat on the county, and state, election boards up to an Independent? The monopoly the Reps and Dems have on the election system needs to be checked, and absent a third party gaining major party status, putting a non-partisan on the election board will help.