Coming fresh off an extended Fourth of July weekend at Valparaiso University, it was perhaps fitting that I trekked around to some of Indiana’s other higher education destinations the following week.
First up was a trip to West Lafayette with Chamber President Kevin Brinegar. I guess he stays a little busier around here than I do, so to allow for some extra work to be done, I drove.
I don’t know what the Chamber was thinking not having seen me operate a vehicle, especially considering that I’m a young male who has disheveled hair and an extensive criminal record (just kidding, my hair is straight). But come Monday morning I was in the driver’s seat next to Kevin, who had declined my offer to take my rusted ’94 Accord in lieu of his own car, which he described as “fun.” It was.
In Boilermaker land, Kevin had a business lunch with Purdue President France Cordova, who I had the opportunity to meet. After meetings with Caterpillar and Wabash National, Chamber Membership Director Tim Brewer and I kept the college theme going by being roomies for a night at the local Holiday Inn. A Breakfast with Brinegar event for area Chamber members was held in the hotel the next morning. Then it was back to Indianapolis with yours truly at the wheel.
Within five minutes of returning to the office, I left with Senior VP Mark Lawrance for Terre Haute, where he was doing a press conference as part of the now ongoing “Letters to Our Leaders” campaign. We had an outstanding Lebanese lunch by Indiana State’s campus and then met with the Terre Haute Chamber staff and Gary Morris, president of Clabber Girl and a Chamber board member who was taking part in the press conference with Mark.
After I had passed out media packets to the newspaper and TV crews that had assembled for the conference, Mark suggested we take the more scenic route back to Indy via U.S. 40. The historic road took us all the way back to Washington Street and ended my whirlwind of a tour. I’m pleased to report I fulfilled my chauffer duties without incident.
Now to decide between Muncie and Bloomington for my Frequent Driver Miles trip.
While Marion County and a few others across the state are still dealing with 2007 property tax bills, work is progressing (behind the normal May-November payment due schedule) on 2008 versions. It’s still way too early to tell the impacts of most property tax reform measures. The immediate "relief" to homeowners (a total of $870 million in state-provided credits) will be seen.
Although there is no official report, Indiana Chamber calculations indicate:
Twelve have mailed the first 2008 bills, with Vanderburgh, Hamilton and Howard among the largest counties
The initial Allen County installment is expected to hit next week. Vigo and Monroe should go out before the end of July
Further delays are expected in northern Indiana with more work to do in Lake, LaPorte, Porter and St. Joseph counties
A total of 52 counties have received budget orders from the Department of Local Government Finance. The result could be many more bills on the way in the coming weeks
So, homeowners are getting their relief – that was the mission. The question is what will the 2008 commercial and industrial property taxes look like.
Two excerpts of Wednesday stories that taken together simply leave your head shaking.
First, from an Indiana Chamber release the day after its Letters to Our Leaders project debuted with an initial focus on local government efficiency:
Last winter, the first responders on the scene of a van in a Hamilton County retention pond weren’t a critically needed dive team. Instead, it reportedly took three 911 calls for that emergency crew to arrive. Tragically, four people lost their lives when public safety improvements might have made all the difference.
The Fort Wayne Journal Gazette was one of many media outlets covering the campaign to place a focus on important public policy issues. A separate story in the same newspaper about opposition to a plan to merge city, county and the nearby New Haven emergency call centers included the following:
The issue of merged 911 centers has been an ongoing discussion for years between Fort Wayne and Allen County, as the two call centers are housed in the same room of the City-County Building basement separated by a glass wall. Councilman Tim Pape, D-5th, said the issue has been the most frustrating topic for him. … He said even if there were no cost savings, having a unified dispatch center makes sense because it improves safety.
Assessors in 43 townships want to keep their jobs. No surprise there. But to go to the extreme of handing out campaign literature while “serving the people.” The Capitol Watchblog has the latest on questionable, or in this case illegal, alleged behavior at the township level of government.
The title of this post was the subtitle of the December 2007 report from the Indiana Commission on Local Government Reform. Seven people (led by co-chairs Joe Kernan and Randy Shepard) took six months to listen to Indiana residents, pour over past studies and reports, and determine that the structure of local government in Indiana is a mess.
While they did issue 27 recommendations, few in power were admittedly ready to act. After all, the top three issues in the 2008 General Assembly were property taxes, property taxes and property taxes. One of the results of property tax reform is less money for local government operations. Now, maybe even those entrenched in the current system will realize we can’t continue to conduct business as usual in a system that was set up in the 1850s.
Indiana has more than 3,200 local units of government and nearly 11,000 local elected officials. Over 400,000 people don’t have access to public library services. Public safety is at risk due to ineffective communications between safety agencies. An Evansville Business magazine article recalled a prospective downtown business owner in that city having to attend 27 meetings in 15 days in the attempt to get his company off the ground. That’s ridiculous.
It’s not the people within the system who are at fault; it’s the structure that prevents them from operating most effectively and efficiently.
If you’re going to borrow an idea or a title from someone, six-term Indiana Sen. Richard Lugar is not a bad person to emulate. Lugar’s 1988 "Letters to the Next President" was a book on U.S. foreign policy and his well-honed suggestions for future actions in various parts of the world. (A more recent entry from former Okahoma governor and U.S. senator David Boren, now the president of the University of Oklahoma, was titled "A Letter to America.")
The Indiana Chamber’s focus is our state. While the letters on key public policy issues are being delivered directly to the candidates for governor, they’re also intended for all those involved in the lawmaking and regulatory process. Thus, Letters to Our Leaders is the title.
Several of our state’s leading newspapers, including the Indianapolis Starand the South Bend Tribune, have this morning published overviews of the campaign. Additionally, you can watch the video of Indiana Chamber President Kevin Brinegar discussing the reasons for releasing the letters. The effort officially kicks off this afternoon with five press conferences around the state. The letters, press releases and short videos on each policy area will be available online at 1:30 p.m. today, and this site seeks your input on the issues important to our state’s economic future.
Who came up with the topics and the suggestions for these letters? You did, at least indirectly. The Chamber’s Economic Development Committee led the project, with input from the executive committee and board of directors. It was leaders of companies big and small, located throughout the state. The more than 4,800 Chamber member companies employ 800,000 Hoosiers.
Governor Mitch Daniels and Democratic challenger Jill Long Thompson, the people of Indiana have something to say. We look forward to your responses.
What do you like best about Hamilton County? The Fishers Freedom Festival? The table phones at the Noblesville Pizza King? Josh McRoberts?
Well, that debate could continue for a while. The verdict is in, however, regarding Forbes’ best place in the U.S. to raise a family and it is, in fact, our very own Hamilton County. The rankings were skewed toward areas with above par school districts, but the assessment factored in much more than that.
According to the Forbes article:
Raising a happy family requires more than just a good school system. With that in mind, we ranked the remaining counties using 10 data points: cost of living, graduation rate, standardized scores, home price, property tax rate as a percentage of median home price, percentage of homes occupied by owner, per-capita income, air quality, crime rate and commute time.
A hat tip to Hoosier Access for the initial post on this.
Coming fresh off an extended Fourth of July weekend at Valparaiso University, it was perhaps fitting that I trekked around to some of Indiana’s other higher education destinations the following week.
While Marion County and a few others across the state are still dealing with 2007 property tax bills, work is progressing (behind the normal May-November payment due schedule) on 2008 versions. It’s still way too early to tell the impacts of most property tax reform measures. The immediate "relief" to homeowners (a total of $870 million in state-provided credits) will be seen.
What do you like best about Hamilton County? The Fishers Freedom Festival? The table phones at the Noblesville Pizza King? Josh McRoberts?
