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Government
Open source gaining traction: Government departments, more businesses seek alternatives to Microsoft, others
February 27, 2006
Scott OlsonThe Indiana Department of Education's effort to outfit high schools with computers is a costly endeavor for a state strapped
for cash. But installing what is known as open-source software is softening the blow. As the name implies, open-source programming
is available for users to study, modify and share freely-a sharp contrast to the proprietary software sold by behemoths such
as Microsoft Corp. and Oracle. Expensive licensing fees associated with the proprietary software sent the Education Department
looking for alternatives....
MoreTax laws provide flexibility-choose wisely:
February 27, 2006
Robert JamisonWhen starting a business, entrepreneurs must make a multitude of decisions and research countless topics, from the demographics
of the target market to the color scheme of the company logo. One of the most fundamental decisions demands careful analysis:
choosing the legal form the company will take. Small-business owners have a great deal of flexibility in choosing a structure,
but the decision could affect the tax burden imposed by the federal government. Consider three basic structures: proprietorship,
partnership and corporation....
MoreClarian sizing up south side: Agreement with Morgan Hospital could lead to development projects in St. Francis' back yard
February 27, 2006
Tom MurphyThe largest hospital network in Indianapolis will start stretching its reach once again next month, this time south of town,
where it could challenge the dominance of St. Francis Hospital & Health Centers. Clarian Health Partners is embarking on a
five-year development agreement with Martinsville's Morgan Hospital & Medical Center that could place more building projects
on Clarian's already crowded construction agenda. The two systems plan to focus their relationship on improving patient care
and research, but representatives of both...
MoreEthanol's secret: Highly touted alternative fuel needs tax subsidies to survive
February 27, 2006
Chris O\'malleyState and local leaders have been crowing about how ethanol plants will bring more jobs to Indiana and put more dollars in
the pockets of corn farmers. If that prospect isn't enough to make votecoveting politicians and corn farmers giddy, General
Motors Corp. started singing ethanol's praises this month in TV ads. Joyous motorists frolic under blue skies-all thanks to
ethanol's promise of cleaner air and energy independence from oil. But there's another economic reality for motorists who
use E85,...
MoreVIEWPOINT: Why don't Republicans like Indy Works?
February 27, 2006
Mark MilesAs you remember from the legend, Rip Van Winkle wandered off one day into the Catskill Mountains and ended up sleeping under
a tree for 20 years. When he wandered back into his village, unaware that he'd slept so long, Van Winkle found things back
home had changed in dramatic ways. You might have forgotten this detail from the story: Rip reappeared in his New England
town on Election Day, shortly after the end of the Revolutionary War. When he...
MoreLilly shares primed for rebound?: Stock analysts say 2006 may yield a rise in price out of the $50 range
February 27, 2006
Tom MurphyHigher new-product sales, an influx of Medicare money, and improved market conditions might be just what the doctor ordered
to bump Eli Lilly and Co. stock out of the funk it settled into last spring. However, as the Indianapolis company strives
to meet 2006 earnings projections, analysts still see plenty to fret about, including declining sales of the company's top-selling
drug, the antipsychotic Zyprexa. Lilly shares dipped below $60 last May and spent the rest of 2005 oscillating beneath that...
MoreBULLS & BEARS: Indiana's in biofuel game; now it should strive to win
February 27, 2006
Ken SkarbeckOver the past few months, Indiana Sen. Richard Lugar has been vocal in touting the benefits of renewable fuels such as ethanol
and biodiesel. It would be wise for the state's government and business leaders to heed his message. The renewable fuel industry
is gathering momentum and has a high probability of growing into a substantial industry. The energy bill President Bush signed
into law last summer mandates the use of 7.5 billion gallons of ethanol each year by 2012,...
MoreLessons from attorneys on the front lines in India: Be ready to grease palms, face cultural differences:
February 27, 2006
-Peter SchnitzlerBANGALORE, India-Petty bureaucrats are more than a nuisance in India. Some like to line their pockets. And if minor officials
don't get what they want, they might shutter a U.S. company's operations. Given enough time and money, disputes can be settled
in India's infamously slow courts. But V. Umakanth, a Bangalore partner with the Indian law firm Amarchand Mangaldas, counsels
clients to simply make the small grease payments some administrators expect. "There is still corruption. Foreign businesses
need to deal...
MoreEmerging India: Opportunity or threat?: Indiana businesses brace for growing global competition
February 27, 2006
Peter SchnitzlerOpportunity or threat? Indiana businesses brace for growing global competition Next month, President Bush will make his first
official visit to India. To most of the American media, it'll be just one more round of global terrorism discussions with
a distant foreign nation, perhaps worthy of a brief. The Indian press knows better. Six weeks ahead of Bush's trip, banner
headlines about it ran in every newspaper. Al Hubbard knows better, too. Friends with Bush since their days at Harvard...
MoreEntrepreneurship the Indian way: A day with a Bangalore software-maker reveals business parallels
February 20, 2006
Peter SchnitzlerBANGALORE, India-HealthAsyst CEO Umesh Bajaj remembers when the only computers allowed in India were self-assembled. As recently
as 20 years ago, the Indian government's protectionist measures prohibited foreign companies from directly selling PCs. Instead,
Indians imported microchips and built the computers themselves. In his first job as an electronics engineer for an Indian
conglomerate, Bajaj crisscrossed the country marketing versions of mainframes and desktops made in India. Today Bajaj, a 55-year-old
born in New Delhi, owns his own Bangalore-based health...
MoreCHRIS KATTERJOHN Commentary: Obesity must be conquered
February 20, 2006
By now, everybody knows obesity is a huge health problem in our country. The Centers for Disease Control reports that obesity
is linked to 112,000 deaths per year and leads to an extra $75 billion in direct medical costs annually. We Hoosiers can hold
up a mirror. Depending on which study you look at, Indiana ranks either fourth or fifth as the most obese state in the nation.
Our local daily newspaper just published a series of articles on how...
MoreEmerging India: Passage to Bangalore: Hoosiers seek outsourcing and investment opportunities
February 20, 2006
Peter SchnitzlerPassage to Bangalore Hoosiers seek outsourcing and investment opportunities BANGALORE, India-The deal was falling apart. Despite
a week of flirtation and friendly negotiations, the two young Indian entrepreneurs rejected the offer from the group of Hoosier
investors. Frustrated, the investors walked out of the hotel conference room. The chance to speculate on an Indian software
startup called Picsquare.comhad fizzled. But none of the six Indiana business leaders was demoralized. After all, they'd crossed
the globe to pursue business opportunities in...
MoreECONOMIC ANALYSIS: Those who put head in sand put next generation in peril
February 20, 2006
Patrick BarkeyI have always been fascinated with one particular aspect of the life story of Al Smith. Here was a poor, unsophisticated,
relatively uneducated kid from the Lower East Side of Manhattan who showed up at the New York Legislature in 1903 as a nobody,
but in the space of 10 years became a major power broker, ultimately running for president. The secret to his success? Unlike
his socializing, partying colleagues, Al Smith spent his evenings actually reading legislation. When it...
MoreEYE ON THE PIE: Coffee, doughnuts and liberty
February 20, 2006
Morton MarcusThere is nothing like the aroma of strong, fresh coffee. So it was as I woke one recent day. My executive officer had left
for work, but graciously left the coffee and its aroma for me to enjoy. Down the stairs I tottered with my dog (who pretends
to be too feeble to manage the stairs by himself). I let him out, let him back in, gathered a cup of the brew, and entered
my office. "Hi," she said in...
MoreConflict avoided, but not revealed: Director didn't participate in hiring Sallie Mae unit for $15M state project
February 20, 2006
Chris O\'malleyRecords filed with the Indiana Ethics Commission show that Goode last July removed himself from involvement in vetting the
contract his department later OK'd between the Indiana Department of Revenue and General Revenue Corp., a Cincinnatibased
subsidiary of the student-loan giant. General Revenue, which pursues overdue payments for Sallie Mae, was hired in August
to help the state collect $255 million in back taxes through a tax amnesty program last fall. But the Department of Revenue
never sought competing bids...
MoreSTATEHOUSE DISPATCH: Slow-moving lawmakers have an economic upside
February 20, 2006
Ed FeigenbaumIs the wall finally crumbling? After years-or decades-of assiduously avoiding certain issues because they were so fraught
with controversy, lawmakers now seem to be tackling them ... and, at least in some cases, are finding their actions are met
with a collective public yawn. Last year, spurred by Gov. Mitch Daniels, legislators confronted the controversial matter of
daylight saving time, long considered the last "third-rail" issue of Hoosier politics and policy. The issue had not even been
debated in recent...
MoreNew FBI facility: tough case to crack: Government struggling to find site to build field office for bureau
February 20, 2006
Tammy LieberThe highly-sought-after job of developing a new building for the FBI's Indianapolis field office is still in play, but it's
hampered by the federal government's inability to find a site for the building. A bevy of local and national developers are
expected to throw their hats in the ring to develop the building, which the Government Services Agency says needs to be 110,000
square feet. For the winner, it would be a high-profile project and one of the more significant...
MoreVIEWPOINT: State's STIF-necked response shortsighted
February 20, 2006
Ernie RenoChances are, most of you have never heard of the acronym "STIF." The four letters stand for sales tax increment financing.
Indiana has created so-called STIF districts around the state to stimulate economic development, or so we thought. STIF districts
work simply: They allow a portion of sales taxes generated at new retail projects to be redirected to pay the cost of public
improvements related to the projects, things like curbs and sidewalks, streets, sewers, other utilities, drainage and landscaping....
MoreWant-ad battle brewing: Newspapers feel threatened by state's deal with Monster
February 13, 2006
Anthony SchoettleA four-year, $2.8 million deal between the DWD and McLean, Va.-based Monster Government Solutions to develop and maintain
an online job search and recruitment system is coming under heavy fire, with newspaper operators saying a system funded by
their own tax dollars will harm their business. DWD officials said the deal is designed to lower unemployment and boost Indiana's
economy. "We think this deal is going to result in a brain gain, keeping people employed and keeping our college graduates...
MoreRoll the cameras: State cranks up efforts to court film industry under new task force
February 13, 2006
Scott OlsonNorth Carolina offers a 15-percent tax credit to filmmakers to help offset production costs. The credit recently helped sway
a national retailer to shoot an in-store commercial there instead of in Indiana. While the $600,000 production hardly compares
to a multimillion-dollar motion picture, losing it was a big deal for local companies that didn't get the work. Holli Hanley
of Grand Illusion Lighting Inc. in Zionsville, which rents lighting equipment to production companies, lamented the loss.
"Everyone in the entire...
MoreECONOMIC ANALYSIS: Let the private sector operate the Toll Road
February 13, 2006
Patrick BarkeyWatching the tug and pull of partisan politics in full bloom in our state capital brings to mind that old saying about making
laws and making sausage. You don't really want to see how either one happens. But as our elected leaders posture and fight
over the table scraps of new revenue that can realistically be said to be squeezed out of what has historically been an overcommitted
state budget, another, more hopeful, vision comes to mind. It's a vision...
MoreEYE ON THE PIE: Good ideas merit communication
February 13, 2006
Morton MarcusFinally, the Daniels administration is getting around to explaining the tollroad-leasing proposal. On Feb. 3, it released
Volume 1, Issue 1, of "Major Moves Help Desk," a newsletter to tell its side of the complicated toll-roadleasing story. Perhaps
a newsletter is pretentious, but it is a move in the right direction. The idea of leasing the toll road is an attractive one,
but I have felt in the dark about why this lease and its many details are best for...
MoreSTATEHOUSE DISPATCH: Broad support but long odds for property tax reform
February 13, 2006
Ed FeigenbaumThe rubber is starting to meet the road in the Indiana General Assembly as the calendar turns past the midway point, and House
bills move to the Senate (and vice versa, although that half of the equation is decidedly less intriguing). Some senators
are not happy with the House's sending them at least one key measure, House Bill 1001, that is less a work in progress than
a utopian statement of sorts about future tax policy. While lawmakers last year...
MoreEateries await smoking ban: Some restaurant owners face tough decisions
February 13, 2006
Scott OlsonIt's 2:30 p.m. on a Tuesday and the lunch crowd has dwindled enough to give Giorgio Migliaccio time to relax and light up
a cigarette at the downtown pizzeria that bears his name. But come March 1, Migliaccio and the majority of other restaurant
owners in Marion County no longer will allow smoking. A city ordinance will ban the practice in establishments that allow
patrons younger than 18. "I think it will be very hard for the addicted to not...
MoreBRIAN WILLIAMS Commentary: Health care is hurting Indiana's economy
February 13, 2006
Nearly 875,000 Hoosiers lack health insurance, including 165,350 children. Lack of health insurance takes a devastating toll
on Hoosiers and the state's economic health, and the effect of the uninsured will only get worse as their numbers grow. As
companies confront rising health care costs, the obvious solution is dropping or scaling back health-insurance benefits. As
a result, the number of uninsured increases, resulting in a premium cost shift to the insured and increased cost for government-provided
health care. Over...
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Can IBJ please stop referring to this property as "Kessler Mansion"? What a ridiculous title for the biggest, bloated, blight in our city. It's not a mansion. At best, it's an ideal site to shoot low-budget porn. Ahhh! Another business use!
Its stories like these that prove that a Ball State diploma is worth less than the paper that its printed on. A real institution of higher learning would have taken care of this long ago. No way should this crap be taught in a SCIENCE class.
It is such a shame that King Ballard has made Indianapolis into Chicago south with all of the rampant corruption.
How many of these 1,259 bills were actually heard and voted on on the floor vs how many were shot down in committee?
When a an arrogant young guy with essentially no experience and no qualifications for the job, was dropped into an Administrator position out of nowhere by his "mentor" in the Mayor's office things seemed fishy. Sometimes things are what they seem.