BOHANON & STYRING: Communities lose more than they gain from TIFs
Tax increment financing is sold by supporters as the closest thing to a free lunch mankind ever invented. We differ.
Bill Styring / Special to IBJ
Articles
BOHANON & STYRING: Economic laws will push gas prices back up
Demand for petroleum products has stagnated because the global economy slowed. Supply, primarily driven by U.S. shale oil, has soared.
STYRING: Considering a weapon of last resort against the feds
Chances are you’d never heard of something called the “Mount Vernon Assembly” before reading this column.
STYRING: Utopian transit dreamers could railroad taxpayers
After years of trying, mass transit advocates have finally steered a central Indiana transit bill through the General Assembly. It authorizes county councils and, in some cases, township boards to approve ballot referenda imposing up to a 0.25-percent transit income tax.
STYRING: Stereotypes aside, business taxes really do matter
Gov. Mike Pence has proposed eliminating property taxes on business machinery and equipment. How exactly that is to be done, and over what time frame, he has left to the wisdom of the General Assembly.
STYRING: Obamacare rests on numbers concoction
Everybody’s talking about Obamacare. Website crashes. People booted off their health insurance. Sticker shock. No doubt we’ll be talking about it through the 2014 election. And the 2016 election. And most likely well beyond that.
STYRING: The teachers association lost its way
Nothing in politics is so constant as change. Consider the Indiana State Teachers Association.
STYRING: Conservatives, retake the ‘liberal’ flag!
When Gov. Mike Pence was Indiana Policy Review Foundation president in the 1990s, editors of the foundation’s flagship publication, Indiana Policy Review, constantly harped at their writers to use precise English. The masthead even sported a Lord Acton quote: “When words lose their meaning, men lose their liberty.”
STYRING: Bowen held line on property taxes
Indiana has said farewell to former Gov. Otis Bowen. Much has been written in tribute to “Doc,” and all of it deserved. He surely was the most popular governor in anyone’s memory. Even his political enemies respected him as a thoroughly decent human being.
STYRING: Workers will flood health exchanges
The local business guys and gals I talk to watch the coming full implementation of Obamacare with a sense of angst.
STYRING: This carrot might leave a bitter taste
Some time before April 15, the Legislature must decide whether to accept a deal from the federal government to expand Medicaid coverage. It’s shaping up as one of two or three major calls our lawmakers must make.
STYRING: Forecasting the next General Assembly
Battle lines for the next General Assembly are evident already.
STYRING: A Thanksgiving lesson in communism
The Pilgrims were small “c” communists. Lands were farmed in common and everything went into a common storehouse from which everyone drew sustenance.
STYRING: Hoping it isn’t too late to rethink Rockport
A $2.8 billion coal-to-natural-gas plant in Rockport has been in the works for several years, but the economics of the project seem dodgier by the day.
STYRING: Carmel no longer can afford Brainard
Four-term Carmel Mayor James Brainard has to be on a publicity-induced high. Keystone Parkway recently got a design award from a national transit engineering firm. Better still, Money named Carmel first on its list of America’s best small cities.
STYRING: Daniels could turn the tide at Purdue
Nearly everyone claims to have a strategic window into Mitch Daniels’ head. In truth, no one, including me, knows his plans for Purdue University when he assumes the presidency. Perhaps he, himself, isn’t entirely certain at this point.
STYRING: Return the Indy 500 to its glorious roots
For the better part of the century, we got lots of innovation at the Speedway.
STYRING: A new amendment would rein in the feds
States didn’t die; they’ve allowed themselves to be murdered.
STYRING: Tripping over decrees on the way to recovery
Some businesses will just say, “We’re big enough. We don’t need that hassle.”
STYRING: State’s voucher law on rock-solid legal ground
The primary effect of a voucher is not to benefit the religious school. It’s to educate the child.