The U.S. policy of shunning communist Cuba by imposing a strict trade embargo has failed to prod the island nation toward democracy and should be re-evaluated, according to the top Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. “We must recognize the ineffectiveness of our current policy and deal with the Cuban regime in a way […]
Republican state lawmakers were never keen on House Democrats’ idea to take $500 million from a trust fund and spend the cash on local road projects. But the GOP-controlled Senate made the message clear yesterday as it approved a proposal to protect the fund by putting it into the Indiana constitution. Sen. Mike Delph (R-Carmel) […]
The Indiana Senate has approved a bill to eliminate local township advisory boards, but not eliminate township government completely as Gov. Mitch Daniels had proposed. The bill that passed yesterday 28-22 would eliminate three-member township boards that adopt the annual township budget and act as the township’s fiscal and legislative body. Those duties would be […]
The Indiana Senate has passed a bill that would give taxpayers a break if the state’s surplus is at least 10 percent of the budget. Republican Gov. Mitch Daniels supports the proposal, and the GOP-led Senate approved it 34-16 yesterday. But don’t expect tax credits any time soon. Indiana is struggling to keep its budget […]
Indiana lawmakers on both sides of the aisle were quick to react to President Barack Obama’s address to Congress last night. Democratic Congressman Andre Carson of Indianapolis released a statement calling the presidential agenda “ambitious,” adding that the president will “continue to rise above typical Washington politics.” On the Republican side, Indiana Rep. Dan Burton […]
Political sparring in the narrowly divided Indiana House has sidelined legislation to help fix the state’s bankrupt unemployment insurance fund – but lawmakers say the critical issue will be revived. The proposal would have significantly raised taxes on employers to help balance the fund. The account pays out millions of dollars more than it collects […]
The state’s casinos would get tax breaks under a bill approved yesterday by the Indiana House. The bill would lower tax rates for casinos at the state’s pari-mutuel tracks in Anderson and Shelbyville. They’re struggling to pay debts they took on to pay $250 million each in slot machine licensing fees. The bill would also […]
Political sparring in the narrowly divided Indiana House has sidelined legislation to help fix the state’s bankrupt unemployment insurance fund – but lawmakers say the critical issue will be revived. The proposal would have significantly raised taxes on employers to help balance the fund. The account pays out millions of dollars more than it collects […]
Most Hoosiers fall under the jurisdiction of 26 separate local government officials. Indiana has 239 library districts, 293 school districts, 886 “special” districts, 1,008 townships and 10,300 local officials. What is it going to take for us to peel off some of these unnecessary layers, which are clogging up government and eating up precious tax […]
The state’s two biggest pension funds are poised to combine into one Indiana Public Retirement System, with a single executive director and board. And they’ll need only one tourniquet to stem their bleeding. Over the last 15 months, the Public Employees’ Retirement Fund and Indiana State Teachers’ Retirement Fund have hemorrhaged a combined $8 billion. […]
Leaders on both sides of the aisle have called for streamlining township government, and it’s time to demand that our legislators
make those changes.
The state’s two biggest pension funds are poised to combine into one Indiana Public Retirement System, with a single executive
director and board.
Democrats and Republicans in the Indiana General Assembly carved out some wide, partisan divides on several big issues during the first two months of the 2009 legislative session, setting the stage for a second-half rumble. Lawmakers reached the session midpoint – when bills passed by the House and Senate are taken up by the opposite […]
A top state senator is developing a proposal for fixing Indiana’s bankrupt unemployment insurance fund that he said yesterday is likely to include higher taxes on employers and cutting benefits paid out to the jobless. Republican Sen. Dennis Kruse of Auburn, chairman of the Senate Pensions and Labor Committee, is taking the lead on the […]
A leading state senator wants to rely on money from the federal stimulus package to give a slight spending increase to Indiana’s public schools. Senate Appropriations Chairman Luke Kenley (R-Noblesville) said yesterday that he is still developing his proposal. But he wants to use $683 million in stimulus money in hopes of increasing basic funding […]
A leading state senator wants to rely on money from the federal stimulus package to give a slight spending increase to Indiana’s public schools. Senate Appropriations Chairman Luke Kenley (R-Noblesville) said yesterday that he is still developing his proposal. But he wants to use $683 million in stimulus money in hopes of increasing basic funding […]
In this space last week, I wrote that the Great Depression ended in 1937. Several readers reminded me that for those who lived through it, the Great Depression did not feel over until much later. For some, hardship and denial did not end until well after World War II. Others failed to see significant improvement […]
Imagine racking up nearly $3 million in debt every day. That’s more than $100,000 an hour, or about $2,000 a minute. Indiana is diving deeper into debt as it struggles to pay jobless benefits from its bankrupt unemployment insurance fund, which is paying out hundreds of millions more than it collects in taxes from employers. […]
The key legislative item at this point remains House Bill 1001, the budget bill.
How we feel individually about the economy is often at odds with how the economy is performing.
