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MICKEY MAURER Commentary: A plug for non-partisan policy making

February 12, 2007

MICKEY MAURER Commentary A plug for non-partisan policy making In my final week as secretary of commerce, I appeared at a hearing before the State Budget Committee on behalf of the Indiana Economic Development Corp. The hearing was the first step in the reauthorization process for operating budget and incentive program funding for fiscal years 2008 and 2009. It was to be my final presentation at the Statehouse. In an effort to demonstrate that the Legislature was reaping a handsome…

ECONOMIC ANALYSIS: Earmarking taxes in vogue, but is it good state policy?

February 12, 2007

I was taught economics, and in particular, the subject of public finance, by a faculty dominated by old Kennedy Democrats. A lot of that teaching has rubbed off or has simply been forgotten. Much of it also could be dismissed as idealism, a sort of ivory-tower thinking not relevant to the real world. Yet as I scan and digest the various tax proposals now in front of the Indiana General Assembly, several of those old lessons keep coming to my…

STATEHOUSE DISPATCH: So far, session is all about unearthing new revenue

February 26, 2007

Sure, it’s a budget session, and one would expect fiscal talk to dominate the discussion. But the one thing that has surprised us so far this year-and we are literally at the midpoint-is just how much the dollar debate has consumed this Legislature. Through the first few weeks of the session, the big sport was picking the over/under on when the relationship between Gov. Mitch Daniels (R) and House Speaker Pat Bauer (DSouth Bend)-and thus between Republicans and Democrats as…

NOTIONS Bruce Hetrick: A buck-a-pack increased tax for the health we lack

February 26, 2007

After our Valentine’s Day wedding, my bride and I took a few days off for a brief New York City honeymoon. We walked nearly everywhere, used public transportation when we wanted to go farther and bought our food and drink in jam-packed, smoke-free restaurants and bars (the only kind there are in New York, thanks to a several-years-old, levelthe-playing-field, smoke-free workplace law). I liked being able to dine anywhere and everywhere with clean indoor air. I liked the exercise from…

New NFIB boss knows politics: State chapter to devote more time to campaigns

February 26, 2007

Kevin Hughes cut his teeth in the political world. Now he’s taking a bite out of small business, as the new state director for the National Federation of Independent Business. Hughes, 30, has never owned his own business, but he worked for six years at the Ohio State Legislature as a legislative aide and for the Senate Republicans there. He also worked on several campaigns. In 2004, Hughes took a job as the Midwest regional political director for NFIB in…

STATEHOUSE DISPATCH: Dems’ control of House has shifted legislative dynamics

March 5, 2007

The Indiana General Assembly has reached mid-session, the point at which bills originating in the House have passed to the Senate, and vice versa. Those bills that have not mustered enough votes to cross the rotunda are theoretically dead, but, as you’re accustomed to seeing in any number of cheap horror movies, there are all kinds of ways a concept can still arise from the dead until adjournment sine die. The time remaining in the session is so much more…

EYE ON THE PIE: What’s wrong with property taxes?

March 5, 2007

So much is going on in the Indiana General Assembly that it makes my head spin, which makes me dizzy and unfit for driving safely on the roads. That, plus the recent heavy snows, has made me a hermit. To re-enter society, I called Dr. Werner von Fizzle, the only psychologist I know who provides at-home consultations. As he sat down, Dr. von F asked, “Do you have some tonic vater?” I nodded and rose to fill his request. “And,”…

Year after smoking ban, only 9 businesses have been fined

March 19, 2007

County health inspectors have hardly blown the door down on huffers and puffers a year into the city’s smoking ordinance.
The Marion County Health Department took 209 complaints and issued citations against only nine businesses for fines totaling
$1,000 during the first year of the law.

NOTIONS: How to save lives, money, and still win re-election

March 19, 2007

As a hearing-impaired, diabetic, migraine-suffering cancer survivor, father of a cancer survivor and widower of a cancer victim, I’ve followed my share of doctor’s orders. So I’ve taken two of Monroe’s tenaciousness pills, and I’m calling (well, writing) you in the morning. Since my late wife the non-smoker was diagnosed with a smoker’s cancer, I’ve shared our sad story to educate government officials and citizens about the dangers of secondhand smoke. But let’s skip the emotions this time, abandon impatience…

STATEHOUSE DISPATCH: Will costs and priorities merge or crash?

March 19, 2007

In our first column of the session, introducing you to the assorted variables that would influence the policy outcomes of 2007, we cautioned you that the next few months would be focused upon money and priorities. Lawmakers and Republican Gov. Mitch Daniels had a number of pet initiatives they wanted to see enacted and funded. But, after ensuring that programs and entities that had been shortchanged in the past biennium would be compensated and after bumping up education spending a…

High-tech 21st Century funding in doubt

April 2, 2007

The first version of the $25.6 billion state budget, passed by the Democratic majority in the Indiana House of Representatives
Feb. 22, didn’t include any money for the Indiana 21st Century Research and Technology Fund, which provides financial assistance
to promising high-tech startups.

STATEHOUSE DISPATCH: Negotiating blitz to bring legislative session to close

April 16, 2007

For those who thought this had been a fairly boring session of the Indiana General Assembly to date, wake up from your deep slumber. Nap time is over. We’ve reached the point where the lowhanging fruit has been picked by lawmakers and passed on to the governor, and the heavy lifting remains. Lawmakers embark upon the conference committee stage of deliberations. To understand conference committee time, forget all your conceptions to date about the session and begin with a clean…

STATEHOUSE DISPATCH: Gambling quenched lawmakers’ appetite for new revenue

May 7, 2007

The 2007 session of the Indiana General Assembly is now history. Whatever else might have been involved in shaping its outcome, nothing was so determinative as the revelation in the closing days that property taxes-driven by the first application of trending, rising property values in general, the elimination of the inventory tax, and some old-fashioned political legerdemain on the part of some assessors in different regions of the state-were expected to rise an average of 24 percent for taxes payable…

Biz interests scored legislative wins

May 7, 2007

The Indiana Economic Development Corp. did OK in the just-completed legislative session. IEDC received $96 million it can
now dole
out as business grants. And lawmakers had authorized tax credits worth millions more for the commercialization of new…

CHRIS KATTERJOHN Commentary: A word to the generally assembled

May 14, 2007

Like everyone else who’s interested in these sorts of things, I have my opinions about the recently completed 2007 session of the Indiana General Assembly. Considering how long it took lawmakers to get on track, they accomplished some reasonably important business when it got down to the wire. Aside from the all-important balanced budget, tops on my list is the 44-cent increase in the cigarette tax. It should’ve been higher, but this will do for a start. For all you…

Law lets small employers band together for insurance: Experts disagree on whether associations will take off

May 28, 2007

The Healthy Indiana Plan, which enacts a system to bring affordable health insurance to low-income Hoosiers, is one of the most far-reaching pieces of legislation to arise from the General Assembly this spring. The noble cause could provide coverage to about 15 percent of the state’s population. Yet it could affect the small-business community as much as the state’s growing number of uninsured. House Bill 1678, introduced by State Rep. Charlie Brown, D-Gary, and signed by Gov. Mitch Daniels May…

Tiptoe through the toxins becomes walk in the park: $600,000 in federal, state grants fund initiative to turn former industrial sites into recreation areas

June 4, 2007

Take a deep breath of that air, wafting with the fragrance of methylnaphthalene. And those violets-must be the lead and arsenic in the soil that give them such a lovely glow. Nothing quite refreshes like a stroll through a hazardous waste site. Or, in the eyes of state planners, make that a former hazardous waste site. The Indiana Brownfields Program will create the Indiana Brownfields Trails & Park Initiative. It will assess abandoned industrial and commercial properties with real or…

PROFILE: KARLA SNEEGAS: Clearing the murky air ITPC director leads charge toward smoke-free Indiana

June 11, 2007

PROFILE KARLA SNEEGAS Clearing the murky air ITPC director leads charge toward smoke-free Indiana Karla Sneegas is primed for battle. With the fervor of an ancient Crusader, this pint-sized warrior is fighting a “just war” to reduce Indiana’s addiction to tobacco as executive director of the Indiana Tobacco Prevention and Cessation agency. At 4 feet, 11 inches, Sneegas is well-prepared for all foes. She’s armed with knowledge learned as a public health professional and as former director of South Carolina’s…

Clarian to charge workers who smoke $5 per paycheck

June 25, 2007

Hospital network Clarian Health will begin charging its cigarette-smoking workers $5 per paycheck next year as punishment for the unhealthy habit. The fee applies to any worker covered by health insurance Clarian offers its employees. The smoking surcharge is part of a broader 2008 requirement by Clarian that each of its employees declare their health […]

NOTIONS: Oh, the things we worry about in modern America

July 9, 2007

My wife, Cheri, and I live in one of those newfangled, don’tstray-from-the-mainstream neighborhoods. It’s governed by wellmeaning “covenants and restrictions.” It has “architectural control guidelines.” These documents were formulated by a “development control committee” to “enhance the value and appearance of the community.” (We’re especially concerned with the “value” part, until our property-tax bills arrive, at which point we protest the assessed value.) Included among the controls in our neighborhood is a color palette. I imagine some designer back in…

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Articles

MICKEY MAURER Commentary: A plug for non-partisan policy making

ECONOMIC ANALYSIS: Earmarking taxes in vogue, but is it good state policy?

STATEHOUSE DISPATCH: So far, session is all about unearthing new revenue

NOTIONS Bruce Hetrick: A buck-a-pack increased tax for the health we lack

New NFIB boss knows politics: State chapter to devote more time to campaigns

STATEHOUSE DISPATCH: Dems’ control of House has shifted legislative dynamics

EYE ON THE PIE: What’s wrong with property taxes?

Year after smoking ban, only 9 businesses have been fined

NOTIONS: How to save lives, money, and still win re-election

STATEHOUSE DISPATCH: Will costs and priorities merge or crash?

High-tech 21st Century funding in doubt

STATEHOUSE DISPATCH: Negotiating blitz to bring legislative session to close

STATEHOUSE DISPATCH: Gambling quenched lawmakers’ appetite for new revenue

Biz interests scored legislative wins

CHRIS KATTERJOHN Commentary: A word to the generally assembled

Law lets small employers band together for insurance: Experts disagree on whether associations will take off

Tiptoe through the toxins becomes walk in the park: $600,000 in federal, state grants fund initiative to turn former industrial sites into recreation areas

PROFILE: KARLA SNEEGAS: Clearing the murky air ITPC director leads charge toward smoke-free Indiana

Clarian to charge workers who smoke $5 per paycheck

NOTIONS: Oh, the things we worry about in modern America