You may have seen recent news reports discussing a Ball State University study of how the total tax burden in this state varies for different industries and forms of organization. The takeaway is that there are multiple “inequities” in Indiana’s tax structure.
Richard Lugar is leaving the Senate, yet the Republican who lost the May primary election to Richard Mourdock still intends to continue some of the work that defined his life as a lawmaker. Lugar spelled out his plans for the first time in a recent speech to the Contemporary Club of Indianapolis at a dinner staged to honor his more than four decades of service as school board member, mayor and six-term U.S. senator.
Joe Donnelly needs a lesson in economics. Donnelly’s campaign advertisements say he’s “about jobs and balanced budgets,” but throughout Donnelly’s time in Congress, the public debt has increased $7.3 billion and every American citizen’s individual share of the debt is now $51,823. He voted to increase the debt ceiling five times. In Donnelly’s last two terms alone, net private-sector jobs have decreased a half million.
The trick that is easy to play on the average person is to imply that Washington is like your experience in most life situations in a business, church or even city or state government, which tends to be solution-oriented as opposed to establishing the ideological framework and laws for all private business and increasingly all governmental standards.
On Nov. 6, all eyes will be on several battleground states. Unfortunately, the pundits will miss one of the most important states that will contribute to an Obama victory—Indiana. While some will debate whether the president will win Indiana (I still contend that he can), keep in mind that several Indiana-related items will play a role in the fall campaign and will have an impact in other parts of the country.
In the decade of the Great Depression, the 1930s, the population of Indiana grew 5.8 percent. Later, in the 1970s, a decade of great economic turmoil, the state’s population advanced 5.7 percent. The 1980s saw a strong recession and a subsequent restructuring of American business; Indiana’s population grew a mere 1 percent.
The outgoing Daniels administration takes great pride in its fiscal probity and not without justification—the state’s budget is in surplus, its credit rating is better than the U.S. governments’, and business taxes have been reduced.
While it is easy to see the effect of the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in the Citizens United case, since corporate-sponsored political ads have dominated our airwaves for months, it is much more difficult for voters to determine exactly who is paying for these ads.
Last in a month-long series of food truck restaurant reviews. This time, Seoul Grill and In a Pita visit a culinary wasteland.
I don’t know about you, but I’m ready to vote.
Both in business and at home, water is so much a part of our daily lives that we often take it for granted.
In his [Aug. 27] column, Bruce Hetrick challenged us—the opinion leaders of the Indianapolis community—to do more to encourage voter participation, and he has good reason to be concerned. According to the Indiana Civic Health Index, the Hoosier State ranks 48th in voter turnout and 43rd in voter registration. Some might be disappointed in our ranking, but I see this as a call to action.
Plato said, “The penalty good men pay for inattention to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men.” In Carmel, [Sept. 17 Styring column] we have chosen commerce over the constitution, the rule of man over the rule of law.
While I agreed with almost every point [Styring, Sept. 17] made, there is one that I must vehemently object to—specifically his statement that “I don’t question the mayor’s honesty or good intentions.”
Who are you [Sept. 17 Styring column] to pretend to know what Carmel residents want?
Any successful revitalization of the Market Square Arena site demands restoring the former City Hall as the public’s house. City Hall’s decaying grandeur casts a long shadow over the neighboring parking lots created by the implosion of MSA 11 years ago and is probably overwhelming the facile designs associated with redevelopment proposals.
Recently, all eyes have been glued to developments in the presidential race and to Indiana’s campaigns for governor and U.S. senator. We’ve paid less attention to the folks running for seats in the Indiana House and Senate.
I’ve avoided talking politics for several weeks now, but I just can’t avoid it any longer.
In a former life, Carmel Mayor Jim Brainard was a real estate attorney. So it shouldn’t surprise anyone that splashy development projects have been a hallmark of his four terms as mayor.
I’m willing to irritate my colleagues in human resources and bet that they aren’t asking all the questions they should ask of candidates.
