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President Obama V14 N27 Thursday, Feb. 26, 2009 Reform on emotion, not metrics Senate vote on township reform sees Democrats in caucus opposition By BRIAN A. HOWEY NASHVILLE, Ind. - Do we really need township govern- ment? Senate Minority Leader It was a question I began Vi Simpson and Sen. asking in 2002. Last weekend, Richard Young (left) State Sen. Lindel Hume told along with Sen. Lindel the Evansville Courier & Press, Hume lead a revolt “Don’t get rid of the entire system against reforms. that’s functioning extremely well The problem is that there throughout the state.” is a compelling lack of statistical analysis available when Functioning extremely well? it comes to townships that would make their elimination In the last several months, the research presented a third rail for those vested in township political patron- to the Indiana General Assembly has been damning. Far age. In Senate testimony on Feb. 11, Indiana Chamber from a system “functioning extremely well,” Indiana’s town- President Kevin Brinegar noted that townships are “rife ships have proven to be costly to taxpayers, lack oversight, with mistakes, neglect, sloppiness and criminal behavior.” do not comply with the scant regulations, and provide a Brinegar revealed a litany of nepotism, embezzlement, and patchwork of poor relief that can change capriciously when crossing an imaginary boundary. See Page 3 Obama and the blue dogs By MARK SCHOEFF JR. WASHINGTON - Over the course of less than a week, a $787 billion stimulus package became law, Presi- dent Obama laid out an ambitious and costly agenda in a speech to Congress and the House approved a $410 billion “There are times when you can appropriations bill. Moving from this kind of spending afford to redecorate your house to an adherence to fiscal discipline will require a pivot similar to the best moves and there are times when you have Rep. Baron Hill (D-9th CD) ever demon- strated during his storied basketball career to focus rebuilding its foundation.” at Seymour High School. [private] - President Obama, after ini- Hill is a leader of the 49-member Blue Dog Coalition, a group of moderate tiating the budget with a $1.75 trillion Democrats whose organizing principle deficit HOWEY Politics Indiana Page 2 Weekly Briefing on Indiana Politics Thursday, Feb. 26, 2009 is fiscal rectitude. They believe they we have a balanced budget,” Hill said. Howey Politics achieved a breakthrough when Obama Blue Dogs are “willing to start at a announced earlier this week that he new baseline. But from here on out Indiana wants to reinstate so-called paygo paygo rules have to kick in.” is a nonpartisan news- rules. Obama signaled in his In his comments to open the speech that he wants to don green letter based in Indianapolis White House Fiscal Responsibility eye shade--and promised, like many Summit on Feb. 23, Obama pledged of his predecessors to root out waste, and published by NewsLink to cut the current $1.3 trillion deficit in fraud and abuse. He claims that $2 Inc. It was founded in half in four years. As part of the effort, trillion in savings have been identified. he said he would follow the paygo Obama and Hill likely will face 1994 in Fort Wayne. prescription of financing tax cuts and a skeptical audience on the other side spending increases with spending cuts or tax increases elsewhere Brian A. Howey, publisher in the budget. Mark Schoeff Jr.,Washington Hill said that Obama Jack E. Howey, Editor is committed to supporting a bill that would make paygo law. He Beverly Phillips, Associate bases his confidence on meetings Editor he’s had with the president at the White House and on Air Force One while traveling to an event Subscriptions: in Elkhart a couple weeks ago. $350 annually HPI via e-mail; “I think the president $550 annually HPI & HPI Daily gets it, he understands,” Hill said in an HPI interview. Wire. But Obama also must Call 317-254-0535. deal with an economy in the Howey Politics Indiana throes of a deep recession. The centerpiece of his response was PO Box 40265 the stimulus bill, which he says U.S. Rep. Baron Hill in the Indiana House Indianapolis, IN 46240-0265. will save or create 3.5 million jobs chambers during the Electoral College vote in over two years. December that gave President Obama the state’s Obama’s embrace of 11 votes. (HPI Photo by Brian A. Howey) Contact Us activist government goes beyond www.howeypolitics.com Keynesian efforts to juice growth. of the aisle when it comes to cutting [email protected] In a speech to Congress on Feb. 25, he outlined an ambitious agenda to spending. That opposition often will Main Office: 317-202-0210. stabilize financial markets, promote re- come in the form of one of Hill’s col- Howey’s Mobile: 317-506-0883. newable energy and institute universal leagues in the Indiana congressional Indianapolis Fax: 317-254-0535. health care, among other goals. The delegation, Rep. Mike Pence (R-6th health care portion will come with a CD). Washington: 202-256-5822. down payment of more than $600 bil- Pence, chairman of the Business Office: 317-627-6746. lion, according to news reports today. House Republican Conference, de- ©2009, Howey Politics The Blue Dogs aren’t saying livered a withering speech on the no to all these ideas. Most of them House floor on Feb. 25 regarding the Indiana. All rights reserved. supported the stimulus package as a $410 omnibus appropriations bill. He Photocopying, Internet forwarding, necessary response to the collapsing criticized the measure for containing faxing or reproducing in any form, economy. And they don’t expect the an eight percent increase in federal budget deficit to evaporate. But they spending and what he called thou- in whole or part, is a violation of do want Obama to follow paygo rules sands of “pork-barrel projects” and federal law without permission from within a larger budget. earmarks. Pence said Republicans the publisher. “I think it’s going to take some want to freeze spending. time for us to get to a point where “With all the talk about fiscal HOWEY Politics Indiana Page 3 Weekly Briefing on Indiana Politics Thursday, Feb. 26, 2009 responsibility in this chamber last night, and across Capi- removed misguided spending from the stimulus package. tol Hill, it is time for our Democratic colleagues to put our “Now it’s important for us to get our fiscal house in order.” money where their mouth is,” Pence said. “Republicans Constituents in his conservative-leaning south- are willing to come together and work across the aisle and east Indiana district have mixed feelings about stimulus, make the hard choices necessary to put our fiscal house in Hill said. They are worried about their jobs and accept that order.” something had to be done to boost the economy. But they Hill, who voted against the omnibus appro- remain skeptical about government spending. priations bill, also uses the “fiscal house” trope in trying to “That’s why it’s important to get a message out refocus the conversation on fiscal discipline following the there now about fiscal responsibility,” Hill said. stimulus process. Whether voters will believe that Blue Dog Demo- “The Blue Dogs were willing to suspend their crats or conservative Republicans are better able to deliver principles on the deficit because of the difficult economic on fiscal probity depends in large part on two Hoosiers who times,” said Hill, who asserted that his group successfully represent each camp. v The counterweight to MySmartGov.org Townships, is the Indiana Township Association. But it offers virtually double-dipping with trustees loading up township advisory no statistical data to defend its metrics and public service. boards with buddies, a lack of bidding and contracts trans- It cites Indiana Policy Review Foundation commentary by parent to the public, and failing to fill out conflict of interest a Dr. Sam Staley who raises a hypothetical and bizarre forms. scenario of combining 659 Indiana machine shops into Asked to quantify with statistics, Mary Dieter at one enterprise as a chief counter argument. The ITA also MySmartGov.org - an organization Brinegar presides over - features a post from the Indiana Conservative Republi- told HPI that she sifted through 4,300 pages of SBA audits can Caucus website decrying the “Sovietology” aspects of over the past two years and then made Kernan-Shepard, pointing out “Vladimir notations of the first 500 pages result- Ilyich Lenin had a similar plan: the ing in “two full sheets of different kinds Politburo and the Supreme Soviet were of violations” ranging from embezzle- an extremely streamlined system of ment to failure to report. In the case government.” of nepotism, Dieter said there were That is an Indiana tradition: fight “numerous cases” where the required government reform by comparing it to conflict of interest reports were not communism. filed. “That’s part of the issue,” Dieter The original goal of this story was said. “It is so difficult to find these to break out all the emotion we’ve statistics. That tells me something in seen in the Indiana Senate and look and of itself: When they do file, it’s so Former Democratic State Rep. Joe Micon into the statistical data. The research messed up that it’s hard to quantify. told a MySmartGov.org hearing in Lafayette that has been presented over the past It’s a totally unaccountable system.” on Monday that townships spend 49 cents year includes: HPI published the results of the on the dollar for poor relief across 1,008 1.
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