Recent editorials published in Indiana newspapers
The (Fort Wayne) Journal Gazette. August 20, 2016
Dunes likely to see alcohol sales.
Opponents of a liquor permit for the Indiana Dunes State Park lost another battle in their fight to keep a ban on alcohol sales at the Lake Michigan shore. The Indiana Alcohol and Tobacco Commission voted unanimously this week to grant a permit to Pavilion Partners, the politically connected company selected by the state to renovate and operate the historic lakeside pavilion and a new banquet center.
The battle to stop the permit was a long shot. The General Assembly this year passed a bill to explicitly remove local participation from state park licensing decisions after the Porter County Alcoholic Beverage Commission a year ago denied the Dunes permit.
Valparaiso resident Norman Hellmers appealed to the state alcohol and tobacco panel to deny the permit, however, citing the "sacred rights" of Hoosiers to safe, non-commercial state parks. The state commission agreed that the company had complied with all requests. Commissioners indicated they had no choice but to approve the permit.
Technically, Dunes supporters have one more chance. They could convince the Indiana Natural Resources Commission to reject the measure allowing alcohol consumption in and near the pavilion. But it's also a long shot: The commission is made up of a majority of members who work for state government or were appointed by Gov. Mike Pence, who has endorsed the liquor permit for Pavilion Partners.
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The Bloomington Herald-Times. August 18, 2016
'Innovation' may be an overstatement.
One problem with creating a task force on innovation is that it suggests something unique and exciting might come out of it.
That's probably too high an expectation, considering the definition of the word is simply "the introduction of something new; a new idea, method or device." Nothing in there about unique and exciting, but that's what innovation signifies to many.
An innovation in government task force established by Mayor John Hamilton this week issued a list of 11 recommendations for the mayor's consideration. All were new in their own way. Most of them would increase engagement and openness of government. Some were predictable, others not so much.
It was a mixed bag of 11 thoughtful ideas, although we think more of some than of others. The report includes five top-tier recommendations, which we'll look at here.
The first is to create a director of innovation with the possibility that could grow into a department of innovation. This would essentially be a researcher, recruiter and implementer of innovative ideas. Many will see this idea as a predictable idea for bloating government. An entire department might be. But the dividends of innovation won't be realized without some investment in a champion on the front end, so this really does make sense. In addition, this position can serve as a collection point for innovative ideas that come from people working in government and as customers of government. Those are where the best ideas will come from rather than from the top down.
A recommendation to define, measure and publish metrics gets at goals and transparency. Something like this should have been predicted as a way to see what works and what doesn't.
The task force suggests creating an officer of public engagement for the city which, it hopes, could "sap the venom out of contentious policy debates such as the deer issue ... ." That would be useful, if it worked, but we're skeptical. It seems like an unnecessary layer of government.
A recommendation to create an independent ombudsman position to represent the public and investigate complaints would be a valuable resource to citizens.
We're concerned about Recommendation 2, which is to run a "participatory budgeting pilot." The task force report defines participatory budgeting as "a public engagement process through which the public is given direct control of the allocation of a portion of the city budget. A full participatory budgeting process invites the public into the process at the very beginning, allowing the public to generate proposals for budget money through a facilitated process and then to vote on which proposals are funded through a citywide selection process."
Our concern is that budgeting is a major reason we elect public officials - to take a broad view of the big picture and determine how public money should be spent. Opening this up to a more participatory process would likely favor the loudest neighborhoods, single-issue activists and advocates for narrow interests rather than the city as a whole. This seems like a place where representative democracy should stay firmly entrenched.
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The South Bend Tribune. August 17, 2016
Ending media blacklist on Pence's agenda.
While a representative in Congress, Mike Pence championed the effort to pass a federal shield law to protect journalists from being forced to reveal their sources.
Earlier this year, Gov. Mike Pence vetoed House Bill 1022, a misleading bill involving police records at private universities in Indiana that supporters claimed would have improved transparency, but would have in reality done the opposite.
But it's in his current role, as the running mate of Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, that Pence may face the biggest challenge to his espoused belief that "the only check on government power in real time is a free and independent press."
That's because Trump, who enjoyed expansive press coverage throughout his unprecedented successful primary campaign, is now waging war on what he calls the "disgusting and corrupt media," blaming them for plummeting poll numbers.
The Trump campaign has also denied press credentials to a number of media outlets, including The Washington Post, The National Review, the Daily Beast, Politico, Buzzfeed, The Des Moines Register and The Huffington Post. On Friday, at a rally in Connecticut he wondered aloud whether he should withdraw the media credentials for New York Times journalists. His comments were in response to a Times piece examining recent campaign missteps by the real estate mogul.
"The newspaper is going to hell," Trump said. "They've got a couple of reporters in that newspaper who are so bad. I mean, lack of talent. But it's going to hell. So I think maybe what we will do - maybe we will start thinking about taking their press credentials away from them."
Earlier this year, he mused about opening up libel laws so he could sue news outlets that publish stories he deems are wrong.
So how does all that square with Pence, who as a congressman introduced the Free Flow of Information Act of 2011?
It certainly sounds like the Indiana governor is trying to change Trump's mind on the subject. Appearing on "Fox News Sunday," Pence hinted at a sense of frustration over the candidate's media blacklist. When host Chris Wallace asked about his efforts to get the campaign to give press credentials to media outlets that have criticized Trump, he replied, "We'll keep our private conversations private, but that's an ongoing discussion in the campaign. And I'll - I do believe in the public's right to know, whether it's about these latest allegations about Hillary Clinton or otherwise, and we'll continue that - we'll continue to advance that principle."
We hope he succeeds. And we suggest that he tell his running mate what he told conservative colleagues who years ago wondered about his advocacy for a free and open press: "This isn't about protecting reporters. It's about protecting the public's right to know."
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Kokomo Tribune. August 19, 2016
State should raise gas tax
Indiana's gas tax hasn't changed in more than two decades. The last time it was raised was in 1993, when it was upped from 9 cents to 18.4 cents. This was only the second increase since 1959, as it was also raised from 4 cents to 9 cents in 1990.
This rate has not kept up with inflation. We did some simple math with the help of the website Measuring Worth, and here's what we found: A simple purchasing power calculator would say the relative value of 4 cents in 1959 dollars is 33 cents in 2015 dollars. (This answer is obtained by multiplying 4 cents by the percentage increase in the consumer price index from 1959 to 2015.) We would need to double our current rate just to keep with this figure.
This shortfall is significant because, like the rest of the country, Indiana is doing quite poorly when it comes to infrastructure grading. As we pointed out last summer, in 2013, the American Society of Civil Engineers gave the United States a "D'' grade for its infrastructure, while Indiana received a slightly better grade, receiving a "D-plus." What's more, Indiana Gov. Mike Pence's own highway commissioner said before resigning that the state needs more than $1 billion in new money each year just to keep its roads in shape, our Statehouse reporter, Maureen Hayden, reported last month. And that's not counting future endeavors of the Indiana Department of Transportation.
Something must be done - something more than the $800 million, stop-gap plan passed in the last legislative session that pulls money from other places to spend on roads and bridges. Our gas tax is simply not collecting as much as we once were. The old model is not going to work. Cars are more fuel efficient. People are driving more fuel efficient hybrids and electric vehicles. Fewer people are driving at all.
Perhaps the gas tax should be tied to inflation. Raising the gas tax outright is another possibility. Charging a registration fee based on the number of miles driven is another suggestion. A public information campaign about dedicated funding to road fixes would also be key. (People would be more than willing to plunk down a few more cents per gallon if they knew the intended purpose.)
Whatever happens, the Legislature and Indiana's next governor need to be proactive, not reactive. We need a long-term solution, not the short-term thinking of Gov. Pence. Let's maintain our roads in a timely manner. We need income coming in to address maintenance issues on an ongoing basis. It's not as if we can afford to let the roads we have completely deteriorate.
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