Niki Kelly and Benjamin Lanka | The Journal Gazette
Peaks and valleys aptly describes the week Rep. Marlin Stutzman, R-3rd, had.
At the beginning of the week, it was a thrill to attend the White House gala in a tuxedo with his wife, Christy, who wore a gorgeous one-shoulder white gown with a red ribbon sash.
POTUS and FLOTUS were “very gracious” hosts, Stutzman reported.
But by the end of the week, Stutzman had made a boo-boo that nabs every member of Congress sooner or later: He missed a vote because he turned off his BlackBerry. He was meeting with friends from Indianapolis who were in Washington to attend a fundraiser for Rep. Mike Pence, R-6th. The event was hosted by political commentator Oliver North, who was at the center of the 1980s Iran-control political scandal.
“My bad,” Stutzman said of being recorded as “not voting” on legislation that would provide a pathway to legal status for children who were brought to the U.S. by their parents who were in the country illegally. For the record, Stutzman would have voted against the bill, which the tea party lobbied heavily to kill.
Saturday, December 18, 2010
Wednesday, December 15, 2010
City lands 2012 state convention
Democratic event worth $400,000
Benjamin Lanka | The Journal Gazette
A concerted effort by local Democrats will bring the state party’s convention to the Summit City in the summer of 2012.
Dan Parker, Indiana Democratic Party chairman, announced Tuesday the convention will be held June 15 to 17, 2012, at Grand Wayne Center downtown.
He said the efforts of Mayor Tom Henry and Carmen Darland, 3rd District Democratic Party chairwoman, were instrumental in bringing the event to a site other than Indianapolis for the first time since early last century.
“Fort Wayne’s effort on this was really remarkable,” Parker said after showing a handful of letters and e-mails he received from local Democrats and businesses supporting the effort.
Darland said the idea to hold the convention in Fort Wayne was hatched at a lunch with the mayor and his wife, Cindy, in February. It was presented to the state party in May, and a majority of the delegates of this year’s convention supported the idea of looking outside Indianapolis. Parker said Fort Wayne and Indianapolis were the only two cities to meet the group’s criteria, and Fort Wayne was chosen overwhelmingly in a vote Saturday.
Parker said the newly opened Courtyard by Marriott downtown was critical to the group’s requirement for hotel rooms within walking distance of the convention center. He added the support by Henry, a Democrat, was overwhelming. Indianapolis Mayor Greg Ballard is a Republican.
Henry said the event will bring state and local attention to Fort Wayne, as well as give thousands of people an opportunity to visit since the opening of much of Harrison Square. He said politics aside, the event will be a boon for the local economy.
“I would encourage the state Republican Party to consider us as well,” he said.
Dan O’Connell, director of Visit Fort Wayne, said the event will draw between 2,000 and 2,500 guests and pump up to $400,000 into the local economy. He said the community did not have to provide financial incentives to land the convention.
O’Connell said he already has begun discussions with the Fort Wayne TinCaps, Embassy Theatre and Fort Wayne Children’s Zoo to have special events for the guests.
Benjamin Lanka | The Journal Gazette
A concerted effort by local Democrats will bring the state party’s convention to the Summit City in the summer of 2012.
Dan Parker, Indiana Democratic Party chairman, announced Tuesday the convention will be held June 15 to 17, 2012, at Grand Wayne Center downtown.
He said the efforts of Mayor Tom Henry and Carmen Darland, 3rd District Democratic Party chairwoman, were instrumental in bringing the event to a site other than Indianapolis for the first time since early last century.
“Fort Wayne’s effort on this was really remarkable,” Parker said after showing a handful of letters and e-mails he received from local Democrats and businesses supporting the effort.
Darland said the idea to hold the convention in Fort Wayne was hatched at a lunch with the mayor and his wife, Cindy, in February. It was presented to the state party in May, and a majority of the delegates of this year’s convention supported the idea of looking outside Indianapolis. Parker said Fort Wayne and Indianapolis were the only two cities to meet the group’s criteria, and Fort Wayne was chosen overwhelmingly in a vote Saturday.
Parker said the newly opened Courtyard by Marriott downtown was critical to the group’s requirement for hotel rooms within walking distance of the convention center. He added the support by Henry, a Democrat, was overwhelming. Indianapolis Mayor Greg Ballard is a Republican.
Henry said the event will bring state and local attention to Fort Wayne, as well as give thousands of people an opportunity to visit since the opening of much of Harrison Square. He said politics aside, the event will be a boon for the local economy.
“I would encourage the state Republican Party to consider us as well,” he said.
Dan O’Connell, director of Visit Fort Wayne, said the event will draw between 2,000 and 2,500 guests and pump up to $400,000 into the local economy. He said the community did not have to provide financial incentives to land the convention.
O’Connell said he already has begun discussions with the Fort Wayne TinCaps, Embassy Theatre and Fort Wayne Children’s Zoo to have special events for the guests.
Friday, December 10, 2010
WCCS ponders joining small-school resolution
.Home
WCCS ponders joining small-school resolutionDecember 10, 2010
ByPhil Smith
phil@thepostandmail.com
COLUMBIA CITY — At Monday’s work session of the Whitley Consolidated School Corporation, Superintendent Dr. Patricia O’Connor and corporation Business Manager Tony Zickgraf presented a document to the board that was drafted by the John Glenn School Corporation.
The document — a call out to the Indiana Legislature.
The Walkerton-based school corporation drafted a resolution to Indiana lawmakers and sent letters to WCCS and other districts around the state.
In the letter, the John Glenn board wrote “As you may already know, the John Glenn School Corporation Board of School Trustees has taken issue with the discrepancy among districts in per-student funding.
“We feel this, among other issues, needs to be addressed. We have constructed a draft resolution to take to the legislature before they convene next session.”
The school officials from Walkerton are seeking a coalition of 50 school districts to sign the resolution before sending it off to Indianapolis.
“We would appreciate your participation in preparing the ‘final product’ and invite you to sign the resolution,” said the letter to WCCS.
“I think the purpose of the resolution is to educate our legislature,” said O’Connor, saying school officials hope to convince the lawmakers that “one size doesn’t fit all. I think we’re just asking the legislature to consider the smaller districts when decisions are being made.”
In the budget for 2010, the state cut school funding across the board and O’Connor told the board that WCCS’s “per-student” cuts were heavier than some districts. The intent of the proposed pact among school corporations is to call on the legislature to remove that funding disparity.
John Glenn’s letter and resolution also referred to the state’s funding formula as “complicated and outdated.”
The board discussed the possibility of signing the resolution.
“The squeaky wheel gets the oil,” said board member Tim Bloom.
“Every school’s saying they’re not getting their fair share and I don’t envy the legislature,” said Zickgraf.
In late 2009, reports said Indiana schools lost $297 million in 2010.
The new legislature meets Jan. 5 and local residents Jim Banks (Senate) and Kathy Heuer (House of Representatives) will begin freshman terms in their respective branches. Coincidently, both members will serve on education committees.
After discussing the petition by John Glenn, WCCS Board President Don Armstrong said the board should consider the issue before the next meeting Dec. 20.
“I want to think about it,” said Armstrong. “But I also want to think about education in general. We can vote our hearts if we make it an action item.”
“I think it is a show of solidarity,” said O’Connor, “but not in an offensive way, but more in a ‘yoo-hoo, we’re small, but we’re out here’ way.
WCCS ponders joining small-school resolutionDecember 10, 2010
ByPhil Smith
phil@thepostandmail.com
COLUMBIA CITY — At Monday’s work session of the Whitley Consolidated School Corporation, Superintendent Dr. Patricia O’Connor and corporation Business Manager Tony Zickgraf presented a document to the board that was drafted by the John Glenn School Corporation.
The document — a call out to the Indiana Legislature.
The Walkerton-based school corporation drafted a resolution to Indiana lawmakers and sent letters to WCCS and other districts around the state.
In the letter, the John Glenn board wrote “As you may already know, the John Glenn School Corporation Board of School Trustees has taken issue with the discrepancy among districts in per-student funding.
“We feel this, among other issues, needs to be addressed. We have constructed a draft resolution to take to the legislature before they convene next session.”
The school officials from Walkerton are seeking a coalition of 50 school districts to sign the resolution before sending it off to Indianapolis.
“We would appreciate your participation in preparing the ‘final product’ and invite you to sign the resolution,” said the letter to WCCS.
“I think the purpose of the resolution is to educate our legislature,” said O’Connor, saying school officials hope to convince the lawmakers that “one size doesn’t fit all. I think we’re just asking the legislature to consider the smaller districts when decisions are being made.”
In the budget for 2010, the state cut school funding across the board and O’Connor told the board that WCCS’s “per-student” cuts were heavier than some districts. The intent of the proposed pact among school corporations is to call on the legislature to remove that funding disparity.
John Glenn’s letter and resolution also referred to the state’s funding formula as “complicated and outdated.”
The board discussed the possibility of signing the resolution.
“The squeaky wheel gets the oil,” said board member Tim Bloom.
“Every school’s saying they’re not getting their fair share and I don’t envy the legislature,” said Zickgraf.
In late 2009, reports said Indiana schools lost $297 million in 2010.
The new legislature meets Jan. 5 and local residents Jim Banks (Senate) and Kathy Heuer (House of Representatives) will begin freshman terms in their respective branches. Coincidently, both members will serve on education committees.
After discussing the petition by John Glenn, WCCS Board President Don Armstrong said the board should consider the issue before the next meeting Dec. 20.
“I want to think about it,” said Armstrong. “But I also want to think about education in general. We can vote our hearts if we make it an action item.”
“I think it is a show of solidarity,” said O’Connor, “but not in an offensive way, but more in a ‘yoo-hoo, we’re small, but we’re out here’ way.
Thursday, December 9, 2010
Not ready for that 'adult conversation' on debt?
We have started an adult conversation that will dominate the debate until the elected leadership here in Washington does something real.”
So claimed Erskine Bowles, co-chairman (along with former Sen. Alan Simpson) of President Barack Obama’s commission on federal deficits and debt, last week.
The feeling that Americans and their representatives in Congress were ready for serious “adult” work on reducing deficits and debt lasted about three days, from last Friday’s final fiscal commission meeting to Monday’s announcement by Obama of a $900 billion accord with congressional Republicans to extend tax cuts and embark on a round of new spending.
"I'm deeply disappointed that we have this short-term deal and it's not linked to long-term fiscal restraint," Bowles said Wednesday.
On Thursday morning after he and Simpson met at the White House with Budget Director Jack Lew and Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner, they issued a statement calling on Obama to launch negotiations with congressional leaders from both parties "on the critical next step of establishing a serious fiscal responsibility plan" and to unveil his own deficit cutting proposals in his State of the Union address, building on the ones in last week's Bowles-Simpson report.
Long-term debt problem
The long-term budget prospects remain as stark as they were before Obama announced his deal with the GOP leaders.
Top politics news Key vote on 'Don't Ask Don't Tell' repeal fails
A key procedural vote on the bill containing a repeal of the military’s Don’t Ask Don’t Tell policy failed Thursday, likely dealing a final blow to advocates who hoped to overturn the 17-year old ban on gays and lesbians serving openly in the military during this session of Congress.
According to the Congressional Budget Office, the ten-year budget forecast is for continued budget shortfalls, extraordinarily high national debt (compared to previous decades), and higher interest payments to service that debt — to the point that CBO predicts that by 2016 interest payments will be larger than military spending.
When debt service exceeds military spending, says Harvard historian Niall Ferguson, it has historically been the tipping point where a great empire or nation ceases being great.
Why did the feeling that America was ready for serious debt reduction evaporate so quickly?
One reason may be that members of Congress don’t believe that the United States could suffer a sovereign debt crisis as Greece and Ireland are undergoing.
“I think it’s true that a number of people just don’t buy it, because we still are different than Greece and Ireland,” said Maya MacGuineas, president of the bipartisan Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget.
“They can’t believe that the debt problems could actually come here," she said. "I think a number of other people think, ‘maybe I do buy it but it isn’t worth the sacrifice of actually changing things.’ But I think most people don’t quite buy it — and the worrying thing is that people who buy it the most are the financial people, the people who are managing money.”
Stopping momentum for debt reduction
MacGuineas said the tax and spending deal that Obama announced Monday night did seem “surreal” coming as it did on the heels of the Bowles-Simpson plan. “It stops the momentum that we should have started last week with the Bowles-Simpson plan.”
But she remains optimistic. She compared the accord with a smoker who is on the verge of quitting smoking. “You smoke an extra cigarette just before you have to give it up. I really do think this is the last major deficit-financed bonanza that we’re going to see.”
She pointed to fact that a conservative member of the Bowles-Simpson panel, Sen. Tom Coburn of Oklahoma and a liberal Democrat, Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois, both voted for the plan. (It got 11 votes, three shy of what was needed to officially forward its recommendations to Congress.)
Coburn took a jab at his own party Wednesday when he denounced as "political cynicism" a statement by Dan Bartlett, a former staffer for President George W. Bush, who said the 2001 tax cut was designed as a "trap" so that it "becomes almost impossible to remove it."
Coburn has hinted he might vote against the deal Obama negotiated with GOP leaders and urged his colleagues to debate a plan to cut the deficit.
"We are going to have a major liquidity crisis, and we are also going to have a major interest rate crisis," he said Wednesday. "Nobody knows when it comes."
Economic historians and members of the president’s fiscal commission do believe a sovereign debt crisis is feasible, or at least that the United States will suffer many years of anemic growth and high unemployment.
Federal government debt is approaching that level. Using a different measure — total debt for all levels of government — U.S. gross debt is at 93 percent of GDP, according to the International Monetary Fund. (Compare that with Greece at 130 percent of GDP and Ireland at 99 percent of GDP.)
Wolf at our door?
Making the analogy between hostile bond markets and a wolf, Reinhart also warned that “We never know when the wolf will be down (at) our door. The wolf is very fickle and markets can turn very quickly. And a high debt level makes us very vulnerable to shifts in sentiments that we cannot predict.”
In a debt crisis, in order to persuade bond buyers to keep buying Treasury bonds, Congress would be forced to cut spending and raise taxes.
The commission member who put that scenario most clearly was a non-politician, Honeywell chief executive David Cote: “These difficult political decisions will get made one of two ways. The first is we can do it thoughtfully and proactively. The second is we can wait for the bond market to force it upon us, and that will be decidedly harder, more abrupt and unpleasant. We can ask Greece and Ireland what that's like, and soon Italy, Spain and Portugal.”
He added that Americans ought to wonder, "What happens when the bank — in this case foreign countries like China — doesn't want to loan you any more money?"
Of course, the alternative to raising revenues through borrowing is raising them through higher taxes. But one reason Obama is not likely to get Republicans to agree to that is their memories of Republican presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush agreeing to tax increases in 1982 and 1990.
“If I believed that the increased revenue would actually be used for deficit reduction, you know, I might reluctantly come to the table, in a global agreement," said panel member Rep. Jeb Hensarling, R-Texas last week, before voting against the debt commission's recommendations.
Hensarling said when he recalls Reagan's agreement to raise taxes in 1982 and Bush’s reversal on taxes in 1990, “It just seems to me that somehow the spending restraint never quite materializes, and yet the increased revenues do, and it seems like the increased revenues simply chase the spending.”
It's Obama in the Oval Office now, not Bush or Reagan, but it is the familiar tug of war between Republicans and Democrats over cutting taxes versus cutting spending.
Obama’s statement at Tuesday's press conference implied that in some areas federal spending may not be big enough.
“What are we doing to revamp our schools to make sure our kids can compete?” he asked. “What are we doing in terms of research and development to make sure that innovation is still taking place here in the United States of America? What are we doing about our infrastructure so that we have the best airports and the best roads and the best bridges?”
He sounded confident he will win the debate with Republicans — forcing them to agree to tax increases because they'll find out once they start running the House of Representatives that spending cuts would be, as he said Tuesday, “very painful.”
Putting on his hat as campaign strategist, Obama said, “Either they rethink their position, or I don’t think they’re going to do very well in 2012.”
He said, “The fact of the matter is the American people already agree with me.”
So claimed Erskine Bowles, co-chairman (along with former Sen. Alan Simpson) of President Barack Obama’s commission on federal deficits and debt, last week.
The feeling that Americans and their representatives in Congress were ready for serious “adult” work on reducing deficits and debt lasted about three days, from last Friday’s final fiscal commission meeting to Monday’s announcement by Obama of a $900 billion accord with congressional Republicans to extend tax cuts and embark on a round of new spending.
"I'm deeply disappointed that we have this short-term deal and it's not linked to long-term fiscal restraint," Bowles said Wednesday.
On Thursday morning after he and Simpson met at the White House with Budget Director Jack Lew and Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner, they issued a statement calling on Obama to launch negotiations with congressional leaders from both parties "on the critical next step of establishing a serious fiscal responsibility plan" and to unveil his own deficit cutting proposals in his State of the Union address, building on the ones in last week's Bowles-Simpson report.
Long-term debt problem
The long-term budget prospects remain as stark as they were before Obama announced his deal with the GOP leaders.
Top politics news Key vote on 'Don't Ask Don't Tell' repeal fails
A key procedural vote on the bill containing a repeal of the military’s Don’t Ask Don’t Tell policy failed Thursday, likely dealing a final blow to advocates who hoped to overturn the 17-year old ban on gays and lesbians serving openly in the military during this session of Congress.
According to the Congressional Budget Office, the ten-year budget forecast is for continued budget shortfalls, extraordinarily high national debt (compared to previous decades), and higher interest payments to service that debt — to the point that CBO predicts that by 2016 interest payments will be larger than military spending.
When debt service exceeds military spending, says Harvard historian Niall Ferguson, it has historically been the tipping point where a great empire or nation ceases being great.
Why did the feeling that America was ready for serious debt reduction evaporate so quickly?
One reason may be that members of Congress don’t believe that the United States could suffer a sovereign debt crisis as Greece and Ireland are undergoing.
“I think it’s true that a number of people just don’t buy it, because we still are different than Greece and Ireland,” said Maya MacGuineas, president of the bipartisan Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget.
“They can’t believe that the debt problems could actually come here," she said. "I think a number of other people think, ‘maybe I do buy it but it isn’t worth the sacrifice of actually changing things.’ But I think most people don’t quite buy it — and the worrying thing is that people who buy it the most are the financial people, the people who are managing money.”
Stopping momentum for debt reduction
MacGuineas said the tax and spending deal that Obama announced Monday night did seem “surreal” coming as it did on the heels of the Bowles-Simpson plan. “It stops the momentum that we should have started last week with the Bowles-Simpson plan.”
But she remains optimistic. She compared the accord with a smoker who is on the verge of quitting smoking. “You smoke an extra cigarette just before you have to give it up. I really do think this is the last major deficit-financed bonanza that we’re going to see.”
She pointed to fact that a conservative member of the Bowles-Simpson panel, Sen. Tom Coburn of Oklahoma and a liberal Democrat, Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois, both voted for the plan. (It got 11 votes, three shy of what was needed to officially forward its recommendations to Congress.)
Coburn took a jab at his own party Wednesday when he denounced as "political cynicism" a statement by Dan Bartlett, a former staffer for President George W. Bush, who said the 2001 tax cut was designed as a "trap" so that it "becomes almost impossible to remove it."
Coburn has hinted he might vote against the deal Obama negotiated with GOP leaders and urged his colleagues to debate a plan to cut the deficit.
"We are going to have a major liquidity crisis, and we are also going to have a major interest rate crisis," he said Wednesday. "Nobody knows when it comes."
Economic historians and members of the president’s fiscal commission do believe a sovereign debt crisis is feasible, or at least that the United States will suffer many years of anemic growth and high unemployment.
Federal government debt is approaching that level. Using a different measure — total debt for all levels of government — U.S. gross debt is at 93 percent of GDP, according to the International Monetary Fund. (Compare that with Greece at 130 percent of GDP and Ireland at 99 percent of GDP.)
Wolf at our door?
Making the analogy between hostile bond markets and a wolf, Reinhart also warned that “We never know when the wolf will be down (at) our door. The wolf is very fickle and markets can turn very quickly. And a high debt level makes us very vulnerable to shifts in sentiments that we cannot predict.”
In a debt crisis, in order to persuade bond buyers to keep buying Treasury bonds, Congress would be forced to cut spending and raise taxes.
The commission member who put that scenario most clearly was a non-politician, Honeywell chief executive David Cote: “These difficult political decisions will get made one of two ways. The first is we can do it thoughtfully and proactively. The second is we can wait for the bond market to force it upon us, and that will be decidedly harder, more abrupt and unpleasant. We can ask Greece and Ireland what that's like, and soon Italy, Spain and Portugal.”
He added that Americans ought to wonder, "What happens when the bank — in this case foreign countries like China — doesn't want to loan you any more money?"
Of course, the alternative to raising revenues through borrowing is raising them through higher taxes. But one reason Obama is not likely to get Republicans to agree to that is their memories of Republican presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush agreeing to tax increases in 1982 and 1990.
“If I believed that the increased revenue would actually be used for deficit reduction, you know, I might reluctantly come to the table, in a global agreement," said panel member Rep. Jeb Hensarling, R-Texas last week, before voting against the debt commission's recommendations.
Hensarling said when he recalls Reagan's agreement to raise taxes in 1982 and Bush’s reversal on taxes in 1990, “It just seems to me that somehow the spending restraint never quite materializes, and yet the increased revenues do, and it seems like the increased revenues simply chase the spending.”
It's Obama in the Oval Office now, not Bush or Reagan, but it is the familiar tug of war between Republicans and Democrats over cutting taxes versus cutting spending.
Obama’s statement at Tuesday's press conference implied that in some areas federal spending may not be big enough.
“What are we doing to revamp our schools to make sure our kids can compete?” he asked. “What are we doing in terms of research and development to make sure that innovation is still taking place here in the United States of America? What are we doing about our infrastructure so that we have the best airports and the best roads and the best bridges?”
He sounded confident he will win the debate with Republicans — forcing them to agree to tax increases because they'll find out once they start running the House of Representatives that spending cuts would be, as he said Tuesday, “very painful.”
Putting on his hat as campaign strategist, Obama said, “Either they rethink their position, or I don’t think they’re going to do very well in 2012.”
He said, “The fact of the matter is the American people already agree with me.”
Friday, December 3, 2010
State, public differ on schools
Niki Kelly | The Journal Gazette
INDIANAPOLIS – Hoosiers pointed to creating jobs and upgrading K-12 education as top priorities for the state legislature and Gov. Mitch Daniels in 2011, according to a new public opinion survey released Thursday from Ball State University.
The polling contradicts the agenda of Daniels and House and Senate Republicans on several specific education policies.
The poll was unveiled at the 2011 Legislative Conference in Indianapolis, where Daniels also delivered the keynote speech.
In the Ball State survey, 45 percent of Hoosiers said schools in communities that face the greatest obstacles to learning should receive more money than schools in communities that are experiencing the greatest growth.
About 14 percent of the Hoosiers surveyed believe that both types of schools should receive equal funding.
Daniels and key Republicans are pushing for funding to be based solely on a district’s number of students, rather than extra money going to some urban and declining-enrollment schools facing high levels of poverty.
The governor said Thursday that the system is currently set up to aid poorer schools, but he said that the disparity has become a concern.
“That makes less sense to me, and we’ve been moving away from that,” he said. “It clearly penalizes schools with population growth.”
The Ball State survey also noted that Hoosiers believe more parental involvement would make more of a difference in education than would other changes, such as paying teachers more.
Daniels said he can’t pass a law requiring parental involvement and “it would be a complete non-sequitur to say because too many parents don’t do enough, we just forget these other changes.”
He said studies show teacher quality is the major factor behind student performance, and when good teachers are identified, “I’m for paying them more.”
Another difference is that Daniels wants to expand the number of charter schools. But those surveyed, by a 2-to-1 margin, prefer to support current schools rather than create more charter schools.
Daniels also used his speech to tell the lobbyists, lawyers, school officials and media in attendance that state tax revenue was up slightly in November and that he expects to balance the next biennial budget without a tax increase.
INDIANAPOLIS – Hoosiers pointed to creating jobs and upgrading K-12 education as top priorities for the state legislature and Gov. Mitch Daniels in 2011, according to a new public opinion survey released Thursday from Ball State University.
The polling contradicts the agenda of Daniels and House and Senate Republicans on several specific education policies.
The poll was unveiled at the 2011 Legislative Conference in Indianapolis, where Daniels also delivered the keynote speech.
In the Ball State survey, 45 percent of Hoosiers said schools in communities that face the greatest obstacles to learning should receive more money than schools in communities that are experiencing the greatest growth.
About 14 percent of the Hoosiers surveyed believe that both types of schools should receive equal funding.
Daniels and key Republicans are pushing for funding to be based solely on a district’s number of students, rather than extra money going to some urban and declining-enrollment schools facing high levels of poverty.
The governor said Thursday that the system is currently set up to aid poorer schools, but he said that the disparity has become a concern.
“That makes less sense to me, and we’ve been moving away from that,” he said. “It clearly penalizes schools with population growth.”
The Ball State survey also noted that Hoosiers believe more parental involvement would make more of a difference in education than would other changes, such as paying teachers more.
Daniels said he can’t pass a law requiring parental involvement and “it would be a complete non-sequitur to say because too many parents don’t do enough, we just forget these other changes.”
He said studies show teacher quality is the major factor behind student performance, and when good teachers are identified, “I’m for paying them more.”
Another difference is that Daniels wants to expand the number of charter schools. But those surveyed, by a 2-to-1 margin, prefer to support current schools rather than create more charter schools.
Daniels also used his speech to tell the lobbyists, lawyers, school officials and media in attendance that state tax revenue was up slightly in November and that he expects to balance the next biennial budget without a tax increase.
Thursday, December 2, 2010
Anti-earmark Tea Party Caucus takes $1 billion in earmarks
By Reid Wilson
National Journal
Members of the Congressional Tea Party Caucus may tout their commitment to cutting government spending now, but they used the 111th Congress to request hundreds of earmarks that, taken cumulatively, added more than $1 billion to the federal budget.
According to a Hotline review of records compiled by Citizens Against Government Waste, the 52 members of the caucus, which pledges to cut spending and reduce the size of government, requested a total of 764 earmarks valued at $1,049,783,150 during Fiscal Year 2010, the last year for which records are available.
"It's disturbing to see the Tea Party Caucus requested that much in earmarks. This is their time to put up or shut up, to be blunt," said David Williams, vice president for policy at Citizens Against Government Waste. "There's going to be a huge backlash if they continue to request earmarks."
In founding the caucus in July, Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) said she was giving voice to Americans who were sick of government overspending.
[How do deficit-cutters sell the U.S. on pain?]
"The American people are speaking out loud and clear. They have had enough of the spending, the bureaucracy, and the government-knows-best mentality running rampant today throughout the halls of Congress," Bachmann said in a July 15 statement. The group, she wrote in a letter to House Administration Committee chairman Bob Brady, "will serve as an informal group of Members dedicated to promote Americans' call for fiscal responsibility, adherence to the Constitution, and limited government."
Bachmann and 13 of her Tea Party Caucus colleagues did not request any earmarks in the last Fiscal Year, according to CAGW's annual Congressional Pig Book. But others have requested millions of dollars in special projects.
Rep. Robert Aderholt (R-Ala.), for one, attached his name to 69 earmarks in the last fiscal year, for a total of $78,263,000. The 41 earmarks Rep. Rodney Alexander (R-La.) requested were worth $65,395,000. Rep. Todd Tiahrt (R-Kan.) wanted $63,400,000 for 39 special projects, and Rep. Rob Bishop (R-Utah) wanted $93,980,000 set aside for 47 projects.
[With jobs at issue, what is Washington doing?]
Rep. Denny Rehberg (R-Mont.) takes the prize as the tea partier with his name on the most earmarks. Rehberg's office requested funding for 88 projects, either solely or by co-signing earmark requests with Sens. Max Baucus (D) and Jon Tester (D), at a cost of $100,514,200. On his own, Rehberg requested 20 earmarks valued at more than $9.6 million.
More than one member can sign onto an earmark. Still, there are 29 caucus members who requested on their own or joined requests for more than $10 million in earmark funding, and seven who wanted more than $50 million in funding.
Most offices did not respond right away to a request for comment. Those that did said they supported Republicans' new efforts to ban earmarks.
[Will Obama's winning campaign plan be used against him in 2012?]
Alexander, for one, "stands with his fellow Republicans in the House in supporting the current earmark ban. Since joining the Tea Party Caucus in July, he has not submitted any earmark requests and has withdrawn his outstanding requests that were included in the most recent Water Resources Development Act," said Jamie Hanks, his communications director.
Rep. Gregg Harper (R-Miss.), who requested 25 earmarks in the last Fiscal Year at a total cost of just over $80 million, has agreed to abide by the Republican earmark ban, according to spokesman Adam Buckalew. "He supported the moratorium and the prohibition adopted recently by the Conference on House earmarks for the 112th Congress," Buckalew said of Harper.
"It's easy to be a member of the TEA Party Caucus because, like them, I agree that we're Taxed Enough Already and we've got to balance the budget by cutting spending instead of raising taxes. Deficit spending is not new, but the unprecedented rate of spending in Congress is," Rehberg said in a statement emailed by his office. "Montanans have tightened their belts, and it's way past time for Congress to follow their lead. The TEA Party Caucus is about listening to concerned Americans who want to fundamentally change how Congress spends their tax dollars. On that, we're in total agreement."
[For America's 10 wealthiest Congressional Districts, it will be more happy holidays]
Bachmann's office did not respond to emails or phone calls seeking comment.
Still, some Republicans -- albeit none who belong to the Tea Party Caucus -- have said they will not abide by the voluntary earmark ban. And, said CAGW's Williams, the anti-spending organization isn't waiting with baited breath.
"Seeing is believing. It's going to take a lot more than rhetoric to convince us," he said.
A list of Tea Party Caucus members and their earmark requests in Fiscal Year 2010, courtesy of Citizens Against Government Waste's Pig Book: http://www.cagw.org/reports/pig-book/2010/
National Journal
Members of the Congressional Tea Party Caucus may tout their commitment to cutting government spending now, but they used the 111th Congress to request hundreds of earmarks that, taken cumulatively, added more than $1 billion to the federal budget.
According to a Hotline review of records compiled by Citizens Against Government Waste, the 52 members of the caucus, which pledges to cut spending and reduce the size of government, requested a total of 764 earmarks valued at $1,049,783,150 during Fiscal Year 2010, the last year for which records are available.
"It's disturbing to see the Tea Party Caucus requested that much in earmarks. This is their time to put up or shut up, to be blunt," said David Williams, vice president for policy at Citizens Against Government Waste. "There's going to be a huge backlash if they continue to request earmarks."
In founding the caucus in July, Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) said she was giving voice to Americans who were sick of government overspending.
[How do deficit-cutters sell the U.S. on pain?]
"The American people are speaking out loud and clear. They have had enough of the spending, the bureaucracy, and the government-knows-best mentality running rampant today throughout the halls of Congress," Bachmann said in a July 15 statement. The group, she wrote in a letter to House Administration Committee chairman Bob Brady, "will serve as an informal group of Members dedicated to promote Americans' call for fiscal responsibility, adherence to the Constitution, and limited government."
Bachmann and 13 of her Tea Party Caucus colleagues did not request any earmarks in the last Fiscal Year, according to CAGW's annual Congressional Pig Book. But others have requested millions of dollars in special projects.
Rep. Robert Aderholt (R-Ala.), for one, attached his name to 69 earmarks in the last fiscal year, for a total of $78,263,000. The 41 earmarks Rep. Rodney Alexander (R-La.) requested were worth $65,395,000. Rep. Todd Tiahrt (R-Kan.) wanted $63,400,000 for 39 special projects, and Rep. Rob Bishop (R-Utah) wanted $93,980,000 set aside for 47 projects.
[With jobs at issue, what is Washington doing?]
Rep. Denny Rehberg (R-Mont.) takes the prize as the tea partier with his name on the most earmarks. Rehberg's office requested funding for 88 projects, either solely or by co-signing earmark requests with Sens. Max Baucus (D) and Jon Tester (D), at a cost of $100,514,200. On his own, Rehberg requested 20 earmarks valued at more than $9.6 million.
More than one member can sign onto an earmark. Still, there are 29 caucus members who requested on their own or joined requests for more than $10 million in earmark funding, and seven who wanted more than $50 million in funding.
Most offices did not respond right away to a request for comment. Those that did said they supported Republicans' new efforts to ban earmarks.
[Will Obama's winning campaign plan be used against him in 2012?]
Alexander, for one, "stands with his fellow Republicans in the House in supporting the current earmark ban. Since joining the Tea Party Caucus in July, he has not submitted any earmark requests and has withdrawn his outstanding requests that were included in the most recent Water Resources Development Act," said Jamie Hanks, his communications director.
Rep. Gregg Harper (R-Miss.), who requested 25 earmarks in the last Fiscal Year at a total cost of just over $80 million, has agreed to abide by the Republican earmark ban, according to spokesman Adam Buckalew. "He supported the moratorium and the prohibition adopted recently by the Conference on House earmarks for the 112th Congress," Buckalew said of Harper.
"It's easy to be a member of the TEA Party Caucus because, like them, I agree that we're Taxed Enough Already and we've got to balance the budget by cutting spending instead of raising taxes. Deficit spending is not new, but the unprecedented rate of spending in Congress is," Rehberg said in a statement emailed by his office. "Montanans have tightened their belts, and it's way past time for Congress to follow their lead. The TEA Party Caucus is about listening to concerned Americans who want to fundamentally change how Congress spends their tax dollars. On that, we're in total agreement."
[For America's 10 wealthiest Congressional Districts, it will be more happy holidays]
Bachmann's office did not respond to emails or phone calls seeking comment.
Still, some Republicans -- albeit none who belong to the Tea Party Caucus -- have said they will not abide by the voluntary earmark ban. And, said CAGW's Williams, the anti-spending organization isn't waiting with baited breath.
"Seeing is believing. It's going to take a lot more than rhetoric to convince us," he said.
A list of Tea Party Caucus members and their earmark requests in Fiscal Year 2010, courtesy of Citizens Against Government Waste's Pig Book: http://www.cagw.org/reports/pig-book/2010/
Wednesday, December 1, 2010
Tracking fee to increase on city electric bills
ByRuth Stanley
ruth@thepostandmail.com
COLUMBIA CITY — Columbia City residents, and those who get their electricity from Columbia City utilities, will see their rates go up for the first quarter of the new year.
The monthly tracking fee will increase by 74 cents per 1,000 kilowatt hours. For the average residential customer, the rate will change by approximately 52 cents.
The tracking fee is a pass-through fee used by the city to cover the cost charged to the city by Indiana Municipal Power Agency.
As IMPA adjusts its rates for electricity sold to the city, the city adjusts the tracking fee to cover the increase or decrease, said Rosie Coyle, clerk treasurer.
According to Coyle, most residential customers use approximately 700 kilowatt hours resulting the 52 cent increase. Those who use more or less will see the tracking fee adjusted accordingly
ruth@thepostandmail.com
COLUMBIA CITY — Columbia City residents, and those who get their electricity from Columbia City utilities, will see their rates go up for the first quarter of the new year.
The monthly tracking fee will increase by 74 cents per 1,000 kilowatt hours. For the average residential customer, the rate will change by approximately 52 cents.
The tracking fee is a pass-through fee used by the city to cover the cost charged to the city by Indiana Municipal Power Agency.
As IMPA adjusts its rates for electricity sold to the city, the city adjusts the tracking fee to cover the increase or decrease, said Rosie Coyle, clerk treasurer.
According to Coyle, most residential customers use approximately 700 kilowatt hours resulting the 52 cent increase. Those who use more or less will see the tracking fee adjusted accordingly
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