Pence Taking A Hard Look At Ballard's Power Grab Legislation

Gov. Mike Pence sat down for an interview with radio talk show host Amos Brown where he discussed a number of issues before the legislature this session, including legislation sponsored by Sen. Mike Young that is designed to strip the City-County Council of power in order to give near-dictatorial powers to the Indianapolis mayor's office. Gov. Pence told Brown that he and his wife have been inviting members of the General Assembly in small groups to join them at the governor's residence to spend social time together and discuss issues in a relaxed, non-confrontational environment. One of those social gatherings included members of the black caucus where Gov. Pence said that some members expressed their concerns about the power grab effort by Ballard contained in SB 621. Pence told Brown that he has taken no position on the bill publicly or privately. He said he was "studying the bill" and following it closely, describing it as "a work in progress." He said that he will "take a hard look" at the bill before making any final decision. Listen to Brown's full interview with Gov. Pence here.

Rockport Developer Claims Legislation Requiring More Regulatory Review Would Kill Deal: Then Pass It

That controversial coal gasification project at Rockport that is all about making hundreds of millions of dollars for former Gov. Mitch Daniels' political cronies on the backs of Indiana gas utility consumers is back in the news. Indiana lawmakers are considering legislation that would require Indiana utility regulators, who should have never signed off on a deal that was so obviously intended to screw over utility consumers in the first place, to take another look at the one-sided deal. A spokesman for Leucadia, former State Rep. Mike Murphy, claims the deal is dead if the legislation becomes law. The Evansville Courier-Press' Eric Bradner has his reaction:

“If this bill passes as-is, the deal is dead. It is dead, and the largest economic development project of the next decade is gone,” said Mike Murphy, a spokesman for Indiana Gasification LLC, the company launched to run a project being financed by Leucadia National Corp.

The controversy is over a deal between developers and the Indiana Finance Authority, which under former Gov. Mitch Daniels signed a 30-year contract to buy the plant’s synthetic natural gas at a fixed rate and then resell it on the open market. Hoosier ratepayers would serve as guaranteed buyers benefitting from any savings compared to market rates and footing the bill for losses.

The project is opposed by Vectren Corp., which is fighting a two-front battle to block the plant by lobbying lawmakers to beef up the deal’s protections for natural gas customers and asking courts to block the 30-year deal from moving forward . . .

“It accomplishes Vectren’s goal of dragging us down into a pit of quicksand, of bureaucratic morass which we can never extricate ourselves from, because it starts all the due processes over,” Murphy said.

But Mike Roeder, Vectren’s vice president of government affairs and communications, said he thinks developers are crying wolf.

“I don’t hear anything new. Remember, this thing’s been changed five times since 2007, and every time the other side wanted something, they said, ‘If you don’t give us this, it’ll kill the plant,’” he said.

“We have been focused on protecting consumers and encouraging legislators to give prescriptive direction to the commission, should they get another opportunity to review a contract.”

What's actually happening now that wasn't happening when Gov. Daniels was ramming this deal down our throats to make a pile of money for his political cronies is exactly how State Rep. Suzanne Crouch (R-Evansville) explains it:

“The 2 million natural gas ratepayers in Indiana do not have well-heeled lobbyists working the halls of the Indiana General Assembly on their behalf. It is up to legislators to look out for their interests and protect them,” said Crouch, who is sponsoring the bill in the House.

“At the end of the day, we, the legislature, need to ensure that our children and our children’s children are not burdened by unreasonable, unnecessary rate increases,” she said.

The best way to describe the sweetheart deal Leucadia inked with the Daniels administration for the development of its Rockport coal gasification plant is how lobbyist Kip Tew explained his job to Star political columnist Matt Tully: “What I do most of the time here is help one rich guy get a bigger piece of the market share than another rich guy.”

Sweeping Corruption Charges In New York Effort To Buy Mayor's Office

U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara announced a sweeping set of indictments against a half dozen state and local officials in New York City after a plot was hatched between leading New York Republican leaders and a prominent Democratic state senator whereby the Republican Party officials would sign off on permitting State Sen. Malcolm Smith (D-New York) to run under the Republican Party label for New York mayor despite being a long-time Democrat in consideration for tens of thousands of dollars being paid to the Republican Party officials, along with greasing the wheels of a private real estate development deal. Unbeknownst to the co-conspirators in the plot, the real estate developer was a cooperating witness for the FBI, who was assisted by an undercover FBI agent, and the real estate project was the cover for the sting operation.

In addition to the charges against Smith for a promise to procure state funds for the real estate project, the list of the indicted included: NYC Councilman Daniel Halloran, who accepted $18,300 in cash bribes and $6,500 in campaign contributions and promised discretionary city funds to the undercover agent for his private business and no-work, no-show city jobs for the undercover agent and the cooperating witness; Spring Valley Mayor Noramie Jasmin for a stake in the real estate project in exhange for her support of Smith; Spring Valley Deputy Mayor Joe Desmaret for accepting a $10,500 cash bribe for his support of Smith; Queens GOP Vice Chairman Vincent Tabone for accepting a $25,000 cash bribe for his support of Smith; Bronx GOP Chairman Joseph Savino for accepting a $15,000 cash bribe for his support of Smith. Halloran is a former NYC cop who hoped to land the job as police commissioner in a Smith administation as part of his role in the plot according to the indictment. "Money greases the wheels," an FBI wire recorded Halloran as saying. The U.S. Attorney said “that a show-me-the-money culture seems to pervade every level of New York government” at today's press conference.

Just imagine what a good team of FBI agents and an aggressive prosecutor in the U.S. Attorney's office in Indianapolis could accomplish in combating public corruption here. The same crap takes place every day here. It's just that nobody is looking over the shoulders of public officials here like they are in other states.

SB 621 Still A Power Grab By Ballard Which Should Be Rejected

The House Local Government Committee amended SB 621, the power grab legislation sponsored by Sen. Mike Young for the benefit of Mayor Greg Ballard, to remove a provision of the bill eliminating the four at-large council positions, but the worst parts of the bill remain intact. Here's why.

As passed by the committee today, SB 621 will permanently eliminate the option the City-County Council now has to collect a payment-in-lieu of taxes on the facilities under the control of Capital Improvement Board, including Lucas Oil Stadium, Banker's Life Fieldhouse, Victory Field and the Indiana Convention Center. Think about this. Citizens Energy, a nonprofit public utility, pays a PILOT to the city on the utility assets it purchased from the City. Yet the sports facilities operated exclusively for the benefit of for-profit professional sports franchises, which are owned by billionaires and which pay no rent for their use could never be subject to taxation if SB 621 becomes law. There is no legitimate public purpose served by doing that except to permanently lock in most-favored tax treatment status for the billionaire sports team owners.

The bill attempts to permanently strip the county sheriff of any role in law enforcement and place this elected constitutional office under the control of the unelected public safety director who answers only to the mayor. There is a legitimate public purpose behind this proposal, but the proper course would be to amend the state's constitution if the desire is to permanently curtail the powers of the county sheriff.

The most alarming provisions of the bill are those which strip the City-County Council of powers it has held since the enactment of Uni-Gov more than four decades ago and consolidate unchecked power in the hands of mayor. City agency directors and deputy directors appointed by the mayor would no longer require approval by the legislative body. The bill strips the appointments made to the metropolitan development commission, which controls zoning matters, by certain elected constitutional officers of the county and gives those appointees to the mayor, which will give his appointees unchecked control over matters that come before the MDC.

The bill even gives the city controller appointed by the mayor the authority to unilaterally reduce items in other agencies' budgets, including those of other constitutionally-elected officers. This authority allows the mayor to bring independently-elected constitutional officers to their knees through threat of unilateral budget cuts. It's not hard to imagine the prosecutor's budget getting cut by the mayor in retaliation because the mayor was mad at the county prosecutor for prosecuting a member of his administration or one of the mayor's key political supporters.

If that's not enough, the bill also cuts the period of residency for candidates for mayor and the council from five years and two years, respectively, to two years and one year, respectively. Do you want someone running this city who only moved into the city limits two years ago? Or have as your representative on the council a person who has lived in the district a mere year?

It is difficult for me to understand why any state lawmaker, regardless of their political party, could support SB 621 based on any sound public policy belief. Let's face it. This piece of legislation wouldn't have a prayer of passing the Republican-controlled legislature if the current occupant of the Indianapolis mayor's office was a Democrat instead of a Republican. It is nothing but a raw political power grab by a man who should not be made dictator of Indianapolis/Marion County government by state legislative fiat simply because he doesn't have the patience or willingness to work with a Democratic-controlled council. Any self-respecting state lawmaker should never allow him or herself to be used for the selfish aims of one man who is anything but infallible. Learn your history. Checks and balances serve an important role in our representative form of government.

Pro Mass Transit Star Columnist Drives Car Registered In Ohio

Fellow blogger Paul Ogden picked up on this little gem while attending the IndyCAN meeting in Carmel promoting a community conversation on mass transit last night. Star columnist Erika Smith, who has penned numerous columns this year unabashedly promoting IndyConnect's legislative agenda to create an unelected, unaccountable metropolitan transit authority with taxing powers to oversee a multi-billion dollars mass transit boondoggle, showed up at the event driving an automobile with license plate tags issued by the state of Ohio. New residents are required to register their motor vehicles with the Bureau of Motor Vehicles and obtain an Indiana driver's license within 60 days of becoming an Indiana residence, unless the person doesn't claim Indiana as their place of resident. According to Ogden, Smith moved here several years ago from a job at another newspaper in Ohio.

When I got out of my car to retrieve something out of my trunk, I noted something peculiar about Smith's car. It had Ohio license plates. The frame surrounding the plate said "BMV CLEVELAND" at the top and "DAVIS AUTOMOTIVE GROUP" at the bottom. Of course, Smith is forever writing about how wonderful mass transit has worked out for Cleveland.

Shortly after the meeting, I went back to the parking lot to take a picture of the plate . . .

Why would someone continue to put Ohio plates after moving to Indiana years ago?  Because unlike Ohio license plates, Indiana plates come with a hefty auto excise tax attached to them.  The revenue from excise taxes is not dedicated and is distributed to local governments pursuant to the same formula used for property taxes.  In other words, excise tax money goes to schools, libraries, parks, public safety and to fund the very bus service that Erika Smith is pushing Indy residents to dramatically expand.

This reminds me of how ex-radio talk show host Abdul Hakim-Shabazz arrogantly thumbed his nose at Indiana's motor vehicle registration laws by driving a car with an Illinois-issued vanity plate emblazoned with "ABDUL" on it many years after he moved to Indianapolis to begin work as a full-time radio talk show host at WXNT and even after getting married to an Indianapolis woman. When called out on it, Shabazz defended having an Illinois vehicle registration, claiming that he was still an Illinois resident where he was registered to vote and admitted to practice law. That never stopped him, however, from weighing in on taxing and spending policies for Hoosier resident. Fellow blogger Ruth Holladay gets the award for the best take on this one: "The hypocrisy of this mass-transit maneuvering has more roundabouts than Carmel. I hope Erika will write yet another transportation column, explaining her position for not rendering unto Indiana what the state is due."

On a brighter note, a Senate Tax & Policy Committee voted unanimously today to amend the mass transit legislation to commit the issue to a summer study committee before voting it out of committee. Proponents haven't given up hope on passing a bill to their liking yet this year according to the IBJ. "It's always good to have a vehicle to work with in conference committee," Gifford said. "This happens a lot."

 

UPDATE: Smith posted this comment on Paul's blog indicating that the car belongs to her father, who lives in Ohio, although she believes both of their names are on the title.

Hi guys.

Just to be clear, I own two cars. One is my primary vehicle, which is a not-so-snow-friendly sports car registered here in Indiana that I drive most of the year. The car with that Ohio plate is owned by my father, although I believe my name is also on the title. I drive it only a couple months out of the year (the rest of the year, it sits in Ohio) and that is why it is registered with Ohio plates.

I do, however, have an Indiana driver's license (and plenty of parking tickets to prove it) so I am indeed paying taxes here year-round.

Thanks for blurring the plate number, though.

--Erika D. Smith

IndyCAN Employs Alinsky-Like Tactics To Push Mass Transit

President Barack Obama and his media guru David Axelrod mastered the art of astroturfing to force a political agenda backed by a radical few on the masses. Neither Obama nor Axelrod invented astroturfing. They took it from the playbook of Saul Alinsky, the radical leftist Chicago community organizer who taught the art of using psychological warfare and deception to manipulate the unsuspecting of supporting a radical socialist agenda. The proponents of mass transit have thrown money at an organization called IndyCAN, which falsely represents itself as the true representatives of Indianapolis' faith-based community. Fellow blogger Paul Ogden writes about how IndyCAN held a public event last night that was billed as a public conversation on mass transit for the benefit of State Sen. Mike Delph, which in reality was nothing more than a staged event that permitted only one side of the mass transit to be heard. Here's a little of what Ogden described:

Tonight I had the chance to attend the IndyCAN meeting at the Pilgrim Lutheran Church in Carmel with State Senator Mike Delph as the special guest. IndyCAN bills itself as "an alliance of congregations representing tens of thousands of families across Marion County that develops the capacity of ordinary people to improve the quality of life and expand opportunities for families in the Indianapolis Metropolitan region." . . .  

What Senator Delph may have learned tonight is that there are people out there who are more than willing to misuse their religious faith and their leadership positions in churches to advance their pet political causes by falsely claiming those causes have to do with "social justice."  

Senator Delph was led to believe that the meeting with IndyCAN would be an informational meeting, an opportunity to learn each other's positions. IndyCAN clearly had no intention of being involved in that type of meeting. It packed the hall with its supporters and invited the media. Then it proceeded with a tightly scripted agenda to make sure only one side of the issue was presented.

Ogden says the meeting was conducted by the pastor of a Lutheran Church in Carmel who claimed that IndyCAN represented tens of thousands of church members. Ogden noted that his own St. Monica's Catholic Church parish was listed as a supporter. "I don't recall being asked at Mass whether we parishioners support IndyCAN or a massive expansion of mass transit paid for, in part, with a 19% increase in the local income tax," Ogden observed . . . "I think people attending those churches identified by IndyCAN as supporters would be furious at the false representation that they support IndyCAN and its agenda, including mass transit." This is a typical method of deception employed by Alinsky. Check that one off.

Ogden describes how IndyCAN then presented testimonies from three persons who were supposedly victims of the lack of a comprehensive mass transit. Typically, Alinsky taught his supporters to use paid actors to stand up and provide heart-wrenching accounts to tug at the hearts of the masses to support the agenda you are pushing. Check that one off. Next came a Power Point presentation based on a supposedly reliable research report. "It consisted of a Power Point presentation which failed to actually include any statistics having to do with mass transit," Ogden writes. "The only statistics mentioned involved poverty and, strangely, statewide versus national unemployment." The imagery is clear. Equate poverty to the lack of mass transit. Check off that Alinsky tactic.

Finally, IndyCAN's invited guest, Sen. Delph, was given the opportunity to speak--for only five minutes. Here's how Ogden describes Delph's presentation and the IndyCAN supporter's rude reaction to his comments.

Senator Delph stated he was surprised by the presence of the media and that it was not the type of meeting he had expected. The Senator noted that his father was near death in a hospice in Florida but he had delayed flying out until after the IndyCAN meeting out of respect for the organization. (Senator Delph said he would be missing the committee vote on mass transit on Tuesday because he'd be with his father.) Moving on to the issue of mass transit, Senator Delph talked about the fact that surveys in his district showed 54% did not support the expansion. He pointed out that the anecdotal evidence IndyCAN didn't support the massive expansion of mass transit proposed by the bill. Very quickly though Senator Delph's five minutes were up and he had to sit down.  

An IndyCAN representative though wasn't done with Senator Delph. He demanded to know if the Senator would support the mass transit bill. The Senator said he would not support a state wide tax increase for mass transit and would wait to see the final version of the bill before deciding whether to vote for it. People, supposedly Christians, in the audience began to jeer Senator Delph and interrupt him. The IndyCAN representative again demanded to know whether Senator Delph would support mass transit. When he received the same answer, the presenter simply stated (falsely) that Senator Delph promised to support mass transit.

When your opponents don't agree with your view, Alinsky taught his followers to get in your opponent's face. Do everything you can to marginalize and demonize him. Check off another Alinsky tactic.

The last part of the program was a time for questions and answers, but as Ogden noted, the only questions that were permitted to be asked were the pre-scripted, pro mass transit questions. Other persons in the audience who came to the event who wanted to ask questions were cut off and told the program was being concluded. To their dismay, Sen. Delph stayed behind and answered questions until midnight. Here's how Ogden summed up the meeting.

The conduct of many of the IndyCAN members was utterly reprehensible and very unchristian. They were bullies who were not in the slightest bit interested in an honest exchange of ideas. Those who put on the meeting were especially at fault for the dishonest way in which they ran it. They weren't interested in a meeting in which both sides got heard. They had put on the meeting to set up Senator Delph, to put him in a position, in front of a room full of people with the media present in which he would feel so much pressure he'd pledge to support the mass transit bill. What a thoroughly disgusting tactic. Members of IndyCAN should be ashamed of what their leaders tried to pull Monday night.

I can't say that I'm surprised by how IndyCAN approached this meeting. If we actually had a media in this town that was interested in presenting both sides of the debate, a good investigative reporter might dig into IndyCAN's finances and who is bankrolling its efforts to lobby for mass trass transit. People who belong to these churches need to take church leaders to task who are misrepresenting their congregation's support of mass transit. These churches do not have official positions on mass transit. I have heard lots of people who attend various Catholic Church parishes in Indianapolis complain about political activism by their priests and their use of the pulpit to push political views down their throats during church services. Fellow blogger Ruth Holladay has written about this happening at her parish as well.

Alleged Colorado Shooter Released From Prison Four Years Early Due To Clerical Mistake

The white supremacist who Colorado law enforcement officials believe was responsible for the shooting death of the state's prison chief Tom Clements should have remained in prison at least another four years. It turns out that a clerical error in recording a judge's sentence allowed Evan Ebel out of prison four years earlier than what was supposed to be his scheduled release date. In 2008, a judge tacked four more years on to the original 8-year sentence Ebel was serving after he was found guilty of assaulting a corrections officer, but the court's staff entered the sentence to be served by Ebel concurrently rather than consecutively. Following his release, police believe that Ebel went on a shooting spree that included as his victims Clements and a pizza delivery man, Nathan Leon. The Denver Post reports on the court's apology for the error:

The mistake allowed Ebel to be released from prison on Jan. 28 without serving any additional time for a 2008 conviction for assaulting a prison guard, despite the terms of a plea agreement.

The April 2008 agreement called for Ebel to serve a consecutive prison term of four years — after completing an eight-year stint — for slipping out of handcuffs and punching the corrections officer on Nov. 27, 2006.

Judge David M. Thorson announced the sentence at a June 2008 hearing but did not specify that it was to be served consecutively.

That led to prison officials imposing a sentence that was concurrent, meaning Ebel served no additional time for the conviction.

"Because the judge did not expressly state that the sentence was consecutive, the court judicial assistant did not include that term in the mittimus, the sentence order that went to the Department of Corrections," 11th Judicial District Administrator Walter Blair wrote in a statement. "The court regrets this oversight and extends condolences to the families of Mr. Nathan Leon and Mr. Tom Clements."

This is just the latest is a string of odd twists. During a press conference following Clements' death, the man who appointed him as the state's chief prison chief, Gov. John Hickenlooper, recounted how he had discussed with Clements the need to reform the state's prison system and, in particular, the governor mentioned a conversation he had with him about the problems a friend's son had experienced in being placed unnecessarily in solitary confinement for long periods of time. It turned out that the friend's son was Clements' alleged killer, Evan Ebel. Ebel's father, Jack, is a Colorado attorney who had been friends with the governor for more than 20 years and a contributor to his political campaign.

When Hickenlooper was confronted by a news TV news reporter about his relationship with Ebel's father and questioned about whether his relationship with him had played any role in Ebel's early release from prison, the governor became very angry and threatened to cut off the reporter's future access to his office. As a result of a 2011 law supported by the governor and Clements, Ebel's sentence was shortened an additional four months for good time credit for the time he spent in solitary confinement. Before the 2011 law, prisoners were not allowed good time credit for time they spent in administrative segregation. Ebel, who has just recently been released from prison for his original 8-year sentence, would have still been in prison at the time of killings had the 2011 law not been enacted according to the Denver Post.

An assessment report prepared prior to his release noted that Ebel had been a problem inmate with a high propensity to be a recidivist offender. In addition to threatening to kill the corrections officer he was convicted of assaulting, the report noted that he had threatened to kill staff members in two different prisons. "Ebel a member of the white supremacist 211 Crew, was disciplined in prison 10 times for verbal abuse, twice for disobeying staff orders, four times for assault and three time for fighting, the records show" according to the Post. "He repeatedly attacked staff and other inmates with his own feces," the Post added. Ebel was shot and killed during a shootout with Texas law enforcement officers after his car crashed following a high-speed chase with police, who were attempting to stop Ebel because the car he was driving matched the description of a car spotted near the scene of Clements and Leon's killings in Colorado.

Gary City Council Member Agrees To Plead Guilty To Federal Tax Evasion Charges

Gary city councilwoman Marilyn Krusas has admitted that she failed to file a federal income tax return since 1991, or to pay taxes on more than $232,000 in money she inherited, according to federal prosecutors. Under a plea agreement Krusas reached with federal prosecutors reported by the Northwest Indiana Times, she will admit to failing to pay between $80,000 and $200,000 in federal income taxes. If the federal judge in the case accepts her guilty plea to one felony charge of income tax evasion, she will be forced to forfeit her seat on the council, which she has held since 2000.

More On Mass Avenue Economic Improvement District

I previously told you about organized opposition that has been mounted by some Mass Avenue business owners who don't want to see an economic improvement district formed within the business district. As a first step in attaining the EID designation that would allow for the creation of the special taxing district, the proponents must first win the approval of property owners representing at least 50% of the assessed valued within the proposed taxing district. At that point, it would go before the City-County Council for final approval.

One complaint of the opponents is the lack of a clear vision on how tax revenues generated by the EID would be spent. Advance Indiana has obtained a very broad, tentative budget outline that would allocate revenues from the proposed district within the following parameters:

Capital Improvements (30% to 50%)
Economic Development (15% to 25%)
Streetscape and Enhanced Maintenance (20% to 40%)
Administration (10% to 20%)

The two major stakeholders within the proposed taxing district pushing the hardest for the EID's approval is the Riley Area Development Corporation, which would be responsible for handling administrative-related costs for the EID, and the Athenaeum Foundation. RADC is already the beneficiary of an annual grant that has been awarded to the business district to maintain landscaping within the business district. The principal of Schmidt & Associates, Wayne Schmidt, has done a great deal of the planning behind the EID. One of the opponents noted Schmidt's firm plans to bill the EID $30,000 for its pre-planning services related to the EID if it is successfully created.

Opponents of the EID fear that the new taxing district will be controlled by a clique that will include representatives of two nonprofits which don't currently pay any property taxes, RADC and the Athenaeum Foundation. Schmidt & Associates Sarah Hempstead is the current president of RADC, while Wayne Schmidt serves as Vice President of the Athenaeum Foundation. The opponents complain that the proponents have been continually redrawing the boundaries of the district in a way that ensures they will reach the magical number it needs to petition the council for approval of the special taxing district.

If the Mass Ave business district is successful in creating an EID, this could become a popular trend that will spread to other communities throughout the city and around the state. Although the law permitting EIDs has been on the books for a number of years, the economic development tool has been rarely used to date.