Godzilla In the County IT Director’s Office
In the Clifford Clarke thread there was some talk about the county IT director’s Godzilla toy in his office. Well this photo was sent to me today…
Godzilla and friend found on County IT Director's Desk
Holmestead Acres Resident Looking For Handout
In Wednesday’s NS there was a letter to the editor that really got under my skin. The author of the letter suggests the Canyon Cliffs developers are right to sue the individual plan commission members for not rubber-stamping their plans. But that’s not the part that irritated me - it was his insistence that somehow the taxpayers are obligated to bailout residents in Holmestead Acres because they have a failing septic system:
The Plan Commission committed an equal injustice to our need for a sewer system that was to be provided by the Canyon Cliffs development. Repeatedly, we demonstrated the need and willingness to address the public health concern from our current septic collection system. The health department and the regional sewer district both argued in our favor during the hearings.
However, because the Plan Commission felt that illegally blocking the Canyon Cliffs development was more important than addressing a public health concern, they left our subdivision with few avenues to pursue in solving our problem. To make matters worse, Bill Brown and the other county commissioners fired the county grant writer who was our last hope in getting funding for such a project after our defeat at the hands of the Plan Commission.
It’s not my problem you purchased a home with failing septic tank. And I definitely don’t want the city extending sewer services out to the edges of the county to help every resident who made a poor decision. You moved into the county, and you damn well knew there was no sewer services and likely wouldn’t be for a very, very long time. To bitch and moan now that everyone else won’t solve your problem for you is ridiculous.
And to blame the commissioners for getting rid of a grant writer? Surely you jest. The taxpayers should have to pay an increase in property taxes so we can pay somebody to write a grant for you to fix a problem that is all your own? Write your own frickin grant buddy and stop asking everyone else to bail you out for your poor decisions.
What really pisses me off is that the author is probably the type of guy that goes around railing about “big government” while simultaneously looking for his handout. If anyone should be getting sued here it’s YOU - the EPA should sue your ass for letting your failing septic system pollute our creek.
There, I feel better now…
Clifford Clarke Out - No Official Word From the City (UPDATE 2x)
Mitch Harper reports that the city’s Chief Technology Officer, Clifford Clarke, has resigned only a day after the contentious IT contract - one that he played a significant role in developing - was approved by city council. Still no official word from the city - were they even aware of his resignation plans or did this come as a surprise?
Although I strenuously disagreed with Clarke on the IT contract, I want to publicly wish him well. I had the opportunity to interact with Clarke through the Open Government Task Force as well as the Cable Fund Advisory Board. Clifford was a genuine champion of open government initiatives and a solid public servant so good luck to him in his future endeavors…
UPDATE: I have it from a well-placed source that he was in fact asked to resign. I still think it’s a slap in the face to Clifford and all his hard work over years that the city PIO office hasn’t even bothered to send out a press release thanking him for his service…
UPDATE 2X: Mayor Henry’s PIO office says “Clifford is on unpaid leave of absence.”
Indiana Delegates Go Overwhelmingly To Obama (Update)
Although Hillary Clinton won the popular vote the vast majority of Indiana’s national delegates just went to Barack Obama during the floor roll call. The final tally was 75 to Obama and only 6 for Clinton with 4 absent.
As an aside - how the hell do you go to the national convention, especially this one, and be absent for the roll call?
H/T: Karen Goldner
Update: Hillary Clinton just made a motion that the rules be suspended and Barack Obama be made the nominee by acclamation. Obama is now officially the nominee…
Republican senate primary in Alaska
Unfortunately for Alaska, Ted Stevens, the forty year incumbent Republican Senator from Alaska won his primary this year.
I have never liked Ted Stevens because of his stance on earmarks and pork barrel spending. In my mind Ted Stevens is likely one of the two worst Senators in the country (Ted Kennedy has always been number one in my book) and Ted Stevens has somehow served for forty years.
He was recently indicted on several Federal charges and he has been accused of corruption in the past on multiple occasssions.
I am very disappointed that Republican primary voters chose Ted Stevens to be the Republican nominee for the Senate from Alaska this year.
I certainly hope that he is defeated in November.
I support a majority of Republican candidates; however, I will never support Republicans who I feel are corrupt.
Mike Sylvester
Huntington Republicans Raise Taxes
Every community is going through tough times right now. The economy has weakened and HEA 1001 has forced government bodies to cut their budgets. But the Republicans that control Huntington County decided that what the people really needed in this economic environment was a tax increase:
The controversial vote to approve the Local Option Income Tax (LOIT) was approved Monday evening by the Huntington County Council.
Following a lengthy public meeting session with public input, the council voted 5-1 to approve a qualified residential .25 percent LOIT tax for 2009 and voted 5-1 to approve a .1 percent public safety LOIT.
“We don’t want to see a tax as much as anyone else,” Pam Updike, council member said. “But we have tried to cut every budget that we can.”
Unbelievable. Of course Updike isn’t just any old council member. She’s also the Republican county chair, the mayor’s wife and the mayor’s executive assistant. Can you imagine the outrage if mayor Henry hired his wife to be on his staff?
At least she had the courage to vote. John Hacker, incumbent Republican councilman up for re-election, didn’t even show up for the meeting - now that is leadership. The other two Republicans running for council seats didn’t show their face either.
This is just another example that one-party rule breeds incompetence and corruption. Fortunately the voters of Huntington have a choice this election cycle:
Gary Snyder, Democrat candidate for County Council was on hand and voiced his opposition to the LOIT and criticized the city for spending $35,000 on a study “to provide political cover.”
“This is a tax on the hard-working middle class families of Huntington County and what we will pay will be equal to a 100 gallons of gas - who wants to lose a 100 gallons of gas,” Snyder said.
That’s a good question. There’s an old adage that people don’t really care about politics until it hits them in the pocketbook. Well the wallets in Huntington will be noticeably lighter as of October 1st so I guess we’ll see if they start paying attention…
Mitch Daniels most recent initiative
There are a lot of things both to like and to dislike about Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels.
His most recent education proposal is not one of the things that I like about him. It is a socialist proposal.
Mitch Daniels proposes that the State of Indiana should give more college tuition assistance to Hoosiers whose families make below $60,000 per year. He wants to increase aid levels so that the State of Indiana would pay for two years of free tuition at Ivy Tech or the equivalent amount of about $3000 per year to go to another college.
This is a socialist idea.
Why on Earth does Mitch Daniels think that a student who is part of the “mythical” family of four who makes $60,000 per year needs even more financial assistance to go to college? What is wrong with requiring students to get a job and pay for their secondary education? What is wrong with joining the military, reserves, or National Guard to pay for secondary education?
Per the Federal Guidelines a family of four is considered impoverished if they earn $21,200 or less.
The median income of a family of four in Indiana for next fiscal year is $67,897.
I do not feel it is the Indiana Government’s job to help a family that makes almost the median wage send their kids to college.
In fact, I think it is socialist.
Mitch Daniels has two ideas on how to pay for the program described above:
The first idea is to privatize the Hoosier Lottery. This is something he brought up in the past and he is bringing it up again. This is the part of his proposal that seems to indicate that he believes in free enterprise. He basically wants to allow a private company to operate the Hoosier Lottery in exchange for one billion dollars up front and then 200 million dollars annually. When Mitch Daniels proposes this I think he is showing that he believes the private sector can more efficiently operate the Hoosier Lottery then it is currently being operated.
I am not sure if I favor privatizing the Hoosier Lottery or not. It is an interesting idea and I would have to analyze the proposal and its “fine print” in order to determine if I thought it was a good idea; in proposals like this “the devil is in the details.”
His second idea on how to pay for his education initiative is to issue bonds against the growth in lottery revenues. This is a fiscally terrible idea. First of all the Hoosier Lottery revenues are fairly steady and there is not necessarily going to be revenue growth in the Hoosier Lottery. Second of all the money from the Hoosier Lottery has already been promised to various other programs and it is likely those programs will need the revenue from the Hoosier Lottery revenue growth as it is. And third I think it is a terrible idea to issue bonds and have Indiana pay interest on bonds to fund programs like this.
Please read more about Hoosier College Promise.
What do you think?
Voters Need To Send FWCS Lifer Into Involuntary Retirement
FWCS lifetime incumbent Steve Corona officially filed for re-election on Friday. Saturday’s JG story on Corona should remind voters on why it’s time to send him packing. Corona was the president of the board during last year’s remonstrance battle and there was absolutely nobody pushing the $500 million property tax increase more than he was - well except perhaps the JG editorial board.
Only after being resoundingly defeated by the populace has Corona begun to change his tune:
“I think we need to take a look at every significant repair item proposed and justify it and there may be items that we initially thought were essential that may need to be scrapped,”
Gee, that sounds a lot like what Evert Mol, Jon Olinger and the entire Code Blue group was saying last year. Of course at that time Corona not only wouldn’t listen, but was also steadfast in his opposition to any reasonable compromise including a scaled down $300 million project that he voted against. He later went on to say that knowing then what he knows now he would’ve supported it - you think?
Now he’s once again teaming up with the leader of the Yellow Petition drive group to put forth a new plan. When Steve Corona and John Pierce team up taxpayers had better grab their wallet:
My Take On Biden
As a resident Democrat I feel like I should give my take on Obama’s selection of Joe Biden as his VP choice. I think this was an extremely shrewd political decision. Let’s be honest here, had Obama picked an outsider like Kaine or Schweitzer or Sebelius he would’ve opened his campaign up to constant attacks of “inexperience” and “foreign policy naiveté”.
The Biden choice shores that up. So now what we hear is the opposite, with Republicans (and some Democrats) lamenting that Biden is not an agent of “Change”. To that I say - who cares. Biden is the kind of guy with experience to make change happen. And Obama is enough “change” for the entire ticket. Is McCain really going to argue that he and his eventual running mate represents more change than Obama-Biden? Hardly.
His #1 talking point has always been “experience”. The Biden choice doesn’t completely neutralize that but it doesn’t reinforce it either like some of the other candidates would’ve done. And I must respectfully disagree with Mike Sylvester when he says Biden “represents the Washington DC establishment.” The guy has taken the Amtrak train from DC to his home every night to be with his family - name me one other senator that’s done that.
Biden gave a great VP speech today. If he continues to beat up McCain like that then he will be worth his weight in gold to the Obama campaign. He also brings a strong white middle class voice to the ticket - and it’s 100% authentic. Obviously that’s a demographic Obama hasn’t been the strongest with.
All in all a solid pick by the Obama campaign. And the way they manipulated the media this week into non-stop coverage of “Who will he pick” was nothing short of brilliant…
Barack Obama chooses Delaware Senator Joe Biden to be his VP
As readers of this blog know I will not be voting for Barack Obama for President. I currently plan on voting for Libertarian Bob Barr for President since I cannot bring myself to vote for Obama or McCain.
That being said I am very surprised that Barack Obama chose Joe Biden as his running mate.
Barack’s entire campaign has been about “change.” He has successfully ran a campaign with its main premise being that Washington DC needs “change.”
That being said he has chosen a Vice Presidential candidate who represents the Washington DC establishment. Joe Biden has been a member of the US Senate since 1972.
Joe Biden’s personal background is one that seems typical for a US Senator:
He was born in 1942. Rather than serve in Viet-Nam he went to college as a traditional college student and became a trial lawyer.
He spent four years as a trial lawyer and has been a US Senator for the last 36 years…
I think Obama made a terrible choice.
That being said I think it is very possible that McCain will make an equally poor choice…
Mike Sylvester
