Indiana House of Representatives taking lessons from California
As most of you know the state of California is in dire financial trouble. They have consistently had massive annual budget deficits (Similar to our Federal Government) and they have raised taxes and fees to the point that many businesses have fled California.
Indiana realistically has a business climate that is middle of the road as far as the taxes and fees businesses have to pay.
That being said the Indiana Unemployment Fund is in dire shape. I 100% oppose the Unemployment Insurance program as it exists in the United States. I feel that it is unfair to tax businesses so that employees who lose their jobs can be paid unemployment benefits. I feel that if an employee wants unemployment insurance they should go to a private insurance company and purchase their own insurance.
The Latest Boneheaded Bank Bailout Idea
Will the insanity ever end? This one must’ve come from Larry Summers, you know the former Clinton Treasury Secretary that is largely responsible for the financial mess we’re in. Why is he the President’s top economic advisor anyway? The guy isn’t qualified to run a lemonade stand based on his track record of deregulation and “free trade” policies. But I digress.
The latest scheme is couched in the idea that we’re going to “help homeowners” buy renegotiating their mortgages to the tune of $50 Billion:
Citigroup, JPMorgan Chase and Morgan Stanley said they had placed a moratorium on foreclosing on some home loans to give the government time to launch a $50 billion mortgage relief program.
[...]
Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner Tuesday announced a plan to stabilize the financial system. One element of the plan is $50 billion of assistance to “prevent avoidable foreclosures” of middle-class homes occupied by their owners, according to a document Geithner released.The Obama plan under consideration would seek to help homeowners before they fall into arrears on their loans. Current programs only assist borrowers that are already delinquent.
What are they even talking about? The government is going to come up with a magic formula that decides when a person might be in trouble before they are actually in trouble? Give me a break.
Let me explain how this will actually work. The government will reappraise the house and it will be worth 40% less. They will then send a check to the bank to pay down 40% of the principle on the loan. This is a massive giveaway to insolvent banks. They will immediately purge $50 Billion of toxic assets off their books and put them right onto the backs of taxpayers.
Of course the program will be sold as “helping working families” but that’s bullshit. This is all about finding new ways to hand money over to banks that are completely 100% bankrupt.
President Obama’s economic team is not Change I Can Believe In. It’s the same Clinton hacks that have been looting the treasury for the last 15 years. Get rid of these clowns…
Harrison Square Renegotiation
On Tuesday I spoke before city council and requested the city sit down with Hardball Capital to renegotiate the stadium agreement. The reason is quite simple - basic fairness. The city has done everything required of it in the contract and Hardball Capital has done essentially nothing. I think it would be a token of goodwill for HC to give a few concessions related to utilities, ticket sales, etc.
Unfortunately Mayor Henry, councilman Time Pape, and others are clouding the issue by suggesting that litigation or major contract enforcement - something I am not advocating for - is counterproductive:
Developers say they remain committed to the behind-schedule projects, but some have criticized the city for not doing more to contractually assure their timely performance by the developers. But Henry said penalizing the city’s private partners now might do more harm than good.
“We have fall-back positions, certainly,” he said “But what does that get us, really?”
I’m not asking for penalties. What I am asking for is for the mayor and city council to represent the taxpayers and renegotiate this contract based on each party’s current financial commitment.
Does anyone actually believe that we would’ve handed away the ticket revenue, paid for all utilities, naming rights, etc if Hardball Capital’s investment was going to be essentially nil? Of course not. I’m not saying we have to scrap the current contract; when HC fulfills their obligations then we can honor the full contract but in the meantime the taxpayers deserve some concessions…
State of the City Address
I just returned from the mayor’s annual state of the city speech and thought I’d share my thoughts. First, let me just say that this speech was a major improvement over last year. The text itself was better and Mayor Henry’s delivery was more relaxed. Last year there were no applause lines and it made for a very uncomfortable presentation. Also, the mayor was almost reading the paper in front of him at times and left me wondering if he’d even practiced it before having to deliver it in public. No such awkwardness this year.
No need to rehash the details as you can read the full speech here or catch the replay on City TV tonight at 8:30pm. One of the things that stood out to me is that the mayor seems to be fully behind the expansion of gaming. He hedged this a little bit during the speech but I think it was clear that he supports it. Here was part of his speech on gaming:
Welcome to Governing Mr Mayor
On October 3, 2008 I recognized (as did nearly everyone else) that Harrison Square was floundering and in need of immediate leadership from local government. Here was my suggestion:
We’re at a tipping point for this project and a failure to recognize that could have drastic consequences.
[...]
It wouldn’t hurt if Mayor Henry would convene a roundtable with local banks and Barry Real Estate to try and negotiate some sort of financing that keeps everything on track. Any more delay could put the entire project in serious jeopardy.
From the mayor himself [via What's Going Down(town)] albeit 4 months down the road:
“Henry said the city may try to coordinate the effort to obtain financing for the projects by bringing a pool of potential lenders to the table.
Welcome back Mr Mayor! When you drop the PR shenanigans and start dealing with reality you might be surprised what can be accomplished. I hope he’s sincere about this as this would be a drastic and much needed change in policy. It’s ok to admit that the previous administration stuck you with some real lemon projects - just find a way to move forward…
Wayne Township’s Inefficient Bureaucracy
If you didn’t see Marilyn Moran-Thompson’s op-ed piece then you should take the time to read it. She uses our very own Wayne Township as an example to illustrate the inefficiencies in township government:
Nowhere is the need to overhaul poor relief more evident than in Wayne Township, where the trustee’s office distributed more than $1.8 million in emergency assistance in 2007 but spent more than $3.6 million to administer it. That means that $2 was spent on overhead for every $1 distributed in poor relief. That’s unconscionable.
Well if the 2007 numbers look bad wait until you see the 2008 numbers:
| 840 Assistance Fund | 2006 | 2007 | 2008 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Admin Costs | 2,180,458 | 3,695,246 | 4,274,819 |
| Direct Assistance | 1,388,128 | 1,817,846 | 1,508,565 |
| Ratio | 1.57 | 2.03 | 2.83 |
Just look at the growing ratio of administration costs to assistance costs. Can you imagine the uproar if any of the national charities only doled out $1 for every $4 collected? Now perhaps there’s a good explanation for this but the numbers by themselves look quite embarrassing for Wayne Township.
Of course this is exactly what advisory board member Maria Parra was trying to fix when she was criticized by the other board members, the board attorney, party leaders and a local newspaper. So what do they have to say now? They accused her of grandstanding during an election cycle but it sure likes Parra was right to demand some accountability.
So will the township trustee Rick Stevenson and advisory board account for their growing inefficiencies? Will they allow Maria Parra and others to try and remedy the situation? Or will these ratios continue to balloon into numbers so large they become unsustainable? That can’t be far away…
Information Flow
From the most recent animal care and control press release (emphasis mine):
The Animal Care and Control Commission is a politically appointed body required to notify the MEDIA of meeting dates, times, and locations according to public meeting laws. All commission meetings are open to the public. On behalf of the Commission, I have listed their next meeting date below.
February 11, 2009 at 4:15 p.m. at Animal Care & Control, 3020 Hillegas Road
Funny, I though the public meeting laws were in place to inform the PUBLIC not just that tiny subset of the population which labels themselves media…
I am sick of hearing about tax cuts…
As most of you know I believe the Government is far too large. I am a fiscal conservative and I expect my government to spend less then they have.
Unfortunately for my family and future generations of Americans both of our major political parties seem to want to cut taxes while at the same time increasing spending.
This is a recipe for disaster.
The Democrats have repeatedly attacked the Republicans for enacting tax cuts; however, now that they are in power they are considering making 250 billion to 350 billion in tax cuts to stimulate the economy. The Republicans want to cut taxes even further than the Democrats want to.
The national debt on a cash basis is over ten trillion dollars. On an accrual basis the national debt is about 75 trillion dollars.
Now is not the time to cut taxes. Now is the time to cut spending.
Our government has overspent for decades and it absolutely must stop.
Mike Sylvester
Why on Earth do Democrats think we need a stimulus package?
It is becoming more and more obvious that the National Democratic Party does not understand simple economics; nor do they seem to understand why then won the 2008 elections so decisively.
Barack Obama won the Presidency fairly easily. He won on a platform promising change. Unfortunately; rather then promoting change he is using the same tactics the Bush Administration used to pass The Patriot Act and the TARP bill. President Obama is making absurd comparisons to the current economic conditions and The Great Depression; he is continually attempting to use the “Fear Tactics” the Bush Administration successfully used to pass unpopular legislation.
United States needs more effective usury laws
As most of you know I prepare tax returns for a living. Today I received quite a shock.
Lenders report interest paid to them on home loans on a form 1098. Also on the 1098 forms are the mortgage insurance premiums that people pay.
Mortgage Insurance Premiums (Also known as PMI) have a relatively sordid history that I will not go into for this post.
Basically lenders used to require borrowers to make a down payment of at least 20%. Decades ago lenders got away from that policy and that is largely what has caused the housing collapse that we have experienced in the last year.
