JG Fully Supports Mayor’s Proposed Budget
I’m sure it comes as no surprise that the JG editorial staff is lock, stock and barrel behind the mayor’s 2009 proposed budget:
Mayor Tom Henry submitted his first budget to the City Council on Wednesday – a sound one given the challenging fiscal situation facing Fort Wayne. The $134 million 2009 budget includes just a slight increase over 2008. Henry owes much of his success in drafting a sound and restrained 2009 budget to his predecessor and to the skill of the soon-to-depart city controller, Pat Roller.
I think I just threw up in my mouth. If this budget is a “success” then I would hate to see failure. There is absolutely no doubt that adoption of this budget will lead to a doubling of income taxes. Even the JG editorial staff hints at this reality:
Sooner rather than later, city leaders will need to make a decision about adopting a local option income tax, or LOIT, to replace revenue from property taxes.
[...]
The city’s budget is only going to get tighter. In 2009, the cuts were not too deep, but in 2010 there will need to be a more drastic decrease in spending as a result of the property tax relief granted by the legislature. City leaders and residents need to prepare themselves to make those tough choices soon.
So let’s get this straight. We’re facing a revenue shortfall of historic proportions in 2010 and yet this budget is sound even though it actually increases spending? Brilliant! Of course this editorial board has supported every single other tax increase so what’s one more right?
Souder Now In Serious Trouble
Democratic 3rd District Congressional nominee Mike Montagano was upgraded from the DCCC’s emerging races list onto their Red to Blue List. This is a big deal. During the 2006 cycle, the DCCC Red to Blue campaign raised over $22 million and candidates on the list received an average of over $400k. Only the top-tier races make this list - the ones the party thinks are the most winnable.
This will likely give Montagano the funding needed to counter the Souder smear campaign over the next month…
A Quick Thought On The Mother Of All Bailouts
A group of prominent CEOs and their investors raked in all the rewards during the mortgage boom but now that the risk has showed up we’re supposed to take that off their hands? Typical “free market” economics.
If a company can get “too big to fail” then the government might want to consider not letting that company get that big in the first place. Or they could always just let it fail. But they can’t have it both ways…
Editorial in the Sunday Journal Gazette
I still get the Sunday newspaper because my wife likes the ads…
That being said I read the editorial and it was another socialist rant about income redistribution.
The first part of the piece is interesting; however, the final three paragraphs are just completely socialist.
It says that in addition to using taxpayer money to bail out the biggest corporations that helped cause the mess, the Government - particularly Congress - should examine ways to use the tax codes to help Americans who need it most.”
There are two appalling but typical statements from the JG in this quote.
First they support bailing out the very corporations who cause this mess. That is irresponsible and does not fix ANY of the core problems. In fact it rewards poor behavior and costs future generations trillions of dollars once interest is factored in.
Second they want to make the US tax code even more complicated and want it to be used to re-distribute wealth even more then it already does.
Third they say “overhauling the Social Security and Medicare payroll tax to exempt lower-income earners and raise the income limit to require higher-salary earners to pay a fairer share would be a good start.”
This would of course end up in even more income re-distribution.
I am sick and tired of socialist ideas. This is America, we are based on capitalism; not socialism.
Mike Sylvester
Summit City Health Care Summit
Dan Jehl of Fort Wayne Public 1 has spent a tremendous amount of time organizing the upcoming Health Care Summit and, based on the agenda, it looks like he’s done a fantastic job.
SUMMIT CITY HEALTH CARE SUMMIT
This health awareness forum is sponsored by Public 1, Inc. and cooperating community Sponsors including Parkview Hospitals, St. Joseph’s Health Foundation, Lutheran Hospitals, University of St. Francis, Ivy Tech, IPFW, etc.
September 24 Downtown Public Library Free Admission
MORNING SESSION
9:00 a.m. Welcome and Introduction, Karen Goldner (D-2), FW City Council
9:10-10:00 The Health of the Nation, Dr. Jon Walker, Practicing Physician with Allen County Retinal Surgeons, National Physicians for Health Care, and recent winner of Fort Wayne Business Weekly’s Healthcare Heroes Award
10-10:30 Behavioral and Mental Health and the Community, Paul Wilson, CEO, Park Center, Fort Wayne, Decatur, and Bluffton
10:45-11:30 a.m. Community Health and Programs of Fort Wayne and Allen County, Deborah McMahan, M.D., Director, Fort Wayne City-County Health Department
Note: The State of Indiana Office of Medicaid, a patient advocate from Matthew 25, and Lutheran Hospitals will be present at community resource/ information tables, with information on city, county, community, and state health resources.
******************************************************************
NOON SESSION Noon-1:00 PM
The Present and Future of the Fort Wayne VA Hospital and Medical Center
Moderator: Charlotte Weybright, Publisher, Berry Street Beacon, Advocate and Writer on VA
Tom Hayhurst, M.D., Fort Wayne physician and civic leader
Eve Bratton, RN, Veteran’s Hospital and Medical Center, ASK Ministries, and recent Fort Wayne Business Weekly Local Heroes award winner
Rev. Phillip Johnson, Associate Pastor, New Joshua Church, and war veteran
******************************************************************
AFTERNOON SESSION 1:00-2:00 p.m.
Keynote Address: The Health of Hoosiers
Introducer: Allen County Commissioner Linda Bloom
Indiana State Health Commissioner Judy Monroe, M.D.
AFTERNOON SESSION 2:00-3:00 p.m.
Is there a National Solution to Better Health and Healthcare for All?
Woody Myers, M.D., former State Health Commissioner, representing the Sen. Barack Obama Campaign
Rep. Matt Bell, representing the Sen. John McCain Campaign
Julia Vaughn, Healthcare Policy Consultant , Citizen Action Coalition of Indiana
Another post from Daily Kos I have to agree with
Two posts from Daily Kos I agree with in one day.
This one is from Hunter and you should read the post.
I want to state that I am 100% against the bailout package being considered in Congress. It is absurd. It is socialist. It forces the taxpayers to bail out companies that have made massive profits and taken excessive risks.
First of all the bailout does not fix anything; instead, it forces the taxpayers to bail out companies that have made mistakes. It does not fix the core problems.
Second of all the bailout will cost the taxpayers between 700 billion and two trillion depending on the final package. I feel that it will likely cost us at least 1.2 trillion dollars so I will use that figure.
This 1.2 trillion would be used to buy up toxic debt and save Wall Street firms from imminent failure. This is what the idiots in Congress are currently considering.
I agree with Hunter over at Daily Kos. I would rather see this money printed by The Treasury and directly mailed to the taxpayers. I do not want to see a dime spent on Wall Street.
The IRS has estimated that 130 million taxpayers will get an economic stimulus payment in 2008 (Most already have it). If we were to remove the income limits and just mail new bailout stimulus payments to all taxpayers regardless of income and regardless of the number of children they have we would be sending checks to about 150 million Americans.
If we spent the same 1.2 trillion Congress wants to waste on Wall Street then each taxpayer would get a check for $8000 in the next few weeks.
Taxpayers would then take those checks and spend them.
This would most likely have a much stronger effect on the economy then what Congress is considering.
Taxpayers would most likely choose to spend their bailout stimulus checks to catch up their mortgage payments. This would allow many Americans to stay in their homes for at least a year longer. This would allow many Americans to catch up on late bills and pay some of their credit card debt. It would allow many Americans who are behind on their car payments to catch up on their car payments. This would result in Americans removed debt from their personal balance sheets and these payments would shore up the balance sheets of Wall Street firms as well.
Many Americans also would likely save some of this money and this would shore up the banking deposits and hence reserves.
This plan certainly stimulates the economy and it would put money into the banks, mortgage companies, finance companies, etc. It would also stimulate consumer spending.
Better yet this plan would send money to every voter and would not send money to those whose failed policies created this mess.
This plan is far more “fair” then what they are currently proposing. At least this way everyone gets some of the money not just Wall Street.
I prefer the bailout plan listed above to the one being considered by Congress.
That being said I 100% oppose the bailout plan being considered by Congress. I also would oppose the bailout plan listed in this post; however, it would be a far better plan then the one being considered by Congress.
If either Democrats or Republicans embraced the plan I denoted in this post and passed it through Congress they would win the next election in my opinion.
What do you think?
Mike Sylvester
FWP Polling
We’re going to try putting polling questions up in the right sidebar underneath the local blogosphere widget. These polls will typically deal with local policies and politicians. I understand this isn’t a scientific sampling of the entire community, but I thought it might give us an interesting insight into the demographics of FWP readers.
So if you’re reading this then please take 5 seconds to vote in the current poll. I’m not sure how often we’ll update the question - I suppose it depends on how many people vote…
JG Editorial Staff Needs A Refresher On Journalism Standards & Ethics
It’s well known that the JG does not recognize blogs as a source of information for any of their reporting. They justify this with a policy that says if they can independently verify the information then there is no need to cite the original source. I can understand this in respect to their competitors. Frankly it would be a little ridiculous if all the local traditional media outlets were constantly saying “as reported at WANE (or WOWO or JG, etc).”
I think this policy fails to address the unique situation of blogs as we are not competitors but that is neither here nor there in regards to the real point of this post. What cannot be disputed is that if you lift a quote from another news source then you should absolutely attribute that information - no exceptions. Just so everybody is on the same page here was a quote from an editorial in today’s JG:
The chorus of Harrison Square critics already has chimed in on local blog sites, vowing to take its health care dollars elsewhere: “I sure will avoid any Parkview visits during the rest of my life – and you should too!” wrote one of the critics.
First of all that wasn’t written on “local blog sites” - it was written right here by John Kalb. But more importantly the JG has lifted an exact quote from another news source and didn’t bother to cite the source of the quote. How do readers know that the editorial staff didn’t just make it up?
If the JG wants to ignore blogs then go ahead and ignore us but don’t lift quotes from us and not give them proper attribution - it’s petty and in my opinion completely unethical.
Huge surplus of office space available for lease in Fort Wayne
The Fort Wayne Business Weekly has an interesting piece by Linda Lipp in the most recent edition. The article is entitled “Report says ’huge supply’ of suburban space available.
As many of you know my wife and I recently expanded ourpublic accounting firm. Early last year we spent a fair amount of time looking at existing office space for a suitable location. We wanted the office to be in a commercial space that was within five miles of our house; preferably within two miles of our house. We had several other requirements including that we wanted to own the space and not rent or lease the space since we plan on running our public accounting firm here for at least the next 20 years.
We looked at a house that was in a good location and we had a couple of contractors come in an give us estimates on what it would cost to renovate the house. We also looked at existing office space for sale. In the end we had a new office built per our specifications since it was cheaper…
The report quoted in the FWBW states that 35.8% of the existing office space for lease in Fort Wayne is vacant. That is a huge number! I believe that number based on all of the for rent and for lease signs I see as I drive around Fort Wayne.
The article says that per the report: “Because there is no overbuilding; however, the report predicted the supply should be in balance in one or two years.”
Really?
First of all there is some “overbuilding” going on in Fort Wayne; however, not as much as is normal. Case in point the office I own is part of an office condominium. I own about 1/4 of the building and the other 3/4 of the building is just a shell. It will be a shell until someone either buys it or leases it for several years so the owner will build another space out. So the office space I built last year was “overbuilt” and has space for up to three additional units.
I do not see how it is possible that in the next year or two all of this excess office space could possibly be leased; however, I certainly hope I am wrong!
Mike Sylvester
Local blogger seems to dislike Sarah Palin intensely
There have been numerous posts on this blog concerning the Republican VP, Sarah Palin. Some of the posts have been favorable to Sarah and others have been less favorable.
These posts have elicited huge numbers of comments from many readers of this blog.
It is obvious that the readers of this blog have widely varying views about Sarah Palin and that is to be expected. Most of the comments on this blog are well thought out and contain few, if any, personal attacks.
For example, Jeff Pruitt and I strongly disagree strongly about Sarah Palin; however, we have not resorted to calling each other names or attacking each other due to this difference of opinion.
I was reading another local blog, Fort Wayne News, when I came across a link to another local blog called Aint that Sherific. After watching Sarah Palin’s acceptance speech this week Sheri came to a much different conclusion about Sarah Palin then I have come to. You can learn more about Sheri’s opinion here.
Sheri is certainly entitled to her own opinion and America is a land where freedom of expression is protected; however, I think she could do better at critiquing Sarah Palin…
Mike Sylvester
