Editorials

Housing prisoners and fighting crime are just the types of jobs local governments need money to do, especially when they aren’t getting paid as they should for their services.

Lawmakers must seek to balance the needs of local government with what it’s fair to ask the public to pay.

We don’t see a need to inject more politics into school boards.

But it’s not the best solution. What the Hogsett administration would most like to see—and IBJ has endorsed—is a change in a state road-funding formula that currently favors rural communities over urban and suburban ones.

Residents need to get to school and to work and to the grocery store—safely. That is a core responsibility of government.

Rather than simply wiping regulations off the books without analysis, Gov. Mike Braun is urging agencies to review ways to simplify the rules, eliminate those that don’t apply to public safety and make the regulatory process more efficient and affordable.

If lawmakers decide that property taxes should be reduced—which is an argument for another day—there are ways to do it without undermining a system that was meant to inject fairness among payers. Lawmakers should focus their energy on those solutions.

There are many lessons in Carter’s work, but two things stand out. One is that Carter lived his later life with intention, and the second is that the activities he chose were aimed at helping others.

Another win for LEAP and more accountability by public officials are on our wish list.

The moves—if fully implemented—will strip some authority away from Indiana’s lieutenant governor.

Central Indiana is full of places to buy amazing gifts, whether your friends or loved ones are looking for something practical or they’re after something special.

Promoting leaders accused of harassment and other problems turns people away from government institutions. Our elected officials—from both parties and at all levels of government—must do better.

The federal government should keep the commitments it has made under the CHIPS Act—and look for new ways to make the U.S. more competitive.

Preparing the Indiana workforce, increasing direct foreign investment and developing a future-focused energy plan are among the issues the new governor should tackle.

It will be easy to get caught up in the emotion of the moment and forget that when this election is settled, regardless of who wins, we will all go back to our Thanksgiving tables and holiday celebrations, to the board room or the break room, to sharing space at restaurants and at Pacers games and—in what might be most difficult of all—on Facebook and LinkedIn and other social media sites.

The trails and the state park expansion—along with other regional projects, some funded by the state’s Regional Economic Acceleration and Development Initiative program—or READI grants—have provided a great start. Let’s look for even more ways to expand these opportunities.

Even in presidential election years like this one—when voter buzz is at its peak—Indiana still routinely has some of the lowest voter turnout rates in the nation.

But the financial commitment by other cities of similar size shows that Indy still has a long way to go in providing adequate support.