Earlier this week, Jill Long Thompson, who is running for the Democratic nomination for governor, said Gov.
Mitch Danielsâ?? approach to economic development has focused on individual companies to the detriment of big-picture
policy changes that could improve the…
A new report by a Washington, D.C., think tank shows 25 states expect budget shortfalls in their 2009 fiscal
years. Illinois and Kentucky are on the list issued by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, but Indiana
isnâ??tâ??at least…
Remember the main reason behind the property-tax-reform drive when we started the session? If the anti-propertytax rallies across the state last summer and fall made lawmakers uneasy, the Indianapolis mayoral election result was a slap across the face. They were awakened to the reality that, but for a vote on tax reform, that, too, could be them. The political imperative was overwhelming, as lawmakers feared the worst come primary time. Even if they were to survive an intra-party election, they…
Several local entities, ranging from St. Vincent Indianapolis Hospital to the state of Indiana to Indianapolis Public Schools, last year experienced wellpublicized electronic security breaches involving confidential data. While the victims of the lapses and those at fault emerged relatively unscathed, such incidents underscore the ease in which personal information can be lost or stolen in today’s computerized world. With roughly 165 million people tapping into to the Internet nationally, the opportunities for security breaches are plentiful. Throw in the…
A bill that would have removed hurdles to state and local prosecution of environmental crimes has perished in committee, leaving the federal government virtually alone as the sole seeker of jail time for the worst offenders. With the demise of Senate Bill 199, the Indiana Department of Environmental Management will continue to resolve most pollution cases through civil penalties rather than bringing criminal charges. Last year, IDEM assessed $5.2 million in civil penalties, down from $7.75 million in 2006 but…
If your friend or relative is hurt in a car accident, but you werenâ??t involved in the accident, is an
insurance company obligated to pay you damages for emotional distress?
Until this week, the answer was yes.
The Indiana Supreme Court
The debate over daylight-saving time never seems to end.
University of California-Santa Barbara economists have studied Duke Energy Corp. electricity bills and found
that Indianaâ??s switch to daylight-saving time in 2006 cost Duke households $8.6 million extra. Duke operates
in the…
A new statewide poll shows a high correlation between registered voters who intend to vote for Democratic
presidential candidate Barack Obama and incumbent Republican Gov. Mitch Daniels.
Obama and Daniels are almost polar opposites philosophically, so what gives? Mostly…
We’ve come a long way since the beginning of this legislative session, and lawmakers are edging closer to assembling a property tax reform acceptable to both chambers, both major parties and the governor. Lawmakers faced competing pressures from constituents, the governor, business interests, schools and local governments, and citizen groups as they tackled the issue, but they resolved to labor with a minimum of partisanship. Of course, they frequently make the same pledge when dealing with major issues, but an…
Once reeling from the loss of its largest tenant, National City Center now has a rising occupancy rate amid a major renovation that is resuscitating the aging office building. Indianapolis-based Simon Property Group Inc. vacated 182,000 square feet in National City Center by moving to its new headquarters a block away in the fall of 2006. The departure left the 16-story tower at the southwest corner of Washington and Illinois streets 28-percent unoccupied after years of being nearly full. Owner…
The debt strategy Gov. Mitch Daniels’ top financial officials developed to save the state money on major projects like
Lucas Oil Stadium has turned sour.
For more than a half-century, we have built complex statistical models to attempt to explain why regions enjoy different levels of prosperity. Virtually every conceivable variable-from ethno-linguistic similarity indexes to existing natural resources to government structures-have been tried, with the models proving enormously successful. One critical insight in this extensive body of research is that human capital-the quality of a labor force-yields the strongest explanation for differences in prosperity. When we apply these models to the United States, the importance…
N e i g h b o r h o o d activists in Pittsburgh are fighting a development that would bring a grocery store, job training center, youth programs and other social services to the area of the Pittsburgh Penguins’ $290 million arena. The Pittsburgh group was planning a march in protest. Is retail and commercial development next to a sports arena a bad idea? A Cambridge, Mass., neighborhood group was opposed to the development of three townhomes, arguing…
Gov. Mitch Daniels had sharp words for legislators after they finished overriding his veto of tax breaks
for the film industry.
â??Itâ??s truly an irresponsible decision, and I canâ??t imagine what they were thinking,â?? he fired off in a statement
yesterday.
Are…
The developing story in Kentucky about its new governorâ??s attempt to legalize casinos isnâ??t getting a lot
of play in Indianapolis, but the fallout could be huge if he succeeds.
Steve Beshear wants a dozen casinos to try to stop gamblers…
Center Township Trustee Carl Drummer may be a nice guy, but he sure knows how to squirrel away taxpayer
dollars, IBJ reporter Peter Schnitzler showed us in this weekendâ??s IBJ.
Drummer has racked up a $7.1 million surplus â??…
Center Township Trustee Carl Drummer and his predecessors have stockpiled more than money over the years. The trustee’s office
also holds a portfolio of mostly undeveloped properties worth at least $10 million. Several key parcels have been on the trustee’s
books-and off the tax rolls-for decades. Drummer has made some progress in finding uses for the properties since an IBJ special
report first questioned his holdings in November 2006. But it would have to be measured in inches. The most…
I cringed when I heard the news: Indiana is second to last when it comes to being green. We’re supposed to be America’s heartland. But instead of being known for the life sciences, economic initiatives or even our corn fields, we’re getting recognized for our dirty air and water. Last year, Forbes conducted a study to find the greenest states in the country. Vermont, Oregon and Washington topped the list. At the bottom: Alabama, Indiana and West Virginia. While Indiana…
The prospect of urban sprawl might swallow up even those agencies tasked with planning for sprawl’s consequences. The Indianapolis Metropolitan Planning Organization is exploring a merger with Anderson’s MPO, according to the Indianapolis agency’s 2008 Unified Planning Work Program report. “The rapid growth of the Northeast Corridor has blurred the boundaries between the Anderson and Indianapolis MPOs; a joint committee is currently exploring whether consolidation is warranted,” states the report. MPOs are virtually invisible agencies to the public even though…
At an aging building at 863 Massachusetts Ave., they pass through a metal detector and wait in line to show a clerk their
identification and copies of overdue bills. Center Township Trustee Carl Drummer sometimes helps. The Trustee’s Office received
an average of $6.9 million each of the last seven years, mostly from taxes, to provide poor relief-now known as township assistance.
But only about $2 million reached the penniless each year, with much of the difference covering administrative overhead….
