I went to a local politics forum at the Indiana Union Wednesday night. Kevey, Bz, and Steven all happened to be there too, probably as a testament to Bz ferreting out what’s going on. It was a really disheartening experience. From living in Bloomington for a year, it seems like the political structures work pretty well. I don’t hear too many complaints and the town seems prosperous enough (although some of the new development of luxury apartments for college kids, and the retail to support these things, makes me think that it’s a little too prosperous). However, this panel discussion featuring county party heads (I think) from the Democratic, Libertarian, and republican parties ended up being nothing but political cheap shots and party-line ideology with very little mention of the reality of the issues or even specific candidates and their positions.
Even though the party representatives didn’t delineate the issues, one could get some idea about some of the issues that are on the political radar for central Indiana and the buzzwords related to them. Here is some of the things that candidates mentioned.
- Labor and the right of various groups to organize
- Sewage Treatment in Monroe county (Shawnee Bluffs)
Bloomington gets its water from Lake Griffey (or is it Lake Monroe, or both. I really need to figure this out). Apparently, there are new developers building homes at the shores of this lake. Some developers want to have their own (presumably private) water treatment plant for these homes. I don’t know if these are connected, but the Democratic representative warned of mismanagement of water treatment leading to sewage being dumped into the lake (e.g. the water supply)
Update (2004-10-29) – The body of water in question is definitely Lake Monroe. County Surveyor Kevin Enright’s statement at the Farm Bureau forum is pretty illuminating about this.
Here is a message board thread that has some debate about the issue: http://talk.assmotax.org/viewtopic.php?mode=viewtopic&topic=4326&forum=10&start=0
Here is a Herald-Times article that summarizes the issue pretty well and gives some of the county comissioner’s perspectives on it.
- Bloomington (or is it also Monroe County Jail too) overcrowding.
- Mentally Ill in Prison
This issue actually came up in relation to a candidate – Democrat Michael Woods who is an Indiana University Law School student running for the County Counci, At-Large office. He argues that many in jail are mentally ill and that they are better served by other programs/social services than by sitting in jail and contributing to overcrowding. He advocates training law enforcement to recognize the mentally ill so they can divert these individuals from the jail system into social services. Sounds good to me.
- Mentally Ill in Prison
- Taxes
- Training Tax
This is a tax on businesses. The libertarian candidate described funds going to retrain workers who had lost their jobs. I tried to google for this and couldn’t find any information on a “Training Tax”. I did find mention of a “Training Tax Credit” which goes to businesses to help them recover the costs of providing additional job-skills training for their workers. The libertarian objected to this tax because she argues that while all businesses (including small ones) have to pay into these funds, large corporations use most of the funds.
- Inventory Tax
Both this tax, and the property task were cited by both the Republican and Libertarian candidates as being the main reasons for lack of business growth (and attracting businesses) in Indiana. They argue that an antiquated tax code and too much paperwork make businesses go to neighboring states.
- Property Tax
- Training Tax
- Energize Indiana
This is a Democratic proposal that a lot of candidates at the state level cite. The Democrats argue that manufacturing jobs that have traditionally been a big deal to Indiana are not only being lost to neighboring states, but to other places in the world because they can be filled at a much lower cost. Traditionally, argue the democrats, business development has involved tax abatements, or tax breaks, usually to large corporations, to attract them to come to Indiana. However, when these manufacturing jobs are being quickly lost from Indiana, the democrats argue, why subsidize these companies. The Energize Indiana initiative argues that economic development should come from state partnerships with Universities to develop a home-grown, high-tech industry in Indiana.
- Education
- Tuition Increase Caps for Higher Education
- Private lenders for student loans
- Charter schools/school choice
- State Budget Spending Cap
The democrats argue that the republicans, in the interest in minimizing taxes, have put a spending cap on the state government which effectively creates a zero-sum tradeoff between prisons and education. Because there is no new money, if you want to increase funding for prisons, you have to decrease funding for education.
- I-69 New Terrain
The Republican candidate for governor supports this, the current Democratic governor approved the route suggest by the federal government, but the Dems seem unwilling to accept responsibility for the plan. The Dem. party spokesperson argued that no Dem. candidates advocate this at the local level.
This road has been characterized as a “NAFTA highway”
It is important to note that the route has already been chosen by Federal comissions. This ads a certain sense of inevitability to the whole thing and some suggest that the issue has now become how to make the I-69 extension as unobtrusive as possible. As one forum panelist said, “building big roads means losing small town character.”
This issue has been categorized as an issue that is only a hot one for central Indiana. Other parts of Indiana already have to deal with the reality of this road and are, therefore, much more apathetic to it. This categorization came in direct response to claims that the Democratic governor’s support of this had hurt his popularity.
The Libertarian gubenatorial candidate, Kenn Gividen is the only candidate that opposes I-69 New Terrain. He argues that instead of routing it through central Indiana where it’s unwanted, it would be better to use a route that followes I-70 and I-41. This route goes through counties that want the road. He also argues that funds that would be used for the I-69 project would be better used going toward the maintenence of existing roads.
- Transportation
- Area 10
I think that this is a pretty marginal issue, but it’s often on the county budget chopping block. It’s a bus for rural county residents that has a set route, but will diverge to pick up county residents directly from their home.
- Truck Toll Lanes
The liberatrian candidate argues that this is a solution to improving transportation in Indiana. It will decrease traffic, fund road maintenence, and help establish Indiana as a trucking/logisitics hub (which the Libs. seem to think is the future of economic development in Indiana)
- Tax reform as factor
Some argue that the current tax structure limits funds available for road improvements. I think that this is a similar argument as the previously mentioned example about trade-offs between prisons and education.
- Area 10
- Development
Update (2004-10-29): I found this article (here are parts 2 and 3 of that article) that does a pretty good job of introducing development issues and the players in them in Bloomington.
Both the Rep. and Lib. panelists categorized Bloomington as being anti-business. This seemed more a matter of oppinion or perception and wasn’t really backed up by any kind of figures. The Dem. representative countered this by saying Bloomington is at the top of the state in terms of jobs and economic development. An interesting exchance was when an audience member questioned the Rep. and Lib. claims by citing all the new apartment buildings and college-related businesses that have been popping up in Bloomington as signs of economic development (she didn’t say this explicitely, but I detected a sense that she saw this as maybe a little too much development). There wasn’t a strong response to this question from either the Rep. or the Lib.
The Rep. and Lib. want to change regulation and taxation to attract businesses to the region.
The Dem. panelist argues that much of the economic development will come from businesses that support the IU community.
The Dem. panelist frequently noted the need to encourage high-tech industry growth.
The Dem. panelist made frequent reference to the idea that the current policy of managed growth and focussing on quality of life issues is what will attract continued growth to the region
- Social Services
Reps. and Libs. argue that the private sector should play a greater role in providing social servies. The Dem. panelist argued that currently, the private sector isn’t stepping up to the plate.
- Positive Progress
In a question about the inflamitory, partisan nature of the rhethoric in the forum, the Dem. panelist argued that this wasn’t the case before a group called Positive Progress came to prominence in Bloomington. The Dem. panelist characterized the group as wanting to remove zoning laws. I think this is insane. Smart use of zoning, as I’ve come to understand, is one of the best tools for building strong, liveable communities and makign productive, managed growth. The sierra club categorizes them as a “a rabid pro-development group”. I don’t know his role, but the name Jeff Brantley comes up a lot when I google for Positive Progress. Positive Progress, or those behind it, are involved in this election by a highly publicized media buy which involves billboards categorizing Baron Hill, the Democratic candidate for US Representative – District 9 (and the incumbent) as supporting flag burning (among other things). I don’t know much about Baron Hill, but this ridiculous opposition, to me, seems grounds enough for him to get my vote.
- County Landfill (solid waste district)
Update (2004-10-30): This is an issue that gets a lot of press. I don’t really understand the history of it or the implications of the landfill closing this year. Here’s a message board post that cites a recent Herald-Times article about it and might offer some insight.