3/28/2006
7:39pm
Julia Carson Government Center, Indianapolis, Indiana
Meeting Sponsor: Judge Barbara Collins, candidate for Marion County Superior Court Judge
Speaker: Indiana State Representative Carolene Mays
Pledge led by City/County Councilman and candidate for Marion County Assessor Greg Bowes
The secretary’s report for the February meeting was accepted as handed out to the membership. The treasurer’s report was accepted as read by the treasurer.
Guest Speaker
Hon. Carolene Mayes, Indiana State Representative and publisher of the Indianapolis Recorder
Indianapolis Recorder: http://www.indianapolisrecorder.com
Rep. Mays first apologized for missing the February meeting at which she was to speak. It was at the end of the legislative session and there were nights they were in session through midnight. Her biggest frustration with the political process is that so many people are not involved, and she urged us to stay involved in the process and get others involved as well.
The Indianapolis Recorder: The 4th oldest surviving African American newspaper in the country. A weekly publication with 90% of its 96,000 readership being Democrats. Her uncle bought the paper to rescue it from closing, and later turned it over to Ms. Mays to turn around. The paper has risen from 5,000 readers to 96,000 since then and is now profitable.
Ms. Mays also commented on how rare it is to have someone actively in both politics and media at the same time. Usually this is an adversarial relationship, but it allows her another avenue of hearing directly from voters. In fact, every piece of legislation she introduced at the beginning of the most recent session was brought by constituents.
The 2006 Legislative Session: This was a very frustrating and disappointing session. There were 30 and 40 year veterans of the legislature that remarked how this was the toughest and most partisan session ever. The Democrats rarely, if ever, had their issues heard by the Republican majority.
Nothing was done about school funding, which Gov. Daniels’ budget will hurt desperately. This could lead to layoffs and is already having the possibility of hundreds of layoffs from Indianapolis Public Schools. Neither was anything done about health care in this state, an issue important to many Hoosiers. Indianapolis Mayor Bart Peterson’s “Indianapolis Works” plan was also defeated again. (Editor’s note: If Republicans are the party of small government, why are they not in favor of a plan to allow cities to govern themselves with more freedom?)
Despite the difficulties, the Democrats were able to block some of the power grabs of the Indian a GOP. This included:
- The attempt to make judges appointed instead of elected
- The attempt to make the Superintendent of Education appointed
- Attacks on education
- They were able to stop the “Right To Work” bill that was designed to cripple union involvement in politics.
They also succeeded in amending Major Moves (despite its many negatives) to prevent Indiana ports and airports from being owned or operated by private companies.
There was also some good legislation passed:
- Property tax relief was enacted to help Hoosier property owners.
- There was a negative here though – it made a 2% property tax cap in Lake County permanent and in a few years this will go across the state. This will have a huge negative impact on public schools that rely on property tax money.
Telecom deregulation was passed, and amended to be far better than early versions of the bills. It included consumer protections and didn’t take away the ability of municipalities to offer their own broadband service.
Domestic battery punishments were increased.
The Department of Corrections was put in charge of overseeing the sex offender registry, making it more efficient.
Rep. Mays co-authored a couple study bills, including a study on alcohol, drug and tobacco usage by pregnant women and a study of the delivery of mental health services in Indiana.
A bill was also passed to increase the amount of healthy foods in schools.
Major moves was a hot topic at the meeting. Unfortunately the Democrats were unable to block it outright. The Democrats are calling this a sale of the toll road, not a lease. This is for a reason – the contract, for federal and state tax purposes, calls it a sale. Even though legally it is called a sale, it is still exempt from state property tax. Also, no future legislature or governor can modify or overturn Major Moves!
Another interesting aspect of Major Moves is that $5.2 billion in projects were promised to legislators to get it passed, yet the lease is only for $3.8 billion. Where is the other $1.4 billion? In addition, if the toll road privatization loses money, the state must pay the private company! There are also no penalties for poor management or upkeep. In the vein of poor management, this company that purchased the lease had to borrow $2 billion of the $3.8 billion lease, making it ripe for takeover and leaving Indiana unsure about the future of who will own our roads.
As for the I-69 extension southward, the Republican district from Indianapolis to Martinsville was written to keep the I-69 extension toll free, but the stretch from Martinsville to Bloomington (a Democratic district) will have tolls and some exits along the stretch will be closed to force usage of the toll road.
This is a short term fix with huge long term dangers. Next year, the company will double tolls on the northern toll road and have the ability to increase them after that by 2%. Why didn’t the state just do this themselves? If it was an issue of money now for projects, the state could have issued a bond against the toll increases and raised $2 billion that way. In addition, federal funds could have been used to help pay back the bond, meaning tax increases would not have been needed to pay off the bond. And the bond would have been paid off in 20 years – 55 years shorter than the private lease – and we’d still own the road. This was the Democratic plan.
Voter ID: Indiana has the most restrictive voter ID law in the country. Your name and address much match exactly on your government issued photo ID and your voter registration. To show how restrictive this law can be, a similar bill was passed in Arizona, and even their Attorney General was not allowed to vote.
We need to encourage and help people resolve their ID situations to protect their rights at the polls. This is VERY important for the primary but especially the general election in November. It is currently being challenged in court and a decision is pending. A similar law in Florida was overturned in the courts, and we are hopefully it will be overturned here due to it placing an overly heavy burden on the poor, homeless and elderly.
There is a provision for a free state ID, but other IDs needed to get that id still cost money. Also, for some people they may not have access to their birth records, making it even more difficult to get an ID. The Democratic Party is encouraging those over 65 to vote absentee, and if you are going to be out of town on the day of an election to make sure to vote absentee as well. They are also encouraging people NOT to register to vote at the BMV. There have been many instances of the BMV losing or not turning in registrations, and they also think this may be another of the reasons of closing many BMV offices.
All of these issues highlight how important it is to take back the Statehouse in November and to retain or increase our seats in the Senate.
Q&A:
Dave: A question about the impact of Major Moves on Republicans this election
Rep. Mays: This will hurt them. One of the ones hurt the worst was Jackie Wularksi, who vowed to never vote for it but flipped her vote once the Governor promised her district $100,000.
A question was asked about the Daylight Savings Time issue’s impact on Republican re-election
Re. Mays: There was another case there of a voter vowing not to vote for it and then flipping their vote. Rep. Troy Woodruff did this and he is taking a beating in his district now over this.
Joanne: What about the rumors of a lawsuit to challenge the constitutionality of Major Moves
Rep. Mays: She has heard nothing serious about this as far as she knows.
There were many comments and compliments of Rep. Mays and her service both as a legislator and her involvement with the Recorder.
Guests/Notables/New Members:
Karen Celestino-Horseman, candidate for Marion County Superior Court Judge.
Greg Bowes, Marion County City/County Councilor and candidate for Marion County Assessor.
Joann Sanders, Marion County City/County Councilor.
A representative of State Senator Billie Breaux, a candidate for Marion County Auditor.
A representative of Congresswoman Julia Carson, running for re-election.
Catherine Carr for Congress, IN-05
Tom Carrol, representing the 9 slated candidates for Marion County Superior Court Judge.
New Member: Kimberly Brown, Washington Township Small Claims Court Judge
New Business & Other Notes:
The Eugene Debs dinner in Terre Haute is tentatively scheduled for October 7th of this year. Stay tuned for more details, including how to go with a group from the IDC
IDC Member Nancy Holly organized the Bush counter-protest when he was in town to fundraise for Mike Sodrel. They got interviewed on local news and didn’t even need a permit this time. Things went very well.
Info on the next the IUPUI Midwest Peace & Justice Summit can be found at http://www.mpjs.org
The Southside Democratic Club’s Third Tuesday Lunch is coming up 4/18 at 11:30am at the Southside Club building, 1135 Shelby Street.
Split the pot was $13 and won by Jose Salinas, slated candidate for Marion County Superior Court Judge.