Hoosier lore

Health: Hoosiers weigh, drink and smoke too much and exercise too litte. I get it. But the only answer is another 25-cent-a-pack tax on smokers? Taxing the sinners is a time-honored concept, but where will the money go? If the tobacco settlement is any indication, it won't be toward smoking health-related problems.

OK, sell off the toll road. Somebody else runs it, collects the money. I don't think that means much to most of us unless whoever runs it charges so much that too many vehicles get off and use other roads, or doesn't keep it up.

Local government reform: I didn't hear a commitment for the immediate ability to get rid of some levels of government. But he did talk about the fact that we have more elected officials than anyone and said we have an archaic form of government. And he called for the moving of assessment from the township to the county level; doesn't mean the end of townships, but it's a start. Promising.

First new intiative -- education. Daniels is wrong that our school districts operate mostly independently. They have districts, which can buy things jointly. What is needed from the state is not new tools but clarification on when they can use their existing mechanism and when they can't.

Good stuff on doing the people's business more openly. Daniels has done a lot to make the executive branch more accountable. What he doesn't say (except for leading by example) is that the General Assemlby should do the same for the legislative branch. With a part-time legislature, our representatives having other jobs, conflicts of interest are to be expected, and Hoosiers need to know what they are.

OK, we've made lots of savings by buying smarter and contracting some things out (including -- wow! -- no longer cooking our own prison food.) But the governor also has a plan to "buy Indiana." Even if the stuff Indiana contractors provide costs taxpayers more?

Daniels is, predictably taking bows for his accomplishments, especially for what he sees as a change in attitude in the state. But he's also realistic in acknowledging that what got us "broke and broken" wasn't fixed in a year. The thing he's proudest of, the rapid pace of change he's introduced, is the thing his critics hit him hardest for.

Gov. Daniels will be on TV with his State of the State speech in a few minutes. One of the things I'll be listening for is how commited he is to more local control of government. The House Republican caucus has already come out in favor of letting communities vote on consolidated government. If the governor gets on board, too, it could be the end of a decades-long roadblock by the state.

I'll be live-blogging Gov. Daniels' State-of-the-State address tonight. Just imagine: watching the governor speak while reading about it online and throwing back a brew. Pretty close to heaven, eh? If you feel like posting a comment during the speech or up to half an hour after it's over, go ahead. Downside: "W-eel -f F-rt-ne" will be pre-empted.

Ouch: Indiana doesn't do so well in an assessment of emergency medical care by the American College of Emergency Physicians. The state gets a grade of D+ and a ranking of 44th in the nation. The group is a tough grader, though; there were only a handful of B's, and I didn't see a single A on the national map. All the states adjacent to us had something in the C range, except Michigan, which had a B-. The national score is C-.