indiana

I was on the noon show yesterday at WBOI, NPR, talking about Hoosier retailers, mostly grocery and convenience stores, making their latest push to legalize Sunday alcohol sales and to permit cold beer sales at places other than package stores.

By God, the money is just rolling in, isn't it? Indiana gets $4 million in federal stimulus funds to help clean up leaking underground gasoline storage tanks! Indiana is getting more than $9.5 million in stimulus money to help revitalize communities and create jobs!

OK, libertarians; get ready to beat me up.

I've written frequently, both here and on the editorial page, about the need to give third-party candidates their share of exposure during political campaigns. It's both fair to them and beneficial to the voters.

Some intriguing ideas on taxes were presented to an interim study committee of the General Assembly this week:

Under one plan, the state's 7 percent sales tax rate would be lowered to 5.5 percent and be applied to all services except medical and legal. Young and Waltz said that would raise enough money to replace $2.2 billion in property taxes that homeowners pay.

The Indiana Commission for Higher Education has some good ideas for prodding our public universities to emphasize graduation instead of just trying to boost admission. We're 10th in the nation in the percentage of high school graduates who go right to college but only 27th in the percentage who graduate in four years. This, though, is perhaps the most interesting idea:

A representative of Gov. Mitch Daniels' office says Democratic challenger Jill Long Thompson is making a "political attack," which is pretty hard to refute. Running for governor is a political act, isn't it?

Long Thompson is calling on the Governor to release travel records.  She claims the Governor has used state airplanes and other vehicles for personal and political use.

[. . .]

Gov. Daniels wants to give taxpayers a break:

Gov. Mitch Daniels pitched a proposal Tuesday that would give taxpayers automatic tax credits if the state's banking account and reserves reached a level determined to be safe for weathering an economic downturn.

Any bets? My guess is no, but it's a close call:

Woodrow Wilson did it. So did Franklin D. Roosevelt and Lyndon B. Johnson.

All three Democrats bucked the trend and won the hearts and minds of the majority of Hoosiers voting in presidential elections.