That's all I can stands, I can't stands no more, Thursday entry:
The state's new voter referendums, aimed at giving Hoosiers the power over whether to raise taxes for publicly funded projects, would be tossed out the window under a bill approved by the Indiana House on Wednesday.
School and other public construction projects no longer would be subject to the referendums -- approved last year as part of sweeping taxpayer relief legislation -- as long as the buildings meet certain energy-efficiency standards.
House Democrats pushed for House Bill 1730, saying they wanted to remove the hurdles posed by referendums so that local school districts and governments can more quickly spend federal stimulus dollars on "green" projects.
But the bill makes no mention of federal stimulus money and would apply only to projects funded by property taxes. The bill's author later said he was open to amending the legislation so that it applies only to projects that receive money from the federal stimulus.
Did you follow that? Our voter referendums, and therefore this bill, involves only projects funded by property taxes, which means this has no connection to federal stimulus money whatsoever. But the stimulus package is a great excuse for some legislators to revert to "spend, spend, screw the taxpayers, then spend some more" type. All this "save America" and "invest for the future" crap can be made to sound great in the rarefied atmosphere of Washington, but as it trickles down to local jurisdictions it's harder to disguise what it actually is: More government spending, which requires more tax dollars. We have it, they want it, so just put up and shut up.
Thank goodness the GOP-led Senate is there to stop such nonsense. Don't you wish we still had a Republican Senate in D.C., too? Even back when the GOP had the majority, it would have been nice to have a Republican Senate, huh?
