Kick-Starting the Month
The ‘Unintended Consequences’ of Careless Public Policy (For the use of the membership only.) “The irony is that Gov. Mitch Daniels’ 2008 property-tax reform is in part responsible for what the Chamber is calling a skewed tax burden.” — Scott Smith in the Dec. 23 Kokomo Tribune IT DIDN’T make any of the New Year’s Read the full article…
This Council Veteran Is Skeptical of Tax-Cut Grief
Ryan Cummins, an Indiana businessman and former chairman of the Terre Haute Common Council’s appropriation committee, offers a rejoinder to the distressed reaction of local officials who are protesting the elimination of business personal property taxes. by Ryan Cummins Business Personal Property Tax (BPPT) represents more than 70 percent of all abatement supported, signed and Read the full article…
Indiana at 200 (15): The Battle of Tippecanoe
by Andrea Neal In the drizzling pre-dawn rain of Nov. 7, 1811, on high ground near modern-day Lafayette, Gen. William Henry Harrison squashed Tecumseh’s dream of an Indian confederacy that could resist the white man’s westward advances. The Battle of Tippecanoe was a defining moment in U.S.-Native American relations. “It was on this spot the Read the full article…
Half Past the Month: ‘We’ll Miss Sheriffs When They’re Gone’
Sheriffs, please understand, are different from the tawdry mix of ambition and vanity that makes up local officialdom. Sheriffs are precursors of our constitutional republic and its attendant democracy. They arose in first-century Anglo-Saxon England or even with the Norse. They were the natural, chosen leaders of their communities (shires), their title dating back to Read the full article…
This Redevelopment Plan Makes a Poor Christmas Gift
by David Penticuff Like too many others, my community and its associated agencies, plus the county’s redevelopment commission, continue to borrow money to pay off previously borrowed money in an attempt to stay ahead of default, a richly deserved default. It is beyond parody. Fiction writers would have such a story rejected on the face Read the full article…
Indiana at 200 (14): The Swiss Created Our First Commercial Winery
by Andrea Neal In 1796, John James Dufour left his native Switzerland to seek a new life and opportunity in the United States. Less than a decade later, he opened the country’s first successful winemaking business — in southeastern Indiana. It was still the Indiana Territory at that time, but the settlement would soon become Read the full article…
