Backgrounder: It’s Power, not Progress
by Craig Ladwig Looking over the raw data of contributions to a typical Indiana mayor, you are struck by the massive amounts coming from those involved in construction, architecture, engineering, etc. It is not an encouraging experience. For that is how progress is defined today. It is not in an increase in middle-class expendable income, Read the full article…
Neal: States with Legal Pot Offer Indiana a Cautionary Tale
by Andrea Neal After Indiana Attorney General Curtis Hill penned an op-ed article urging state lawmakers to resist the push for legal marijuana, he faced predictable outrage from a lobbying group that will say almost anything to sway public opinion to its side. Predictable because the pro-marijuana faction mastered – years ago – a public Read the full article…
The Outstater: ‘Illiana’ — It’s a State of Mind
THE FATES OF INDIANA AND ILLINOIS could merge, literally, bailing the one out of a financial mess and filling a power vacuum in the other. Some think it a joke, but after watching the experts at my city’s public hearing testify in favor of a multimillion dollar (cost yet to be determined) riverfront development along Read the full article…
The Outstater: The GOP and Taxes
IT TOOK AN OUTSTATE EDITOR, Dan Carden of the Northwest Indiana Times, to compile the 45 different tax increases approved this year by the Republican-controlled General Assembly. And he tells us his count does not include allowing the Natural Resources Commission to increase 25 different fees or include a variety of increases for gaming and Read the full article…
Talking Points
Talking Points • Indiana Doubles Down on Warm Beer — I don’t see this fight over liquor laws as a case study in cronyism. Here we have competing economic interests of approximately equal economic power fighting over public policy in an open forum subject to close public scrutiny. The author ignores the fact that large corporate-grocery, Read the full article…
Half Past the Month: The Problem With Indiana Is Indianans?
READING RECENT REMARKS on the state economy by the president of the Indiana Chamber of Commerce, you are right to be troubled, even take offense. Was he saying that the problem with Indiana is Indianans? “It is evident that a lack of (skilled) workers, unhealthy lifestyle choices and limited Indiana-based funding to grow promising companies is Read the full article…
