For release noon May 5 and thereafter (695 words)Many churches and public-service groups organize food, coat and toy drives. The objective is to provide these goods to needy families especially during holidays. I contribute to my own church’s food and coat drives, so nothing that follows should be taken as putting down such efforts. Indeed, I support them wholeheartedly.   The bone I want to pick is with those who couple their charitable support with scorn…

For immediate release (683 words)The brazen willingness of Washington to ratchet up national indebtedness to finance federal intervention in the economy has prompted some to liken its behavior to the plundering ways of pirates. Recently, knowing that my casual interest in pirates had ramped up to real research while writing a libertarian-themed pirate novel, a friend at The Indiana Policy Review suggested I write an article directly comparing the fiscal policy antics of those in…

For release April 29 and thereafter (645 words)Editors: Please note this column is tied to final-day budget activity and cannot hold for next weekend.    Anticipating best, not-too-bad and worst-case scenarios, a charitable organization to which I belong adopted three different budget plans to get it through the recession. Plan A was the first to take effect; Plans B and C were to be used only if certain income and expenditure thresholds were breached. At this…

For release April 22 and thereafter (633 words)With the “Tea Parties” behind us, let’s get down to business: After a century of being one of the most innovative creators of jobs and wealth in the nation, Indiana has lost its economic touch. In a depressed economy, it could be one of the big losers.Idle speculation? No, economists see a growing separation between those states whose policies defy investment and those states whose policies don’t. The Statehouse…

For release noon April 14 and thereafter (557 words)Just in time for April 1st and April 15th, let’s talk about taxes.  On April 1st, the excise tax on cigarettes was increased dramatically — from 39 cents to $1.01 per pack. It’s fitting that this occurred on April Fools’ Day since it served to break Barack Obama’s campaign pledge not to increase “any form of” taxes on any family making less than $250,000 per year.  Independent…

For release April 15 and thereafter (680 words) In honor of the annual agony we call Tax Day, citizens will gather across Indiana today (April 15) to protest taxes. On the one hand, Tax Day Tea Party is something of a publicity stunt with groups planning to throw tea bags into rivers, prompting environmental concerns about depletion of oxygen in the water and potential damage to fish. On the other hand, this is a real…

For release noon April 7 and thereafter (733 words)The Indianapolis Capital Improvement Board (CIB) realized a few months ago that operation of its new Colts football field would run an estimated additional $10 million annually. Now we hear another shoe drop — an extra $10 million for the field itself. Considering this and other CIB shortfalls, including those for a basketball palace, the “unexpected” costs currently total $43 million. The proposed solution is to double…

For release April 1 and thereafter (680 words)Enough already. That’s the message lawmakers need to send Indiana’s public universities that have come to the legislature yet again seeking hundreds of millions of dollars in new capital projects.    Enough of the multi-million dollar remodeling jobs that commit citizens to paying debt service for decades. Enough of the state-of-the-art fitness centers that force students to pay higher fees, some for workout rooms they will never use. Enough…

For release March 25 and thereafter (685 words) Media reports on the Obama stimulus package have been euphoric, to say the least. Sometimes I think I’m reading and hearing about an economic miracle of epic proportions — you know, something akin to the manna that God provided the Israelites during their 40-year journey to the Promised Land. But then I come to my senses and remember that manna was a net addition to the Israelites’…

For release March 18 and thereafter (670 words)You can find almost anything on the Internet these days, but in Indiana you won’t find on government websites such useful information as political campaign contributions, disciplinary actions against doctors and lawyers, environmental citations or a thorough accounting of state agency expenditures. Yet all those records are available in most other states, according to the just-released Sunshine Week 2009 Survey of State Government Information Online. The survey was…