For immediate release (581 words). Public school superintendents are greedy, selfish, over-paid, a big waste of taxpayer dollars, etc. — or so popular thought goes. Such perceptions are fueled by news reports of superintendent compensation packages, retirement packages and contract buyouts. The Philadelphia School District this fall bought out its superintendent’s contract for $905,000. And closer to home, an Indianapolis-area superintendent retired this year with a $1-million retirement package (but a few weeks after retirement…

For release Nov. 2 and thereafter (680 words) In St. Joseph County, the prosecutor is investigating claims that hundreds of signatures were forged on petitions to qualify Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton for the state presidential primary ballot in 2008. In Jennings County, a grand jury last month indicted three Democratic Party campaign workers on 66 counts ranging from voter fraud to perjury. The charges involve absentee ballots and applications submitted in the 2010 elections.…

For immediate release (751 words) Of all the things you have to worry about in these serious times, don’t worry about the Indiana Legislature, GOP majority or not, doing anything substantive to improve Indiana’s budgetary, fiscal or economic position. With Organization Day around the corner, Nov. 22, and a governing class marking time until the gubnatorial election, that is not cynicism, merely reality. Here are the topics that could make a difference but will not…

For immediate release (692 words) What should we do with the U.S. Postal Service (USPS)? The answer is obvious if you’re a fan of natural selection, economic markets or competition — or if you agree with the Tea Party and Occupy Wall Street about monopolies and corporate subsidies. But if you’re someone who benefits from the status quo, is a fan of big government or labor cartels, or has a limited policy imagination, then you’re…

Second of two parts; for release Oct. 27 (762 words) Commentators from the left often refer to the “Bush tax cuts for the rich.” A 5.6-percent surtax on incomes above $1,000,000 has been proposed. The clear implication of the rhetoric is that the rich are under-taxed, are not paying their fair share and that the progressiveness of the federal income-tax code ought to be increased. Before these normative claims can be assessed it is useful to…

First of two parts; for release Oct. 26 (482 words) by Cecil Bohanon, Ph.D. If Ms. Jones has 100 times the income of Mr. Smith how much more tax liability should Ms. Jones incur? Fifty times? One hundred times? One hundred and fifty times? Is there some ratio consistent with so-called “social” justice? Public-choice economists ask a somewhat different question. What are the implications of alternative tax structures for public spending? Consider a proportional tax on income that that…

For immediate release (624 words) “Hell is other people,” quipped Jean Paul Sartre. Perhaps no one knows this better than the homeowner. If you live near fraternity row in a college town, you must endure bouts of drunken revelry in the wee hours. If you live near a hog farm, you must live with harsh odors when the wind blows wrong. And if you live in the beautiful Lake Michigan hamlet of Ogden Dunes, you…

Indiana state and local government collected an average of $3,499 from each man, woman and child in 2010. Some believe this amount too much; others, too little. Regardless, data provided by Indiana University Public Policy Institute indicates that although taxes, like death, are inevitable, the actual amount collected fluctuates and is somewhat resistant to rate changes. Total state revenue is expected to decline as personal income falls, but we observe that Indiana revenue fell more…

For immediate release (633 words) The New York Times reported some uninformed anti-business comments by an Indiana professor of philosophy. “Corporations are a particular threat to truth,”  the professor began. ”  . . . (Their) threat is most apparent in advertising, which explicitly aims at convincing us to prefer a product regardless of its actual merit.” Such rhetoric abets the class-warfare hysteria suddenly infecting our nation, literally from the top down. Here is a straightforward…