Where's Mitch Daniels?

The one Republican uniquely positioned to comment on admitting Syrian refugees to the United States (in general) and the State of Indiana (in particular) has been most uncharacteristically quiet.

As the grandson of a Syrian immigrant, his opinion would have unique weight in this debate.

The former Indiana Governor also has been honored by the Arab-American Institute with the 2011 Najeeb Halaby Award for Public Service.

The Laffer Curve ... Really?

This Indianapolis Observer was startled to see a column in the latest Indianapolis Business Journal touting the Laffer Curve as the preferable guiding principle in taxation strategies: "The Laffer Curve teaches that trying to soak the rich through high tax rats can backfire...." Really?

Where have Cecil Bohanon and Bill Styring been since Reaganomics burst onto the scene?

Here's one contrary view: "So the Laffer curve says tax cuts for the rich? This isn't going to be funny": "Laffer was an associate of the Reagan administration, which had a staged cut in the marginal higher rate of personal income tax from 70% to 28%. The effect on the budget deficit was also striking. Reagan doubled it to $155 billion and tripled government debt to more than $2trillion."

"The Laffer curve relies on the twin assumptions that the rich create the output in an economy and that they need incentives to choose idleness over work. But there is little evidence to support these hypotheses."

And, a more recent example: "The Laffer Curve has Flatlined"" "Govs. Brownback [Kansas] and Walker [Wisconsin] killed [the Laffer Curve] simply by implementing the theory and proving its lack of success."

And, another view: "The New Laffer Curve Logic and the Lack of Evidence for it" "After being shown again and again that tax cuts don't increase revenues, those who make the Laffer curve argument stopped making the claim...."

Maybe it's time for the IBJ to hire some reality-based columnists!

(Partial) Trash Slide

The Indianapolis Department of Public Works reports that residential and heavy trash, curbside recycling and leaf collection will operate on a slide schedule this week in observance of Thanksgiving Day.

Residential trash, heavy trash, leaf collection and curbside recycling services will not be available on Thursday, 26 November. Instead, Thursday routes will run Friday, 27 November, and Friday routes will be picked up Saturday, 28 November. All services will return to normal schedules beginning next Monday, 30 November.

Now through 4 December, residents may leave up to 40 bags of leaves (in regular trash bags or paper yard waste bags) for collection on their regular trash day.

Bad Start, Hogsett

This Indianapolis Observer wishes to remind the new mayor that one of the reasons he won is the continuing rage against the myriad questionable decisions of Greg Ballard. Brewer had promised Ballard's "third term", and it didn't fly.

Therefore, agreeing to "continue Ballard's legacy" isn't a viable option.

According to IBJ.com, Hogsett "even praised two of the programs — the Vision Fleet electric car contract and BlueIndy car-sharing service — that Democrats on the Indianapolis City-County Council have spent the last year fighting.

“'From a conceptual standpoint, BlueIndy, Vision Fleet, I think are great ideas,' Hogsett said. 'The biggest criticisms haven’t been necessarily on the merits but rather the way the decisions were made.'"

Ummmm, no. There's more to the controversies than just the backroom dealing -- egregious as that is.

Guess we'll have to wait and see if Indy voted for Ballard 2.0 in the guise of somebody who should know better.

Suit Filed Against Blue Indy

According to Advance Indiana, Marion County Auditor Julie Voorhies has filed a lawsuit against Blue Indy, LLC, the City of Indianapolis and Regions Bank to block payment of $6 million in Indy tax dollars to Blue Indy.

Now, this should be interesting given all the questions about this deal (from the lack of bids to the absence of UL certification for the charging stations...and more).

What's Pence Up to Now?

"Whatever one’s position on abortion, the use of tax dollars to support 'clinics' that offer no medical services — clinics that exist solely to lie to women in order to convince them to forego both abortion and contraception – is immoral."

Yes folks: our tone-deaf governor has inked a contract with Real Alternatives, which provides NO medical services, spending OUR TAX DOLLARS to promote a political agenda.

As the IBJ reported: "Gov. Mike Pence announced Monday that he will expand Indiana’s affiliation with a not-for-profit organization that counsels pregnant women against abortion and pushes abstinence as the only method of birth control."

Sheila Kennedy laments (that was her quote at the beginning of this post), you can't make this stuff up..

That "Craft Rye" Whiskey is From Where?

This is an old story, but still timely.

"Dozens of new brands are packaging whiskey bought in bulk from Indiana," writes Eric Felten in The Daily Beast.

Just can't trust those distillers...even if they're Hoosiers.

Read about the scam here: "Your ‘Craft’ Rye Whiskey Is Probably From a Factory Distillery in Indiana".