Muncie Arts Festival

I suppose Anderson would worry too much about its failed Florentine city project, but read Muncie to throw huge arts event and wonder just how much money and recognition this will bring to Muncie.

"Just a year later, Bailey had the chance to prove it. When the Indiana Arts Commission asked cities to apply to host the 2009 awards, Bailey and other Muncie community leaders, including Mayor Sharon McShurley, jumped on the opportunity. And the commission liked what they heard -- Muncie was chosen to host the fall event -- just the second time in the award's history that it will be celebrated outside of Indianapolis.

And this year, it's going to be bigger than ever.

Instead of just hosting the awards Sept. 25, members of the local steering committee have decided to create a three-day event."

Small Midwestern Cities Are Dying?

Oh, boy. Too many response I can make to this. Like, we did not know this? You think you have seen backwaters - wait till you see Elwood! (That is an inside joke for my Madison County readers.)

Seriously, we probably need to be reminded of this possibility. Keep us from the addiction of false nostalgia. Read the solutions, too.

Warning: Small Midwestern cities are dying:

"But a lot of them will decline into backwaters, cut out of the global conversation, lived in by people who are too poor, too uneducated to afford anything better," Longworth said. Some will become ghettos, he added.

In introducing Longworth, Tom Kinghorn, treasurer of Ball State University, said Longworth's book Caught in the Middle: American's Heartland in the Age of Globalism, was "heartbreakingly familiar to many of us." Kinghorn spoke of "failing schools," "hollowed-out cities," "sometimes clueless politicians" and other problems.

The reasons for the decline of the Rust Belt are well known, Longworth said. They include high wages and relatively low skills, the rise of the Sun Belt, the loss of jobs to Mexico, Japanese superiority in the making of automobile, televisions and other products and globalization, including the Internet and the addition of several billion new workers from relatively poor countries.

There are solutions offered and I think they could be implemented here:

Longworth offered some answers: new technology, including green energy like wind, solar and biofuels; community colleges that teach 21st century skills; communities like Steubenville, Ohio, that are willing to link to big cities, even those like Pittsburgh that are in other states; embracing immigrants and public transportation like high-speed and light rail.

"I'd like to see this Midwest region take a truly regional approach to its problems and solutions," Longworth said. "Some of the Midwest's tired old towns and cities may not survive in any real sense. But those that do won't do it by relying on their own dwindling resources, by staying proud and independent, by refusing cooperation with other towns and cities.

Our political leadership needs to realize we must change, that the idea that if you want change then leave the state is dead.

We need to ask why Anderson and Muncie do not collaborate more.

We need to ask if our schools are training us into this backwater or not.

Did we lose something to Muncie? Conventions

We had the archery thing a few years ago. This is a different outfit. So why not Andreson?

Archers on target for spending? :

"Hundreds of young archers and their families were in Muncie on Friday for a tournament -- and potential tourism bonanza.
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The Indiana Field Archery Association indoor competition -- which continues at the Horizon Convention Center today and Sunday with adult archers -- was predicted by convention center officials to contribute toward a local economic impact of $424,500, a total that included the archers plus another, smaller convention of Unitarian Universalists."

So Long, Borg Warner

Who is left at BorgWarner?

That leaves only 70-plus people at the plant in the final days leading up to the April 24 shutdown, sources said Wednesday.

Bill McIntosh, president of United Auto Workers Local 287, couldn't verify those numbers, but he confirmed that Thursday marks the end of manufacturing at the plant.

"Production ceases tomorrow," McIntosh said Wednesday afternoon.

Nothing much can be said about this one.

The End of the Muncie DTF Story (Alomost)

Not sure who won since McKinney looks like he does not need to write a check but I am saying Judge Dailey won on points. Here is The Muncie Star Press' Civil forfeiture dispute ends with settlement:

"MUNCIE -- Delaware Circuit Court 2 Judge Richard Dailey on Thursday ended a year-long, costly legal battle over civil forfeitures in drug cases involving Delaware County Prosecutor Mark McKinney.

Dailey signed an order Thursday to rescind all repayment orders and dismiss all civil drug forfeiture actions by agreement of McKinney and deputy prosecutor Eric Hoffman, Mayor Sharon McShurley and Delaware County commissioners, led by President Todd Donati.

By mid-afternoon, the Indiana Court of Appeals had agreed to dismiss the appeal by McKinney and Hoffman that stopped Dailey from proceeding with more forfeiture inquiries.

The dual court action was all part of a settlement in which all parties finally agreed that civil drug forfeitures -- in which McKinney and Hoffman took the assets of alleged drug dealers and charged attorney's fees without judicial oversight -- had not been handled correctly, and a new process and local rule were needed to ensure forfeitures were done according to law."

Muncie Gets Stimulus Funds - What About Anderson

I have seen no news of this in The Anderson Herald Bulletin but only this from The Muncie Star Press: Muncie nets $2.1 million in stimulus funds.

"Delaware County is slated to get $2.1 million in the first wave of locally targeted stimulus money.

The money -- part of $177 million made eligible to Indiana this week from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development -- can be spent on public housing, homelessness prevention and community development projects.

The funding is from the massive stimulus package signed into law this month.

The largest chunk for Muncie -- $872,488 -- is designated for the Muncie Housing Authority. The money can be used to modernize or develop public housing but can't be spent for operations or rental assistance."

What Muncie Needs Anderson Needs and Maybe the Rest of Indiana, too

No sense in adding any more commentary to What Muncie Needs is an image upgrade from The Muncie Star Press:

"Anne Condran, a local resident and executive director of American Advertising Federation East Central Indiana, said Muncie’s challenge is to remake itself.

“I think we have to reinvent our thinking and our image about ourselves,” Condran said. “We look at our glass as half empty rather than half full. We have a negative perception of ourselves and it’s projected out. I don’t think we have the pride in our community that’s necessary.

“Success breeds success, and I think negative thinking breeds negative thinking.”
Ted Baker, regional director of the 11-county Small Business Development Corp., said Muncie needs an “image upgrade.”

“Seeing is believing,” Baker said. “If we can instill a little bit of positive, that would go a long way.”"

Does Delaware County Prosecutor Pay or Not?

The saga of Mark McKinney and the Muncie/Delaware County DTF funds continues - with a cliffhanger.

Second judge orders McKinney to repay:

"MUNCIE -- Delaware County Prosecutor Mark McKinney has been ordered for a second time by a judge to repay more than $50,000 in money seized from a drug dealer.
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Delaware Circuit Court 4 Judge John Feick issued the order Friday, affirming an earlier order to repay from Delaware Circuit Court 2 Judge Richard Dailey.

And for a second time, McKinney says he'll fight the order.

'Just like with Dailey's order, we will be appealing,' McKinney said, declining to comment further.

But no money is forthcoming from the Prosecutor, McKinney, deputy risk contempt:

"Delk said the recent appeals that the prosecutor and his deputy filed did not stay the judgment without a bond or letter of credit covering the repayment.

'Nothing prevents the court from executing this order,' said Delk.

Indianapolis attorney Kevin McGoff, who represents McKinney, said he could not comment about the pending contempt hearing on Wednesday or why a bond was not filed. McKinney was in his office Wednesday, but had a 'Do not disturb' sign on the door, according to office staff.

Delk cited trial rules requiring prosecutors to file an appropriate appeal bond or letter of credit, adding they enjoyed no exemption as government officers since they were acting as civil counsel.

'It's about the money,' said Deputy Mayor Richard Shirey, as to why the city pursued a contempt citation.

Is it only about the money? I know the Muncie budget is hurting but why does it seem like it is the money and something more?

Talking About Mass Transit and Transforming Our Culture

The Muncie Star-Press reports that this area could benefit from light rail (and where is the Herald-Bulletin in championing this idea?). Read the comments to the Muncie article and then read the second item from The New York Review of Books. We recognize the problems with mass transit but the TNYRB article gives a way of dealing with those problems.

Muncie-Indy commuter rail feasible:

"MUNCIE -- Central Indiana, including Muncie, is one of only two regions in the state with the characteristics and conditions to warrant an investment in commuter rail, concludes an Indiana mass transit study.
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Northwest Indiana is the other region.

'Indianapolis is the growth hub of the state, and continued expansion of the region can be supported by rail transit and commuter rail investments that connect to major commute origins as well as suburban cities such as Muncie and Bloomington,' said the study, completed in December, by URS Corp.

Major transit investment may be warranted in certain urban corridors of the state that have high density of population and/or employment and defined travel patterns that can be served by transit, according to the study.

Commuter rail service connecting Muncie-Indianapolis-Bloomington 'is feasible,' said state Rep. Terri Austin, D-Anderson, 'but it's going to take local elected officials -- mayors, county commissioners, city councils and others -- to make this happen."

Now, to the The New York Review of Books and Can We Transform the Auto-Industrial Society?:

"But there are also intimations of the deep past and the distant future. The present and impending disorder of the automobile companies is a reminder, even more than the decline of the housing and banking industries, of the desolation of the Great Depression. It is a reminder, too, of economic history, or of the rise and decline of industrial destinies. When the listing of the 'Fortune 500' began in 1955, General Motors was the largest American corporation, and it was one of the three largest, measured in revenues, every year until 2007.[2] GM was the 'largest industrial corporation in the world,' in its own description of 1989, and it was engaged, at the time, in 'the most massive reindustrialization program ever attempted.'[3] It was an incarnation of American economic change, as a GM vice-president suggested during the earlier automotive crisis of 1973: 'To say that a company that has successfully grown over a period of 65 years—a period marked by two world wars and a major economic depression—will suddenly be unable to adapt to the changing challenge...flies in the face of common sense'; it 'denies history.'[4]"

***

The US has become more unequal since 1979, in income and amenities. It is less industrial, with only 9.6 percent of people employed in manufacturing in 2007, compared to 20.4 percent in 1979; more open to imports of goods and services, with imports accounting for 17.2 percent of GDP in 2007, compared to 9.9 percent in 1979; and more capitalist, with 7.5 percent of people employed in the private sector members of unions, compared to 21.2 percent in 1979. It is more feckless, with savings accounting for 0.6 percent of personal income in 2007, compared to 8.9 percent in 1979.^[9] In what Lawrence H. Summers has called the "new age of markets," it is also a richer country, of "market-led growth" in information and (until 2007) in financial services.^[10]

The automobile industry has been one of the losers in the new American economy. US consumers spent less on new automobiles in 2007 than they spent on "brokerage charges and investment counselling"; in 1979, they had spent ten times as much.^[11] In 1979, the share of the auto industry in US GDP was more than twice that of the securities and information services industries together; in 2007, it had been reduced to less than a quarter of their share.^[12] By 2007, even the expansion in sales of "light-duty trucks," including SUVs, which was one of the main marketing successes of the American automobile companies—"It has a refrigerator. And many other ways to chill" was the headline of a center-spread advertisement for the Ford Flex in TheNew Yorker, at the worst of the crisis of December 2008—had come to an end.^[13] In March 2008, General Motors and Ford were together worth about 5 percent of the value of the oil company Exxon.^[14]

But the auto-industrial society, with its distinctive organization of American space, cities, highways, social entitlement, and energy use, has continued to flourish. Some 90 percent of Americans drove to work in 2007, 76 percent of them alone. Less than 5 percent went to work by public transportation. The people who used public transportation were much more likely than other Americans to be black or poor; they were more likely to be women than men; most of them lived in New York, Washington, D.C., and Chicago. The states in which population has increased most rapidly—Utah, Arizona, Texas, Nevada —have low population densities, and low rates of public transportation use.^[15]

***

An enduring bailout, or a new deal for Detroit, would be different. It would be an investment in ending the auto-industrial society of the late twentieth century. This would involve innovation in public transportation, and in the infrastructure that would enable people to work at home or close to home. It would engage the information industries in making public transport more convenient, more enticing, and more secure. It would be open to the sorts of improvements that have been suggested in the expansion of rail and bus transportation in China, Japan, and France, for example, and in India by the information technology services companies.^[18] It would be an investment, even, in the old promise of "automotive" freedom, of owning a car but not having to use it, and of being able to go anywhere at any time, in Asia as in America. The improved public transport would be used for routine travel, such as the "work, school, and medical/dental trips" on which public transit use is already concentrated, according to the National Household Travel Survey. The new hybrid vehicles, in a post-auto-industrial society, would be available for the other trips that the survey describes as "family, personal," or "social, recreation, eat meal."^[19]

***

he inequality of income has been made worse, over the past generation, by the inequality of urban amenities. African-Americans who use public transit spend more than a third longer waiting for buses and trains than white transit users; they spend the same amount of time traveling, but travel for shorter distances; African-American men between the ages of twenty-five and forty-four spend even more time than white or Hispanic men in cars: 107 minutes a day.^[23] These inequalities would be further exacerbated by the increase in the costs of driving that is an unavoidable consequence of policies to reduce carbon emissions. The poorest fifth of Americans spend 31 percent of their income on transport, compared to 21 percent for the second poorest, 17 percent for the third poorest, 15 percent for the fourth poorest, and 10 percent for the richest Americans.^[24]

Investment in the infrastructure of a post-auto-industrial society would provide some compensation for the regressive effects of a carbon tax (or of the increase in prices that would result from a "cap and trade" scheme, as industries passed on the costs of compliance to consumers). It would be an investment in the technologies that are used by poor people, including buses, bus stops, and information about the departures of buses and transit vans. The innovations in information technology that could so dramatically improve public or collective transportation could be used first in the centers of cities: buses with free wi-fi, for example, or with free computers; better information about connections between buses and trains; or a program of scheduling journeys in which all patients with hospital or doctors' appointments could be collected at home, in electric or hybrid vehicles. Public policy would enhance one of the resources in which people who are poor and black are richer than other Americans: the resource of living in densely populated and information-rich cities.

***

One of the early outcomes of the economic crisis of 2008 has been a substantial reduction in the competitiveness of the financial services industry, and an increase in its political power; it has become an oligopoly of corporations that are too big to fail. General Motors is already too big to fail; I hope so, because of the consequences that its failure, or bankruptcy, would have in Michigan, Ohio, and elsewhere, and for the hundreds of thousands of people who were in a position, years ago, to negotiate reasonable wages and reasonable benefits. But a new, improved General Motors, or a General Motors–Toyota super-corporation, could be "viable" in the evaluation of financial markets, and also a monstrous leviathan of political influence. "Whenever the legislature attempts to regulate the differences between masters and their workmen, its counsellors are always the masters," Adam Smith wrote of the British Parliament in the 1760s, and the counselors of the US Congress, as of successive US administrations, have been the "masters" of the automobile industry.^[30] This is a failure of government, and it is also a market failure, or a failure of markets to exist.

School Consolidation - Anderson and Indiana versions

Anderson's The Herald Bulletin reports ACS prepares new consolidation options:

"Each of the four new consolidation scenarios would save the financially strapped school district more than $5 million annually and trim staff by more than 80 positions, according to estimates by school officials. The scenarios involve closing up to five elementary schools and each includes shuttering South Side Middle School.

One option also includes turning either high school into a middle school facility. Another would close the Wigwam Complex and move ACS administrative offices to a new location.

The ACS advisory panel will take the options and create a recommendation for the school board. Superintendent Mikella Lowe said the final plan will likely be a unique configuration that incorporates elements from the latest options."

Then Superintendents don't buy big school argument appeared in The Muncie Star-Press:

"MUNCIE -- Local superintendents of small school corporations aren't buying the bigger-schools-are-better message being communicated by the governor's office and the Indiana Senate.


Their small school districts, they say, academically outperform many of their larger counterparts in some categories. Their systems already are efficient since there's less bureaucracy, the superintendents maintain, making it easier to reach students and parents. And they're already cutting costs by banding together to buy natural gas, insurance, textbooks and supplies.

Proponents of merging school districts say consolidating central office staff will create significant savings and enable high schools to add more courses while still maintaining community schools.

Senate Bill 521 calls for school districts with fewer than 500 students to merge by 2013. Corporations with 499 to 1,000 students must prove education standards are being met in order to avoid mandatory consolidation. High schools won't be allowed to close for five years. The bill could impact 48 of Indiana's 293 school corporations."

***

According to Terry Spradlin, associate director for education policy with the Center for Evaluation and Education Policy at Indiana University, research doesn't reflect consolidation results in significant academic gains or financial efficiency.

"(It is) a reasonable question," Spradlin said. "If we're going to do this, why and how much will we save?"

In terms of student performance, some research supports smaller schools, prompting some larger school district to turn to a school-within-a--school concept. Such efforts are supported by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation's small school initiative.

"There are many large schools that are also very inefficient," Spradlin said. "A case really can be made if we really want to make schools efficient, we should really downsize large school districts to make them more efficient."

Spradlin admits there are some small school districts that should merge, but says that decision should be made locally, on a case-by-case basis, and not be forced by the state.

***

For proof that small school districts can perform well, one need look no further than Wes-Del Community Schools, Supt. Steve McColley said.

On average, more Wes-Del students receive a Core 40 diploma than their peers statewide -- 70 percent to 67 percent.

And taxpayers get more bang for their buck when compared to some larger districts. Wes-Del spends a total of $10,249 per student when all seven education funds -- general, capital projects, transportation and bus replacement, special education and preschool, debt service and retirement/severance bond -- are taken into account.

I admit that I have watched this problem in Anderson from the sidelines, but what I understand the problem to be is this:

1. Declining enrollment.
2. Declining property tax funds.
3. Too many buildings.

What I do not understand is whether we are actually saving money and improving education or saving money at the expense of education. The Muncie Star Press article explains the difference between those two concepts.

Everyone should know that we are facing a huge economic downturn. We also ought to know that education will improve both the children's economic potential and their quality of life.

On the other hand, everyone wants to save on their taxes. Oddly, no one seems to ask if the schools ought to be funded from property taxes, but that is an issue for another day.

Between the need for education and the need to keep property taxes sensible, the property tax issue seems to be winning the day. Is this how it ought to be? Let me put it this way - are we being penny-wise and pound-foolish about education?

Should we be looking at ways to save through consolidation on the business side of schools (supplies, physical plant, administration) that leave the education side nimble and small enough to effectively teach the children?

It Is a Fracking Winter Wonderland Here

Got to drive the wife to work again tomorrow, again. So I need some sleep soon. Kids on a two hour delay for school. (And who was the rocket scientist who did not decide till about 6 am today to cancel school? Where was the ACS telephone about school closing?) Hopefully, the downtown will be even more cleared so I can get to work. Sorry about the information dump:

Vectren outage total at 70,000 : Local News : Evansville Courier Press:

"More than 36 hours after the first frozen pellets began to fall across the Tri-State, a powerful two-part winter storm that packed successive rounds of ice, sleet and snow was finally gone Wednesday.

The problems it created were a different story entirely.

As many as 70,000 Vectren customers in Southwestern Indiana — fully half of the homes and businesses the utility serves — and tens of thousands of others in Illinois and Kentucky found themselves in the dark Wednesday after an icy glaze coated everything outdoors, bringing down tree limbs and power lines in widespread fashion."

UPDATED: Local counties issue travel advisories | thestarpress.com | The Star Press: "MUNCIE — Blackford, Delaware, Henry and Randolph counties have issued travel advisories asking residents to limit travel today.

Delaware County has issued a level 3 travel advisory, asking residents to drive only for work and other necessary appointments.

Residents are asked to stay home unless absolutely necessary to keep the roads clear for road crews with plows, according to a press release from Emergency Management."

Mayor satisifed with snow removal upon return from Hawaii | thestarpress.com | The Star Press:

"MUNCIE — Mayor Sharon McShurley, who just returned from a recent vacation in Hawaii, said today she was satisfied with the job street crews had done with overnight and early morning snowfall

“When you have only so many resources, you do the best you can,” she said.

City snow plows were on the streets by 5 a.m. today, working on main and secondary roads while struggling to keep aging equipment running.

Two breakdowns of the city’s eight working plows came as crews were o

n the streets about 14 hours since Tuesday to handle nearly a foot of snow."

Problems with Muncie's Shell building

I understand Muncie's shell building program gave them a leg up on Anderson's redevelopment plans. The Muncie Star Press reports Shell building delayed — again:

"MUNCIE — A year and a half after a ceremonial ground-breaking, Delaware County’s latest shell building — a useful tool in attracting economic development — is still months away from construction.
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Officials expressed frustration at the delay and a new expense: $200,000 to remove buried landfill material at the site, a problem that was discovered only recently.

Local officials smiled and posed with ceremonial shovels at the July 31, 2007, groundbreaking for the shell building along Fuson Road on the city’s southwest side.

Terry Murphy, vice president for economic development of the Muncie-Delaware County Economic Development Alliance, was on hand for the groundbreaking. But Murphy also expressed regret that the project has been delayed.

Murphy confirmed reports that the problem with materials buried at the site was discovered “just a couple of weeks ago.”"

Once More About the Delaware County Prosecutor and Drug Money

I had to go whoa when I saw this headline from the Muncie Star Press: Judge gives McKinney 30 days to repay $168,000.

"MUNCIE -- Delaware County Prosecutor Mark McKinney now has 30 days to repay $168,092 in cash assets and attorney fees collected from drug forfeiture cases where confidential agreements were used without a court order, in what Circuit Court 2 Judge Richard Dailey said was a violation of state law."

***

Dailey also found the attorneys could be liable to local and state governments if forfeited monies were improperly held from government accounts. State law requires court adjudication of forfeitures with money going to local and state government and school coffers. However, testimony at proceedings before Dailey indicated forfeited funds were instead deposited into Muncie-Delaware County Drug Task Force and city police accounts.

More hearings will be conducted to determine law-enforcement costs and non-cash assets of the nearly 40 cases, which could mean judgments for more reimbursement from McKinney and Hoffman.

Muncie and the DTF - the Story So Far

This past Tuesday, the Delaware County Prosecutor was ordered to repay attorney fees and money confiscated.

I cannot give any better commentary than Doug Masson gave in his post Delaware County:

I’ll go ahead and add, that philosophically, I have serious reservations about asset forfeiture laws passed in support of the War on (Some) Drugs. As to Indiana’s laws, specifically, I don’t have anything like comprehensive knowledge, but only know of the process in the country generally. So, don’t take this as a specific critique of the situation in our state. Generally, the potential for abuse is always there when you have law enforcement taking property from a citizen for the benefit of the law enforcement agency with potentially relaxed standards of proof as to whether the property was used in aid of a crime. There should be some fairly significant levels of process when government takes property from a citizen, and, probably more importantly, there should be some serious filters between those who make decisions about seizing property and those who make decisions about how that seized property is allocated. “I can take your stuff and it will make my life and the life of my co-workers better; and besides, you’re a drug dealing scumbag” is a pretty powerful incentive, I would think.

So here is the story, so far (all from The Muncie Star Press):

Secret DTF deals now in open :

"McKinney, hired by former Prosecutor Rick Reed, said he has done nothing differently than his predecessor, a claim Reed denies.

And though Reed refused an invitation for an interview, his wife's best friend, Mayor Sharon McShurley, said she turned to Reed for advice early on as part of her own Muncie-Delaware County Drug Task Force investigation.

'At some point in time I specifically called Rick and asked, 'Hey, there's this confidential agreement and what does this mean?' and he knew nothing about it,' the mayor said.

McShurley and McKinney do have at least a brief pre-DTF history. She applied for a job in his office as a diversion coordinator, the job previously held by her best friend Kris Reed. And in 2006 McShurley crossed party lines to support McKinney's candidacy for prosecutor. She attended fundraising events and voted for him, things she said she regrets now."

***

McKinney dismisses any argument that confidential agreements are improper, or that using them is an attempt to conduct normally-public business in secret.

"I do have a problem with saying that if you're dealing with public money, the public has a right to know," McKinney said. "Does the public know how many lawsuits were settled with inmates of the Delaware County Jail? I assure you they do not. I assure you a number of those situations were settled outside of any kind of lawsuit. There's a claim filed, they pay it off.

"So to say that just because forfeiture money is public money, there's something wrong with the way things were handled, I think that's a false claim.

"Let's also be clear that the money coming in and how it was spent was never kept from the public. The State Board of Accounts always had access to it. They always audited it. Every year they did an audit and all the money was accounted for," McKinney said.

But the SBA didn't approve of how the money was spent, including a check written for a piece of carpet in the prosecutor's office. McKinney said the money was spent on things "that help us do our jobs better," though he acknowledged the carpet isn't the best example of that.

***

In light of filing a complaint with the Indiana Supreme Court Disciplinary Commission and continuing to study past court cases, the mayor said she has one goal.

"To have a judicial system that works and that people respect and have confidence in," she said. "They have to have confidence in their police officers, in their prosecutor, in the judges, and if they don't have that confidence then it's almost to the point of why would it even exist?"

To that end, she pledges the city's tight financial resources and all the necessary time it takes for the investigations to come to conclusions.

"Just because it costs too much money, do you not do it then?" McShurley asked. "To me it's no different than a murder case. If someone committed murder but it's going to cost an awful lot of money to prosecute them, do you not prosecute them?

"If we have a prosecutor that has committed violations or we have police officers that have committed violations, do we still not owe it to the public to pursue it even if there's a cost associated with it? There are issues that need to be addressed."

What went wrong?: The DTF began 20 years ago to fight Muncie drug culture :

"But somewhere along the way, something went wrong. Police and prosecutors began to spend seized money on more than just the war on drugs -- carpeting, gym equipment, trainers -- and a closed-door, possibly illegal system of secret deals came into play. Criminals were stripped of cash and property, sometimes before charges were even filed, and some defendants reached deals and never were charged at all."

Let me point out that the current Muncie Mayor is a Republcian (as has been true for most of the past twenty years), husband is an attorney, but that McKinney (and his predecessors - including Rick Reed - have been Democrats). Reed's silence has been interesting and one explanation I have heard is that McKinney told Reed to take a hike. Not a good idea to annoy your alleged mentor.

From what I have heard, this is just the beginning. Remember money changes everything and there is just too much money in the illegal drug trade. Too much money for the outlaws and for the lawmen.

Delaware County News: Township Assessor to be Gotten Rid of?

Well, that seems the point of The Muncie Star-Press' 'No' vote will save assessor, 'yes' will doom her:

The following question will appear on Center Township ballots on Election Day:

"Should the assessing duties of the elected township assessor in the township be transferred to the county assessor?"

Citizens of Delaware County for Property Tax Repeal, as well as MySmartgov.org, are urging voters to vote "yes" on the referendum. The two organizations also oppose tactics like "Vote No" signs and T-shirts in the township's office.

***

The 2008 Indiana General Assembly abolished township assessors in 965 townships but left it to voters in the 43 most populous townships to decide if they wanted to do the same.

Dieter's organization, which has four full-time employees, expects the Legislature next year to take up even more ways to streamline local government, including eliminating all of the township trustees.

I think streamlining the township duties into county or city entities makes sense in some counties. Those counties being our more urban counties. That said, I think the assessors have a point because they do have specialized training.

Their argument is that abolishing the Center Township assessor's office will result in the loss of services and jobs without saving any money.

"With the budget cuts most of our offices have undergone, there's no way in hell to make us any more efficient," said Becky Williams, president of the Indiana Assessors Association. "A good part of our assessors are experienced. These are not political hacks filling most of these jobs."
Evans has 28 years of experience. Her budget for 2009 is $343,286. Her office assesses about 27,000 residential properties (the commercial and industrial assessments are hired out).

"We do more than assessments," Evans said. "We do deeds, business personal property, disclosures (of the sale price of properties). Businesses with filing cabinets, computers, cash registers, restaurant equipment, tanning beds and other personal property are taxable. I have a deputy that does mobile homes. We go out on building permits, demolitions and remodeling. We do data entry. We do (property) transfers. We assist with the commercial assessments. We do appeals. We measure property, wait on the counters and answer the phones.

"And we are your first step for an answer in local government. One way or another, the money is still going to have to be spent to get our job done."

Which brings up the other point that causes me doubts: how do we know how much money we are saving in what appears to be efficiency?

Muncie Tax Bills Online

So reports The Muncie Star Press, I have no idea about Madison County except to ask why they are not (if they are not).

MUNCIE -- Delaware County property owners can get a sneak preview of their tax bills online.

Since late last week, tax information by property has been accessible through the county's Web site, www.co.delaware.in.us.

A link to a search function is available at the bottom of the county Web site's home page under the heading "Delaware County Tax Online Information."

Muncie, Anderson Register to Vote!

Probably not the best place to put this - too little traffic here - but this is something too important not to make a point about. If you are not registered to vote, today is the last day to do so. Do it!

Muncie: Voter registration office open late today.

Everybody else: Voter registration deadline arrives

Miscellany: McCain, the Global Financial Mess

Some items I was sent recently or which I ran across this morning. Not enough time to comment on other than to say they are worth a look.

McCain, Obama, and Palin (Thirty days out and I doubt any of this will change anyone's mind - does anyone really believe that McCain is the best choice now?):

1. The Double-Talk Express
2. Mad Dog Palin
3. Palin’s Alternate Universe
   
4. Illuminating Our Choices
5. The Uplifting Debate
6. Obama and ’60s Bomber: A Look Into Crossed Paths (Does anyone really care -except Sarah Palin? - about a guy who has no role in Obama's campaign? Has no one on the Republican side noticed that Obama is not even very much of a Seventies guy, let alone a Sixties radical kind of guy?)
7. Lessons Taught By FDR
8. Sarah’s Pompom Palaver. Wherein Maureen Dowd asks a very good question:

   We could, following her strenuously folksy debate performance, wonder when elite became a bad thing in America. Navy Seals are elite, and they get lots of training so they can swim underwater and invade a foreign country, but if you’re governing the country that dispatches the Seals, it’s not O.K. to be elite? Can likable still trump knowledgeable at such a vulnerable crossroads for the country?

9. Pitbull Palin Mauls McCain which offers a nightmare that I seem to share with Frank Rich:

   You have to wonder how long it will be before they plead with him to think of his health, get out of the way and pull the ultimate stunt of flipping the ticket. Palin, we can be certain, wouldn’t even blink.

I promise nothing more on Palin unless she is field dressing a moose live on television.

Indiana:

• Inner-city housing rehab group sinking
• From MattTully of The Indianapolis Star: Factors that will sway the election (I cna hope that the Obama voters go to Long Thompson instead of Daniels).
  
• Be sure to check out the headlines/links on the right for more on Indiana politics and news. Things are happening here. This election has put us in the position of having an actual say in who will be President.

The Sunday Herald continues its examination of the global financial crisis:

1. The trouble with Europe
2. Smoke, mirrors ... and how a handful of missed mortgage payments started the global financial crisis

Now for something sensible, Punditry. A Professor Bainbridge blog. Conservative but fairly sensible.

The State of White River

It is getting better.

MUNCIE -- The presence of smallmouth bass, crane flies resembling giant mosquitoes, mussels and other species sensitive to pollution indicates the White River is cleaner today than in the early 1970s.

Back then, raw sewage and industrial discharges turned the river red, green, yellow and brown; tires and refrigerators lined the banks, and two feet of industrial/sewage muck covered the bottom of the river instead of sand, gravel and bedrock, according to the Muncie Sanitary District.

"When compared to the past with the industrial pollution, we have improved, but agricultural pollutants and sediment are the big concern now," said Jarka Popovicova, an assistant professor of natural resources and environmental management at Ball State University.

See The state of the White River: Cleaner, but room for improvement from The Muncie Star Press for more.

Delaware County Drug Forfeiture Rules Now Online

The official title is Local Rule Governing the Storage, Processing, Disposition of Drug Forfeitures and All Other Property Held as Evidence.