TERRE HAUTE —
Time will be wasted in the upcoming session of the Indiana General Assembly. Count on it.
Acknowledging that political inevitability, Hoosiers should implore new Gov. Mike Pence and the leaders of the Legislature to resist the temptation of using their Republican Party dominance in the Statehouse to fritter away precious hours, days and weeks on detrimental and unnecessary bills. Only Pence, House Speaker Brian Bosma and Senate President Pro Tempore David Long can apply boundaries of reason on their party cohorts in those two chambers of government. Republicans hold super majorities in both bodies, meaning there are not enough Democrats to counter-balance and block extremist legislation.
Pence has stated that he is focused on taxes, education and jobs. Likewise, Bosma told the Indianapolis Star that House Republicans “all understand our focus. … We’re going to focus on what’s important: budget integrity, job creation and improving education.”
What an excellent agenda. Lawmakers should roll up their sleeves and get to work on those topics when the session begins this week.
Instead, some state reps and senators will muddy the process with headline-grabbing, primary-election-posturing bills related to social issues that involve never-ending debates, bitter division and no possibility for resolution. At best, those gestures — from amending the Indiana constitution to ban same-sex marriage to allowing public school districts to require recitation of one religion’s prayers — give the state the image to citizens, visitors and prospective residents and employers as an unwelcoming place. At worst, pursuit of such bills sinks the Legislature into that mud, letting its wheels spin instead of progressing toward meaningful action.
A prime example is last week’s news that state Sen. Dennis Kruse, R-Auburn, has filed a bill permitting school districts to require students to recite The Lord’s Prayer, though individuals could opt not to participate. Long, the Senate leader, wisely assigned Kruse’s bill to the body’s rules and legislative procedure committee, which the Star called “often a burial ground for bills.” Long said he suspected the bill “was probably unconstitutional” and the Senate legal staff termed it, in Long’s words, “a clear violation of the interpretation of the First Amendment by the United States Supreme Court.”
Kruse acknowledged he sought the bill “to make a statement, not expecting a hearing.”
“Statements” regarding the value and importance of religious faith are already well-spoken by clergy, lay people, parents and mentors throughout every Indiana community. Legislation cannot improve upon those freely given testimonies, which also validate the First Amendment.
Pence, Bosma and Long need to keep their colleagues on task. They could spend the entire session crafting a plan to publicly fund preschool programs for needy kids, just as many educators and the Indiana Chamber of Commerce have recommended. If they tackled that more quickly than expected, they could use any leftover time building a new state-supported research institute, just as Pence and the Chamber have proposed, or making college more affordable in a state with a per-capita income 14 percent below the national level.
Last month, state Sen. Mike Delph, R-Carmel, filed a bill to prevent the Indiana Economic Development Corporation — a quasi-state agency handling public-funded tax incentives — from keeping secret the actual number of jobs created by firms receiving those incentives. As Delph told Indianapolis TV station WTHR, “The bottom line is, people have a right to know how their tax dollars are being spent.”
Right on, Senator. Tax integrity. Jobs. Educating the public. Those should be the bullet points of the 2013 session, ladies and gentlemen of the Legislature. Now, get busy.
Editorials
EDITORIAL: No diversions, please
Legislative session needs to stay on task
- Editorials
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EDITORIAL: Cleaning up voter rolls
It’s not a lot of money in the big scheme of things, but the $2 million designated in the recent session of the General Assembly will begin the messy but necessary process of cleaning up Indiana’s voter registration rolls.
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EDITORIAL: Waging the ‘readiness’ campaign
Almost every Hoosier who starts college intends to finish. Unfortunately, those who arrive on campus unprepared in key academic areas are far less likely to fulfill that aspiration.
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EDITORIAL: Insult to an independent press
Distrust of government secrecy has been elevated to an exceptional level with the disclosure the Justice Department covertly examined two months of Associated Press phone records to determine who leaked details to the AP about a foiled terrorist plot.
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EDITORIAL: Noteworthy in the news: Dashing finish for the Sycamores
It’s always thrilling to see Indiana State University’s athletic teams do well in high-level competition, and two specific teams rose to impressive heights last weekend in the Missouri Valley Conference outdoor track and field championships.
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EDITORIAL: Better monitoring needed to prevent local environmental messes
The nasty, hazardous messes lurking in the community raise a bottom-line, red-flag question. Could these environmental problems have been monitored and, thus, prevented?
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EDITORIAL: Memo to U.S.A.: You can ‘SPPRAK’ just as we do in Vigo County
Our kids, truly, are ‘Making a Difference’
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Some words in praise of boring government — Indiana’s
A conservative Republican governor has super majorities in both branches of the legislature. One might suspect such one-party government leads to major changes in public policy. This did not happen in 2013 in Indiana.
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EDITORIAL: Doc’s prescient prescription
Viewed through a 2013 prism, Doc Bowen’s response to the AIDS epidemic looks merely prudent, routine.
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EDITORIAL: Education remains worth the cost
Within the next few weeks, each of the local colleges will have conducted graduation ceremonies. A few days later, a different Class of 2013 will don caps and gowns for commencement — the seniors at five Vigo County high schools. It is still a smart, worthy aspiration for those high school grads to replicate the achievement of those college students by earning a higher-education degree.
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EDITORIAL: Good news for downtown
For decades, it seems, downtown Terre Haute has been in the throes of change
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EDITORIAL: Overall, state budget step in the right direction
For average Hoosiers uninterested in political point-scoring, the budget crafted by the Indiana Legislature inspires only muted, if any, fanfare.
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EDITORIAL: The lessons of organ donation
The range of emotion surrounding life-saving transplantation of a vital organ is extreme. It is the ultimate “good news-bad news” scenario.
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READERS’ FORUM: April 26, 2013
• Pence’s tax cuts benefit wealthiest
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EDITORIAL: Noteworthy in the news
This does not qualify as a surprise in any way. But the Wabash Valley’s response to widespread flooding of recent days has been nothing short of impressive, even inspirational.
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EDITORIAL: Still waiting for the jobs reward
The forces in control of Indiana government for most of the past decade need to show some results to Hoosiers in one primary category.
Good-paying jobs. -
MARK BENNETT: Littered with irony: Why do people callously discard their trash, and who are they?
Though they aren’t acknowledged by the U.S. Census Bureau, there are basically two demographic groups of people … Those who would dump their old toilet on the banks of the Wabash River or a rural roadside. And those who wouldn’t.
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EDITORIAL: Doing the dirty work to clean up tossed trash
A first-of-its-kind, coast-to-coast project to remove litter from U.S. roadsides brought the Pick Up America crew through the Wabash Valley two years ago.
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EDITORIAL: Keep school security a local issue
The decision to provide armed security inside a schoolhouse should be made locally.
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EDITORIAL: Noteworthy in the news
Indiana’s parks need your help.
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EDITORIAL: The return of terror
Emotions today remain strong and raw in wake of Monday’s terror bombings near the finish line of the Boston Marathon.
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EDITORIAL: A solution to distracted driving … stop it … now
You’ve got to stop. You know you do it. It’s a miracle you haven’t caused a tragedy already.
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EDITORIAL: ‘Women of Influence’: 2013 selectees have given much to their communities
For the second year, United Way of the Wabash Valley has teamed up with local sponsors to select and honor a group of women who have made outstanding contributions to their communities, professions and families.
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EDITORIAL: Noteworthy in the news: A new honor for our veterans
A commendation goes out today to state Rep. Clyde Kersey, a Terre Haute Democrat who led the charge this week in the Indiana House of Representatives to pay tribute to the nation’s Purple Heart recipients.
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EDITORIAL: Shifting view on marriage
One could argue, as many have, that Sen. Joe Donnelly did the right thing last week when he dropped his support of government-sanctioned opposition to same-sex marriage. It wasn’t a radical move, considering most Democrats have now made the switch.
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MAX JONES: The American Newspaper: Changing? Yes. Dying? No way!
It happened again this past January when all those “looking at the year ahead” stories started popping up on Internet “news” websites and broadcast “news” programs. Under a provocative headline reading something like “Five industries/businesses doomed to tank in the coming year,” there it was, a prediction based on an unsubstantiated “expert” analysis that the newspaper industry will continue in 2013 to suffer its slide into oblivion.
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EDITORIAL: A chance to change our bad cultural habits
The sight of diligent, eager young people dragging trash out of the Wabash River wetlands is both inspiring and sad.
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EDITORIAL: Maintaining high standards
Standards
It’s the raging buzzword in education circles these days. Everyone insists that higher standards must be met. Anything less is, doggone it, unacceptable. -
Noteworthy in the news
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EDITORIAL: Crack down on dumpers
There is a reason it’s called “illegal” dumping. It’s against the law. And there is a very good reason illegal dumping is against the law.
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Season of Day 2s arrives
Calendars in Cincinnati contain one extra holiday — Opening Day, traditionally the first Monday in April.
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EDITORIAL: Cleaning up voter rolls
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