Dysmey Post Archive > Pages for 2007 > May Day 2007 Edition

May Day 2007 Edition

vacation

I am on vacation this week. As it is right in the middle, I will not go into it for awhile yet.

work

I did get the wireless laptop printing project finished after I worked with PrinterOn tech support to iron out some bugs. I am getting good reports about the service so far. There is a problem with the inability to print documents from Office 2007 apps, but PrinterOn is working on this, I am told.

Last week I managed to clean off my desks and get any remaining loose ends tied up before I left. I left instructions on what to do with the printers and the iMacs during my absence.

weather

The weather is agreeable this week, even though I find it rather warm. A cold front is coming, though, so the weather will cool down enough for my own comfort. This is good because I am going to Purdue later this week.

state legislature

As the Democrats had taken over at least one house of the General Assembly (GA), I did not expect much to be done this year. And I was right.

• The GA passes a two-year budget, giving more money for education and health care as well as some tax relief for property owners. Among the items funded is optional full-day kindergarten.
• The State gets to tax smokers more to fund a new health plan for the uninsured. Nothing is said about what this plan will cover; and it is futile to talk about the plan until the details are known.
• Property taxes will still go up by at least a quarter. This will hurt the well-to-do in metro Indianapolis and other large cities more than it hurts us, because our homes are not that expensive. The Democrats got a rebate check passed; but that won't kick in until November, after the State gets interest on the rebate money. In places with more renters than house-owners, the local government might opt to raise their local taxes, and the GA allows that, too.
• An amendment to ban homosexual marriages is thwarted by the Democrats this year.
• The gambling racket makes further inroads into the state with the approval of one-armed bandits at the Anderson and Shelbyville horse-racing tracks.
• The governor's attempts at private toll roads around greater Indianapolis and bypassing the Calumet region died the death, as did an attempt to privatize the Hoosier Lottery.
• GA legislators get a pay raise for the first time in over twenty years, but give up generous health insurance and pensions in exchange.
• New trailer homes must have weather radios installed to warn of tornados. (A good thing, but does not cover existing trailer homes.)
• Everyone must wear seat belts now, including drivers of trucks and SUVs (previously exempt) and everyone in back seats.

Things got done in the GA as much as they did because the governor kept his mouth shut during most of the session, even when his political babies (the privatizations) got put to sleep. He kept outside debacles (like the Ivy Tech president scandal) from interfering with the session.

The House Republicans are pissed off because the property tax increase (which they opposed) actually passed while the rebate (which they regard as laughable) got deferred to some future while earning interest for the state. But the ones who are even more pissed off are the libraries. INCOLSA's rainy-day fund for some reason made legislators screech like rhesus monkeys on crack. As a result most of the services (such as ILL and INSPIRE training) that INCOLSA provides will be surrendered to the Indiana State Library (ISL). This may prove the undoing of unified services among Indiana public libraries because, while INCOLSA is a voluntary organization, ISL is not but a state bureaucracy; and if ISL proves inefficient in how it handles its newly-acquired services, public libraries (esp. the smaller ones like Fairmount's) may well pull out.