Clues for the Clueless

27. January 2008 by Greg Kelver.

Our state legislators continue to demonstrate just how far out of touch they are with the Indiana voters who elected them to office.  By a 93-1 vote, they passed a property tax “relief” bill that gives gives no real relief to overburdened Hoosier taxpayers.  The 16.7% hike on sales tax coupled with the failure to maintain what little referendum based spending controls had been included in the original bill clearly demonstrate that legislators once again just chose a different taxpayer pocket to steal from.  Of 94 legislators casting a vote, apparently Rep. Craig Fry is the only one who understands the meaning of both “fraud” and “unconstitutional” http://www.southbendtribune.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080125/News01/801250316/1052/News01

But unlike the 93% of the legislators who merrily went along to pass this illusionary bipartisan garbage in a thinly disguised attempt cover their exposed incumbent posteriors, Rep. Fry already has  a pretty good  track record from the prior property tax bill that legislators passed to ”fix” property taxes in 2003  http://www.in.gov/legislative/hdpr/R05_12052003.html  He understood then what many LaPorte County Property Taxpayers painfully understand now - the meaning of “hoodwinked” as it pertains to property tax reform. 

For the record, Rep. Fry has also done some good work this session as co-author of HB-1242 that attempts to bring some sanity back into the corporate tax breaks (aka corporate welfare) that Indiana politicians have fondly bestowed upon well connected corporate lobbyist friends  http://www.in.gov/legislative/house_democrats/pelath_press_20080110.html

There certainly are a lot of areas where I would strongly differ from Rep. Fry’s approach, but I sincerely respect and admire a politician who has the guts and the backbone to stand his ground when he knows something is just plain wrong. Back in the good old days, I think they once called that “principled.” 

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