You're In The Agora
Welcome to the Net's best new source for commentary on current events, culture, faith, science and much more.
Faith
Confessing Evangelical Evangelical Outpost He Lives Mere Comments Mirror of Justice Religion Clause Three Hierarchies Science Dispatches from the Culture Wars In the Pipeline New Scientist Tierney Lab Liberty A Constrained Vision Asymmetrical Information Becker-Posner Blog Hit & Run Instapundit Positive Liberty The Agitator Volokh Conspiracy Economics Café Hayek EconLog Environmental Economics Freakonomics Free Exchange Greg Mankiw J. Bradfor DeLong Marginal Revolution The Right Andrew Sullivan Best of the Web Eunomia Hugh Hewitt Michelle Malkin Power Line The American Scene The Corner The Left After the Future Ezra Klein Matthew Yglesias Political Animal Talking Points Memo Errata Daniel Drezner Democracy in America Dilbert Blog Lilek's Bleat Overcoming Bias The Sartorialist Hoosiers Daily Contentions Indiana Barrister Masson's Blog Matthew Stevenson |
|
« ITA Weekend Web Digest -- 30 April 2005 | Main | It's A Good Thing Dirksen Sunk Fortas » April 30, 2005One Step Forward, One Step BackThe General Assembly ended its session yesterday by weakening the Indianapolis Works plan, scaling down Mayor Bart Peterson's ambitious project to complete the goals of UniGov. Instead of sapping the power of township officials--the representatives of a system of parochial government that's proven unable to adapt to the demands of urban civilization--the legislature instead ended up giving township officials a greater say in Peterson's plans to reform Marion County's government structure. (The Star sketched the details of the legislature's amendments in an editorial yesterday.) This means that any reforms that do go through will likely be patchwork and inefficient. It means, too, that Marion County taxpayers, like taxpayers across the state, will continue to support the wasteful, occasionally nepotistic, management styles of these officials. On the other hand, the bill that had come to symbolize Governor Mitch Daniels's drive to make Indiana a business-friendly, efficient state passed, albeit at the last possible moment and at the greatest possible cost. Indiana will henceforth be on a standard time system, at least as soon as the governor signs the measure: All of the state will observe Daylight Savings Time, meaning that Evansville and Indianapolis will always be an hour apart instead of being in sync only half a year, like Persephone. Patrick Miller of Ball State University argues that the symbolic power of DST far outweighs its direct benefits. The vote may cost Republican State Representative Troy Woodruff, of Vincennes, something tangible: His seat in the General Assembly. Woodruff reversed his "no" vote on the DST bill to counter the evident and bitter partisanship of the obstructionist Democratic minority in the lower chamber (as goes Congress, so goes the state legislature), reversing an earlier pledge to his constituents. Woodruff's margin in his district in the last election was only 188 votes, which allowed the onetime aide to Rep. John Hostettler (R, IN-8) to take his seat as a freshman member of the General Assembly. Silly as it sounds to outsiders, some of Woodruff's constituents are afraid they won't be able to manage the new time regime, despite the fact that the new bill will, objectively, eliminate confusion. If Woodruff loses his seat--likely to be one of only a handful contested at the next election--then the Republicans will face a tough time trying to maintain control of the lower chamber. Posted by Paul Musgrave at April 30, 2005 06:38 AM CommentsI would hope not. Rep Adams(D) would have voted for the bill had his health permitted. It is possible that he had asked Mr. Woodruff to vote for him. Posted by: Anonymous at April 30, 2005 12:37 PM | permalink It is possible that he had asked Mr. Woodruff to vote for him. Possible, but wrong. Mr. Woodruff had voted no in the 11:30 vote, but changed it to yes because some Democrats had changed their former yes votes to no. Posted by: Foltz at April 30, 2005 07:31 PM | permalink I will ask Mr. Adams the next time I see him. I do know that he has through his whole tenure in office sought this change. Posted by: Anonymous at April 30, 2005 08:07 PM | permalink Woodruff had this to say to his constituents a couple of weeks ago: "I realize the desire of my constituents is to defeat this bill and that is why I voted NO to Daylight Saving Time. I have and will continue to always vote against this controversial piece of legislation." Moving off of Standard time to Daylight Saving Time for several months per year does very little to help Hoosiers. (Doesn't do much to hurt them either.) It removes a minor annoyance for large businesses that don't think enough of Indiana to be bothered to remember that Indiana is on Eastern Standard Time. I don't know, it's more of an emotional thing than a logical thing. There is very little objective evidence to suggest that one system is superior to the other. I find Hoosier Standard Time to be a source of pride and find fiddling with one's clocks twice a year to be a little silly. But others find it a source of shame and want to be a little less Hoosier and a little more like everyone else. Posted by: Doug at May 1, 2005 02:01 PM | permalink I live on the Ohio side of the Indiana/Ohio line. The confusion is in having a one-hour time difference for half the year and being on the same time the other half. I'm not a huge fan of DST, but when everyone else is in on it it' a little ridiculous to be the (nearly) lone holdout. Posted by: rev-ed at May 1, 2005 11:09 PM | permalink "But Mommmmm! Everyone else is doing it!" Somehow that never worked for me as a kid. Doesn't seem like it should work for proponents of Indiana adopting Daylight Saving time. Posted by: Doug at May 2, 2005 05:13 PM | permalink Post a comment |
|
---- ADVERTISEMENTS ----
|