Northwest Indiana Comical Politics

Democrats Propose Gasoline Tax Increase to Fund "Major Moves" Project

Last week the Indiana Democratic Party held its major rally in Hobart, Indiana.  In attendance was the National Democratic Party Chairman, Howard Dean, the Indiana State Democratic Chair, Dan Parker, Indiana Democratic Party Deputy Chair Tom McDermott, Jr. Lake County Democratic Chair Rudy Clay, and most major Indiana Democratic Party elected officials who could make the trip.

Given this luminary crowd representing ALL the top position in the Democratic Party, both State and National, everything that was presented must be considered the absolute and most recent official proposals of the Indiana Democratic Party.

Their major proposal was to increase the Indiana gasoline tax to pay for "Major Moves" rather than leasing the Toll Road that Governor Daniels had proposed.

As quoted by WJOB Radio:

"It's outrageous ladies and gentlemen." That's what Hammond Mayor Thomas McDermott junior said about Governor Mitch Daniel's Toll Road plan. McDermott spoke at a democratic rally at the Avalon Manor in Hobart where Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean was the featured guest. The mayor said it was unfair to the people of the northern counties who pay the tolls to fund downstate road projects. McDermott suggested an alternative:

The alternative plan for the Democratic Party is to raise gasoline tax State wide.

To read and hear Mayor McDermott go to the following WJOB radio and Calumet Press link: http://www.wjobcalpress.com/  and then click the archive on the left side.

With all these official Democratic Party personnel, including the national Chairman, anything said must only be considered as "official" as opposed to anything said by one of 100 representatives in Indianapolis. 

McDermott says that the Governor is out of line asking, through the leasing of the toll road, for the northern Indiana residents along the Toll Road to fund road developments in the rest of the State.  Now it seems doubtful that all or even most of the tolls on the toll road is paid by the people who reside near the road.  They have alternatives.  According to the Governor's plan 34% of the lease will go to those counties along the road anyway.  It also seems extremely gratuitous for McDermott, Jr. to complain about the northern part of the State paying for the rest of the State when he is asking for over $60 million of Indiana taxpayer's money to fund his families lucrative venture called "Cabelas", the ya-hoo store.  Now it is true that all the McDermott family and operatives are Republicans; but, that seems to be immaterial to most Democrats.

Whatever the Democrats may try to say, the increase in gasoline tax seems to be the plan for the Party.  Given the attendance at this rally, this plan has greater credibility than anything Representative Bauer may have in mind.  He does not seem to be in touch with the party hierarchy.  The man who speaks for the party is McDermott and he says the party wants an increase in gasoline tax.  Representative Bauer should get his act together to find out what is really going on.  It is really sad to see these old men of the Democratic Party, (Bauer, Dobis, Harris, etc.) so out of touch that the Democratic Party cannot even speak to them.

It is also sad to see a great party like the Democrats to have sunk so low as to be incapable of providing any meaningful alternative plan to move the State ahead from the disaster of 20 plus years of Democratic Governorships.

NWI Political Parties have No Principles

Lake County political parties seem to forget principles

Jan. 26, 2006

By Maurice Eisenstein
Post-Tribune guest columnist

Because of what I write, many people think I am an apologist for the Republican Party in Northwest Indiana. Because of my willingness to criticize politicians and public policies in NWI, many individuals believe they have my politics pegged. So rather than paying attention to what I say, they dismiss me out of hand for the sin of partisanship.

I don’t mind when public figures who I have exposed for thievery, incompetence or laziness use this argument to dismiss me. They have nowhere else to hide. But, when voters actually accept this idea, they are part of the group-think mentality that is wrecking NWI’s future.

The reality is that since 1930, there have been few Republican elected officials in NWI. Yes, I have criticized Democratic Mayor Tom McDermott Jr. of Hammond for being an unprincipled turncoat, announcing days before his candidacy that he was switching his political party loyalty from Republican to Democrat to expedite his campaign. With that, he defeated an incumbent Republican, Mayor Duane Dedelow.

To be fair, when Dedelow was in office, I criticized him for many of his appointments and his policies. He never accused me of being an apologist for the Democratic Party.

Dedelow, too, could have made his political life simpler in Hammond and switched political parties. But he had principles. He refused to mislead voters bybecoming aturncoat. If he had, he would still be mayor.

Instead, the lemmings who call themselves Hammond Democrats voted for the turncoat Republican — McDermott. Just another variation of Lake County politics that daddy knew to play so well.

I guess these same individuals think they have my politics figured out because I am in opposition to corporate welfare in any form. The Democratic powers that be in Gary — the mayor and City Council — have spent more than $21 million of public funds so the city could have a grocery store, County Market, for a whole four weeks.

Any way you look at this, it is greed that is unbecoming of any American political party. Even worse, it is a gross example of corporate welfare at the expense of the NWI working people. For this, so called Democratic politicians of Gary should be subjected to “re-education” in Democratic Party Principles 101.

I criticized Dedelow in front of the Hammond City Council for giving property tax breaks to Wal-Mart to build in Hammond. This, too, represented corporate welfare at its worst and has done nothing for the city in return.

But this level of corporate welfare and greed does not compare to what McDermott Jr. and his Republican dad have put over on the Hammond Democrats. Mayor Jr., with the help of his father, is strong-arming city residents, the Republican governor and fellow Hoosier citizens to provide more than $60 million of corporate welfare to seduce Cabela’s. A chameleon may change colors at will, but it still remains a chameleon.

This kind of corporate welfare does not fit into the views of Democrats, who believe in the welfare of the working person, nor does it fit into the principles of the Republicans, who accept that free competition is a cherished principle.

The problem in NWI is not whether you are a Republican or a Democrat, but whether you are going to continue to support the turncoats and opportunists who misappropriate the names of the political parties.

UniversityTrustees and Racism in Indiana

It is not difficult being right in predicating politics and economic development in NWI; because the competition is so low. In my enthusiasm to move NWI development of its potential in higher education, I allowed myself to fall into the sin of hubris about an individual who has worked very hard to improve the lot of many people, especially minorities.

This individual is Mamon Powers, Jr.

As a Jew on the Day of Atonement I ask G-d for forgiveness for sins committed against Him. But, sins, including errors and omissions, committed against our fellow man can only be forgiven by correcting those errors. Therefore I must correct the perception I may have left that Mr. Powers, as an individual, did not have vision, lacked commitment and integrity in dealing with people and the needs of NWI. The facts are quit the opposite.  Ironically, after all the columns I have written, and after all the speeches I have given, he was only the second person to contact me to talk and explain himself. The other was State Senator Earline Rogers, a fine person, with whom I still disagree but greatly respect.

When I criticized Mr. Powers, I was solely focusing on his role as a Purdue University Trustee. In meeting him, I saw as a son of Gary as a successful business man who was a caring and committed citizen of NWI. There are many individuals in NWI who owe their success to him.  He has dedicated his time and money to help many individuals to gain access to education and business opportunities, as I learned all of which comes from the heart not for some external benefit to him.  Certainly as a person, any faults I may have attributed to him were incorrect.

Both Mr. Powers and I started as undergraduates at Purdue, West Lafayette in the same year. It is no understatement to say that our experiences were entirely different as a white, although Jewish, student and a black student. Although I had my share of incidents, including being blackballed solely because I was Jewish, it did not compare to Mr. Powers’ experience. Mamon Powers re-ignited in me the passion for rights I had then and also made me appreciate the continued difficulty a black businessman has today even in Gary, Indiana.

But my passion for institutional solutions still remains. And frankly, a good portion of the solution of the problem raised remains in the hands of Purdue’s Board of Trustees, of which Mr. Powers is the representative of NWI. (Everything being said here also applies to Indiana University’s Trustees and their categorical institutional racist treatment of IUN). The difference between institutional and individual racism is that an individual racist believes that someone of a different ethnic or racial group should inherently be treated in some inferior way. Institutional racism is the conditions where governmental structures and histories, including higher education, are structured in such a way as to favor one group over another or one geographic area over another.

To make it clear, I do not have any reason to believe that any trustee of Purdue or IU is a racist individually. On the other hand, for forty plus years, the system has been so structured to favor the higher education of Hoosier whites, out-of-state whites, and foreign students over Hoosier Hispanics and African-Americans. Although this may not be strictly speaking racist, the system also favors white children of college graduates over first generation whites attending universities. an important discrimination against NWI and Fort Wayne.

The consequence to the State is continuous economic depression, loss of population, brain drain, and loss of national political clout.

The projects that West Lafayette and Bloomington are selling to the State Legislature: the Interstate 65 bio-technology corridor and the Interstate 69 technology corridor is not going to work because it does not address the reality of the problem that Indiana has which the Department of Education has already identified as a mis-distribution of higher education dollars.

The institutional racism is an indisputable fact because the main centers for educating Hoosier minorities, NWI, receives annually about $4,000 less per student than Indianapolis and about $7,000 less than Bloomington and West Lafayette. The reason for this is the historical funding structure created 40 years ago; and when you add a fixed % to every year the marginal differences do not change.  This fact has been quantified by the US Department of Education's National Center for Educational Statistics when it ranked Indiana 50th out of 50 states in its mal-distribution of higher education dollars.  This indicates that a far too great a share of Indiana State Tax dollars are going to two or three campuses and the rest are being starved.  When the rest of the campuses are the ones that educate minorities and first generation white college attendees, this is institutional racism.  It is also the underlying reason Indiana has never economic developed as a state.  You cannot argue with the facts.

Year in and year out, Blacks and Hispanics are provided less money for their higher education in Indiana by the system that is set up to fund these institutions. Only the Trustees can change this. But the push must come for the people, the minorities who are affected.

Today, Mr. Powers can get that political support. NWI State Legislatures would listen to his vision to structurally end racism in higher education in Indiana.

Governor's NWI Airport announcement Big DUD

A Governor and a Congressman are actually going to be coming into NWI, to the Gary/Chicago International Airport (an oxymoron), to announce how they are going to mis-spend Hoosier tax dollars and the tax dollars of all Americans through the FAA pork barrel system.

Now understand this announcement has not been made yet.  Unless the useless abuser of public money airport administrator (paid as consultant) Karras can announce that JetBlue is coming to Gary, which it is not, the rest is useless.  Karras is a flunky for Mayor Daley of Chicago; therefore everyone else's money in NWI is going to nothing.

Except for a misplaced Hatcher type of ego about Gary, what makes any of you think Gary can be a third airport to anywhere?  Except for New York City, and that has its own peculiarities, nowhere in the WORLD is there a place with three airports.  There must be too much mercury in NWI making people think they can do what is not needed anywhere in the WORLD. 

Hatcher will probably argue with the help of Rev. Jackson, that we need a minority only airport.  Maybe that is what I have been missing.

The fact is that Daniels is smarter than that; he is going to let us waste our money and time on the useless RDA and its plans, including the airport, while he gets Republicans elected to State wide offices.   His plan to lease the toll road to develop the rest of Indiana is superb.  We in NWI are going to be left holding the stick.

I have told you all along to stop listening to those people in suits called NWI politicians and listen to me.  I am the only one who has no vested interest in "screwing" you. 

McDermott Will Support Tabaczinski

Whatever Tom McDermott, Jr. is telling current State Representative Linda Lawson and her husband, the union boss, he ultimately won't back her.  Let's face it.  Mac Jr. has no principles.  I am amazed that the Democrats were willing to accept such a turncoat Republican without batting an eyelid.

Junior will use the excuse that he cannot control what the people in the Party do.

Now this should not be surprising given the indictments, illegalities, stupidities, and general morons that make up the Democratic party hierarchy in NWI.  It is also true that, with one exception, every Democrat I have talked to, even some with whom I have strongly disagreed, all agree on two points.  One, Mac Jr. is incompetent and should never have been elected mayor.  Objectively, they say, Dedelow was always better and more effective.  Second, they all agree, again except one, that Junior, from their observations of his behavior at meetings etc., has mental problems .  They also say given his current neurotic behavior there is no way he could have behaved this way and served on a submarine.  So one would assume that this development in his personality is after his leaving the Navy and a result of some current behavior problems.

Having recognized these peculiarities of Junior, no principled compass and neurotic behavior, then it is not surprising to see him saying and initially supporting Lawson and then supporting under the table and "informally" Tabaczinski.

By the way, it is also a big surprise that the State Democratic Party would support Junior when they know: one, he is supporting Republicans and two, he cost them resources in the last election because his ego made him run Kathy Pucalick and the State Party spent resources supporting Lawson.  The result is the Democrats lost the House.

For the Democrats, Jr. is directly responsible for being one of the reasons for their minority status in the House.

Republican Governor Daniels should completely snub Jr. as a turncoat.  He is nothing else.  One has to understand that anyone who would change his political party on one week's notice to expedite his political success is nothing more than a carpetbagger. 

A carpetbagger will double-cross anyone, including Linda Lawson.

Governor Gets One out of Two Right in NWI

Last week, Governor Daniels came into town. His comments served only to remind me of the continuous distortions and lies that are spewed out of the mouths of our Northwest Indiana leadership. Not that I needed his help.

Daniels talked about the great things he expects of these learned old men of NWI called the Regional Development Authority. With the Governor’s optimism at my side, I looked for the brilliant ideas these visionaries are hatching. Alas, the words great and RDA do not belong together. The mantra that they do is lie and distortion numero uno.

The first thing the RDA did was to look for consultants. Just what everyone else does in Lake County governments. This is what is meant by Lake County Politics. Everyone knows the RDA is as political as anything in NWI. But who are these consultants? The apparent know-nothings of economic development. One consultant advised planting a flag and saying that the Hammond Technology Park is in the aviation test bed business. Plant the flag; say the words, and . . . Voila! You’re in the aviation testing business!

Now why didn’t I think of that? Where is or what is this technology park’s competitive advantage? Hey, don’t bother me with details. I think I’ve seen this movie . . . where the girl with the ruby shoes only has to click her heels three times and wish to be back in Kansas , and Voila! It happens!

But surely the wise old men on the RDA had the insight to see through this because they have knowledge about economic development. At least that is what the law calls for as their qualifications.

So I decided to look at their first real economic development decision (not where you economically develop the consultants; but NWI). Their first decision? Where to put their millions of dollars belonging to the citizens of NWI?

The answer: Our bright old men decided to deposit the money with three out of area banks: JPMorgan-Chase (New York), Mercantile-Harris (Chicago), and Horizon (LaPorte and Eastern Indiana). Our brilliant RDA on their first decision economically developed New York City, Chicago, and Eastern Indiana. For banks, millions of dollars in deposits is economic development because deposits determine reserves, which determine how much the bank can loan and therefore grow.

For a community it is economic development because how much money there is to borrow allows for expansion of local businesses. What happened to Centier and Peoples’ Banks, which are locally owned? Their funding would result in true economic development.

Lie and distortion number 2 can be summed up in one word: Cabellas. Unlike the movie, no matter how often Mayor Tom McDermott Jr. says retail development is economic development; this does not make it so.

And last week, “my man Mitch” also said no to the $40 million public underwriting of Cabellas in Hammond. This was the right move and decision for anyone with an ounce of sense.

Mayor Jr. has not gotten past the third grade in governing for economic development. Retail business is never, ever, economic development. And, in urban areas, you never, ever turn green spaces into concrete. Only the incompetent would think of turning 100 year old trees into concrete and call it development in the middle of a city.

The RDA and the Mayor of Hammond, so far, have two things in common. One they are completely political therefore they blow with the wind of who pays them. Second, they have not the foggiest idea of what they are doing in economic development.

McDermotts Steal Woodmar Country Club

The McDermott family lead by that illustrious strong arm Mafia type Tom McDermott, Jr. have successfully wrestled the Woodmar Country Club out of the hands of its owner/club members and into the hands of the local Irish Mafia called McDermotts.

This was achieved by the strong armed tactics of the Mayor of Hammond threatening the use of his office's legal powers in pursuit of his family's personal gain.  Now the project was never going to be funded sufficiently to justify Cabellas building there.  And, if anyone noticed the decision was already in place to build the store in the Chicago suburbs.

Cabellas never intended to build in Hammond,  It was never part of their investor development plan and no one at the investment relations knew anything about Hammond; but, they knew about other developments planned by Cabellas, including Chicago.

Now knowing that Father McDermott was involved as an hourly consultant, in addition to his finders fee, he got rich off his son's strong arming.  This is usually considered illegal everywhere else but hey, this is NWI and therefore Daddy deserves a distinguished professorship of thievery named after him, which he received at PUC.  We in NWI get the overall shaft because we not only will pay to buy the country club back for the McDermotts we also had to pay for his distinguished professorship.

The father and number two son will be involved in developing the country club.  Turning green space in concrete: the exact opposite of economic development.  The dad is the bag man, number one son is the strong arm, and number two son is the commercial manager.  What a great family.  What a country this is. 

A hick from no where can come to NWI to deliver newspapers, destroyed a union, become mayor of a little town, quit ahead of the indictments with enough money to pay several million dollars for radio stations.  Since no one has any questions, they elect his son the mayor.  The streets are really paved with gold in this country.

Now if any of you believe that anything this family does is not stealing the last nail left in Hammond then you are naive as you are stupid.

NWI I have warned you over and over.  I said Cabellas was never going to happen and that it was not economic development.  I also said that Cabellas never seriously intended to come here.  This was a scam by McDermott Incorporated to get the country club land.

Now listen to what I have said and what I will say in the future if you want to save this area.  If I keep being right you all will be pissing in your pants asking again what happened to the money like you are now doing about gambling and property taxes.

The Inmates are Running the RDA

It is now official. The members of the NWI Regional Development Authority have officially proven that they know absolutely nothing about economic development. They have shown to be either complete morons or completely on the take of the political people who appointed them. Thank G-D they showed their true colors, incompetency, on their first substantive decision they have to make.

Now NWI, I have told you over and over that selecting buffoons on the RDA, and the RDA itself, is created by buffoons, called NWI State Legislators is going to sink this area to oblivion.

The first decision these incompetents made was to give their millions of dollars to banks, NONE of which are locally owned. Now since economic development at its core means that you achieve more money coming in, in exchange for goods or labor, than is going out, they flunk the basic economic development 101 rule.

This cannot be solved by hiring consultants. That would be like hiring a private tutor for someone who is brain dead. Their second program is to spend millions of dollars on consultants, before they do anything. This is the usual way NWI politics works and in the end it achieves nothing but making alot of people wealthier; but not you or me.

So our illustrious RDA has decided to send money to NEW YORK CITY (JPMorgan Chase), CHICAGO (Harris Bank, Merchantile) and a third out of area bank (Horizon, South Bend). The two locally owned banks People's and Centier were completely left out. So the RDA in their first decision made good economic development decision for New York City, Chicago, and an eastern Indiana. None for NWI. These people are true imbeciles.  You do not compete issues of economic development.  This would be like competing to see which airport, Chicago's or New York's or Gary's will get the construction done.  This is the kind of idiotic none economic development thinking that has gotten us into this mess in the first place.

They do not know economic development, they do not know banking, they absolutely know nothing past 1980. The best economic development for NWI is to boot them out of the area and the dumb politicians they rode in on. It can only go down hill from here.

At this point only a miracle can save us in NWI from the double talk of our own politicians and the politicians in Indianapolis.

It is time to vote all these people out of office and get them off our backs.

NWI Economic Development Done Right

There goes my new year’s resolution. It is tough being humble when you are right. Just about everything I have discussed pertaining to economic and public policy in NWI has come to pass. Sadly when I am right it has generally shown how imbecilic our political, economic, and educational leadership is, meaning we as citizens get the short end of the stick. So citizens of NWI it is time to listen to what I say or we will all end up like the Gary airport: Hooters up. As we now see, the crime in Gary is not any better only worse; there are actually less people now.

People of NWI, understand you are being led by incompetants with no exception. The list of idiots are unlimited and are now being led by the delegation called the legislators from NWI.

In my last column of 2005, I concurred with the development of the Marquette Plan but with the addition of developing an upscale boardwalk development with restaurants, boutiques, art galleries, and public performance amphitheaters. To plan and develop this would cost millions of dollars but would radically change the culture and life style of NWI, which will attract the kind of people advanced businesses are looking for and bring those companies here.

All of the other proposals in front of the RDA are junk, like the Gary Airport. All the remaining money needs to be utilized on other things for development to occur. And there is absolutely no reason for LaPort County to enter the RDA.

The first program is rebuilding the housing stock of Lake County, especially the northern part. The only way this can occur is if a central authority buys the old building and partners with developers to refurbish the old building in the older cities on the Lake. People who are attracted to cities are looking for old house and building that have been refurbished. Pastrick demolished the best asset of East Chicago the old bank building. People with money and talent are looking for cities with character and that is what that building would provide for East Chicago. Now the only solution for housing is to start at the Illinois State Line and start refurbishing the houses until you get to Miller. 

That is what is occurring on the south side of Chicago. If you want to attract professional people with assets and employment, this is what you will have to do. It must start tomorrow if not sooner. If you wait, the worthwhile old buildings will be gone like the bank building.

If you follow the program above, the parents themselves of the K-12 classes will get rid of the administrative deadwood currently dragging down Hammond, East Chicago, and Gary. But the RDA should put aside $5 million as direct bonuses for classroom teachers only, no one in any administrative capacity, for improvements in their particular classroom. No excuses accepted, improve or no bonus. If you won’t spend that kind of money for bonuses then you are not serious about education.

To further improve the cultural and lifestyle attractiveness of NWI, the RDA should in 2006 commit the $25 million Indiana University needs to build a new clinical trial facility at IUN. When this was offered to Gary they were to busy flying paper Hooter planes out of their window offices to notice its value. After this the RDA needs to invest in a medical school and a law school in the Region, which is what Terre Haute is developing why not NWI.

To complete the transformation of NWI, the RDA needs to develop the Borman Expressway Technology corridor running from Purdue University Calumet to IUN. Forget Merrillville that is a worthless failure, which is the inside joke on the campuses. In Merrilville you have a "fake" icubator to misuse federal funds (hint: look at who the "incubators" are) and a so called learning center that no one wants to use. The proof of that is in the pudding as they say: no increase in students. But a real technology corridor from PUC to IUN and eventually including PNC is real economic development. 

If you make the right new year’s resolution, this is not impossible to achieve.