Northwest Indiana Comical Politics

Not-for-profit E.C. Health Clinic Files for Bankruptcy

Only in NWI can this scam happen:
E.C. health clinic faces bankruptcy :: Local News :: Post-Tribune.

This is a not-for-profit organization into which million of dollars have been poured in only a short time.  One hospital alone put in $1million.  The article itself points out that nationally this is as rare as seeing a dinosaur as mayor of East Chicago.

Look who is on the board.  Everyone in Lake County knows what happened.  It is Democratic party Chicago mode of politics and reduction of unemployment: steal the money.  (Stealing includes overpayment of salary or expenses.  It also includes hiring too many political friends and other scams.) 

Nothing here is new.  That is why we need to have NO NEW TAXES.  Actually, all taxes should end in Lake County and we should depend solely on the gambling boats.  The citizens will be amazed how over a year all of NWI problems will be solved if we moved in that direction.

Since million of dollars of state and federal funds came to this clinic, the FBI should be all over this situation.  I am surprised that David Capp, the US Attorney General, has not already filed subpoenas for accounting and bank records.

Gary is finished!!!

I will be writing some more about why Gary is finished as a city.   But, in the mean time, I want people to consider a simple question:  Why would anyone in their right faculty move to Gary, either as an individual or as a business?   There is none.  Further, there is not any way to get there.

When the financial report came out, a week ago, it was the last ditch effort to stop the end, that is all.  There is no business development possible in Gary until Gary is gone.  If you actually owned a legitimate business, would you ever move it to Gary when you have the whole State of Indiana, the Midwest, or the United States to choose from.

What does Gary have to offer?  Nothing.  Crime, none existent work force, high taxes, criminals for politicians, no infrastructure, etc.  By the way, all this applies to East Chicago and Hammond -- they are also finished.  Only the gang-bangers and the criminal politicians are left in all those cities and Lake County is not far behind (Merriville is Gary it is breathing its last as we write).

Actually when one thinks about it, Gary's demise is good for everyone.

Referendum Defeat Shows RDA Opposition by All NWI Citizens

Now everyone knows that the RDA was a fraud.  Everyone one the board was on there to steal the money from the citizens of NWI and turn it over to their favorite consultant or other Democratic operative, i.e. politicians.  There is nothing, absolutely nothing, that the RDA has done or will do that will have ANY positive consequence for the economy of NWI.

Referendum defeat steels RDA opposition.

The RDA has been taking millions of dollars out of the pockets of the citizens of Gary, Hammond, and East Chicago.  Let us not forget Lake County also as a whole.  In addition, it has taken millions from Porter County.  All of this has been of no value to any of the citizens, only to the thieves named to the RDA by the Lake County Democratic charlatans.

What does the citizens of Gary, Hammond, and East Chicago have to do with building a railroad to Lowell and Valparaiso?  This is taking money from those who are in need and giving it to the usual thieves of Lake County.  This is being done to the tune of $3.5 million each year, from each community.  What is the economic benefit to the citizens of those communities?  NONE!!!

It is time to remove for malfeasance, incompetency, and general ethical incompetence all the politicians and appointed officials involved with the RDA and RTA.  No one wants them and they are of no use to anyone and have not been since they were created four years ago.

It was all a political trade off with the downstate Republicans as a way for the local Democrats, i.e. Tom McDermott, Jr., to steal more money from the citizens.  It is time to end this charade by voting against all the incumbents now in office.

Why Gary is Finished?

I recently made the observation on "Facebook" that there was no way to save Gary, Indiana and that its future was essentially finished.   Some individuals, who had not known of my work previously, asked the serious question of why I would argue for such a position.  It was further suggested by some of the readers of the comments that a new approach to Gary's future could be undertaken by improving the circumstances of single mothers in the city.

The basic reason that Gary is finished is that there is no one and I mean no one who knows what to do and what they are doing to change things in Gary.  For over forty years, Gary has been analogous to a 747 in a stall with snow white and the seven dwarfs at the controls.  No matter what option or idea the people in charge will come up with or have come up with, nothing will change the final outcome that the 747 will land nose first into the ground and will leave a big hole behind.

If you improve the lot of single mothers in the City of Gary, they will move out as soon as they can.  Bank Calumet has already tried that approach.  Not a single candidate stayed in the city and that was over five years ago.  Does anyone really believe that it has gotten better. 

No!  Now the school system would be better off investing in large screen TVs and getting rid of the teachers.  Let the kids watch the television and have homeless people monitor them.  It is a win-win situation.  I suspect that the ISTEP scores will be higher and retention will increase. 

For over forty years, Gary has done nothing but take and take and take.  It has returned nothing to NWI, except what was already there previously, e.g. U S Steel.  The most recent Rudy Clay approach is to take from the Obama, the Lord and savior of Gary, administration to save Gary.  This will not make one iota of difference.  This political option was undertaken by former Mayor Hatcher for decades.  He and the City got billions of dollars from the U. S. Government now there is nothing to show for it -- just a destroyed city.

The next big plan was lake front gambling in the early 1990s.  Gary made such a case (or stink and blackmail) that it got two boats and no referendum.  Gary is special (specially incompetent).  What is there to show for 10 years of gambling revenues to the city in hundreds of millions of dollars -- the continued death of the city.

One can go on and on.  The stadium, after 50+ million of dollars, including kickbacks, absolutely nothing has changed in Gary, except its continued devastation.  Then there is the "international airport" that is a joke to everyone, except for the people, like its director, who are making hundreds of thousands of dollars from it; but no one will or ever has flown into Gary.  Why fly there?  If it were not for the crime, there would be no entertainment whatsoever.

Everyone who is now in Gary wants out.  What does that tell you?  U S Steel is the highest taxed steel mill in the U.S. for what?  Why not just get rid of the City of Gary?  It would be the best thing for everyone in NWI, including the people of Gary. 

Being truthful, since no one, has an idea of how to change things, there is no future for Gary.  The choice is a slow glide into oblivion or a fast crash and a less painful end.  At one time Gary had some choices, I discussed them with Mayors Clay and King.  I also talked to mayoral/council candidates and the Gary school board members.  They all nodded their heads but nothing was ever done.  I suspect the reason is that the choices to turn Gary around did not include pocket money for the politicians and that, ever since Hatcher, pocket money has been the ONLY choice that has mattered to the people in-charge.  Now it is by all accounts too late.

Have mercy.  Let it end quickly.

HB 1001 Leaves NWI in the Cold

House Bill 1001, the State budget for the next two fiscal years, was just passed by the House Ways and Means Committee on straight party lines.  It is the Democrat's budget.

The only member of the NWI delegation on the House Ways and Means Committee is Representative Kuzman.  Our other representatives are too busy worrying about whether any citizen is having sex with a chicken or whether any Hoosier citizen is getting too fat in grade school.  None of them have sufficient foresight to look at the most important committee and bill HB 1001 -- who pays the money and who gets the money.

For everywhere but NWI, this is project number one.  For NWI, there is no proportional tax dollars coming back.

When one looks at HB 1001, one sees the same sad story.  It is the worst case of economic un-development that cannot be overcome with another box store.

Basically more tax dollars, (from income, sale, corporate, and property tax), is going to Indianapolis than is coming back to NWI.  That money being taken out of the economy of NWI and not returned, makes NWI that much poorer.  This is hundreds of millions of dollars that can never be made up through retail stores.  As a matter of fact, given the talent of our State legislators, the sales tax collected by the the new retail enterprises actually makes the situation worse.

The State gets richer and NWI gets poorer -- very basic.

But when you look at HB 1001 the one thing that strikes you is that every part of the State is growing faster in terms of tax dollars in, than is NWI.  Guess whose money is that?

The bill now goes to the Senate, which is majority Repulicans.  I have no confidence that the Republicans will do any better for NWI. 

We remain the fools and it is no ones fault but our own.  Neither Indianapolis nor Evansville will look out for us when we cannot take care of ourselves.  We first have to stop being a joke to ourselves, if we expect anyone else to take us seriously.

NWI "money vultures" have Destroyed any Hope for Economic Development

Indiana University Kelly School of Business and Indiana University Northwest’s economics professor Don Coffin released the most comprehensive report of the overall failure of Northwest Indiana’s economic enterprise last week during a presentation to local business people. It was the 2007 economic forecast for Indiana and NWI.

Although this report was a condemnation of everything the political leadership is doing, as well as all its wasted promises and resources, not one member of the business community dared to speak out and condemn what is happening in NWI.

One would have hoped for a little guts from these business leaders; but none was forthcoming.

In reality, the only true business leader in NWI over the past 30 years has been Mr. Don Powers of Munster. Yes for all of you out there, I am aware that Don Powers made money from these developments. So what else is new, this is the United States. However, unlike today's "money vultures" at no time was his son mayor during this development and it was years before his son-in-law became State Representative.

With his vision, he single-handedly created the one substantive growth sector in NWI -- health care. Don Powers actually produced a completely new area of business and industry in NWI, which today, thirty years later, is still NWI's only employment growth area.

In addition, he also single-handedly created what is substantively the best town in Lake County -- Munster. One cannot argue that for all social classes Munster represents the premium-civilized town in NWI be it in education, police service, city service, and business development.  Munster’s only problem is that it is in Lake County.

Finally, while serving on Purdue University's Board of Trustees, he again single handedly focused on Purdue University Calumet becoming a serious player in local higher education, because he alone recognized that without a serious commitment to higher education, all the rest is lost. He would be saddened by the lack of recognition of higher education that has occurred since his tenure ended. This West Lafayette could not allow and the NWI Democrats were being too embarrassed. Therefore, multiple rumors and a whisper campaign were developed with no substance about ethics. The only true substance is the “facts on the ground.”  Those facts are that Don Powers saved NWI and especially Lake County after the demise of steel.  In today world, NWI has neither the ethics nor the ideas.

No one else did it then and there is no one doing it now.

Although Indiana's economy will grow at a 1.5 percent rate, half the national average, NWI will grow even slower, under 1 percent. Except for the Don Powers' miracle, NWI's 20-year demise shows that all the promises and plans of the politicians have been nothing but incompetence and lies.

Sadly, the local politicians have not been the sole culprits. The money vultures that have picked the carcass of NWI for their own financial benefits have joined them.  A good indicator is that during the past decade, only a net of 335 new businesses were established in NWI (a six county area), according to IUN economics professor Don Coffin in the 2007 area economic forecast. This would be believable if we were in the middle of the Mojave Desert. That is not the case. We are a suburb of Chicago, but we are literally moving backward because of the money vultures and their political allies.

The "touted" new businesses developed here are a result of the money vultures and their political allies. In Washington D.C. we used to call them "Beltway bandits.” Here, they would be called the "interstate bandits."  These are the developments of the money vultures around the Borman and Interstate 65.  They feed off the passing traffic and leave the tax bill for the citizens of NWI.  These developments have included, among others, the former Optimist Park area at Kennedy Avenue and the Borman (now to include the site of the demolished Riverside Apartments), the intersection of U.S. 30 and I-65, the development of the new interchange at I-65 and 109th Avenue, and now the Cabela's development.  What all these have in common is, they suck money from the people traveling the highways, but leave nothing of economic value but tax bills to the cities in which they are built.

A perfect example of this pseudo-economic development is the Lighthouse Shopping Outlet in Michigan City.  After forty years, it has made money for the developers and the national retailers, but has done little for the city.  Nor has it had any real consequence for Michigan City’s development.

The solution to this problem is to disengage the money vultures from their political connections in city halls and county government. This is especially true when family ties connect them.  If this relationship is criminal at both the Federal and at the State level, then even if there is no specific law at the County or City level, someone In America sure sees this as fraudulent.

Only when the money vultures are pried apart from their public trough like leeches will serious economic development occur in NWI. Then, and only then, it will be possible to have economic development prioritized through education -- the only route no one in NWI has ever tried.

The "Know-Nothings" Tribes of NWI

It is amazing what little understanding local politicians and civic leaders have of the role of government in economic development.

As the new economy in India has proven over the past 30 years, when it comes to the economy, government does not create anything; it can only nurture the conditions that allow the private marketplace to flourish, allowing for the creation of an economic juggernaut. LaPorte County has recognized this rule of economic development and understands that in Northwest Indiana — especially Lake County — government is the problem.

The underlying factor is not that government makes bad decisions; rather, it is the very nature of NWI’s tribal government. Its purpose is not setting the conditions for economic development; rather, it is setting the conditions for groups of people to achieve economic development and prestige from the government. The Northwest Indiana Regional Development Authority is one of the best institutional examples of NWI governmental ineptness. It makes the ultimate good sense for LaPorte County to reject joining it.

There are people we will call know-nothings, clamoring that this is a lost opportunity. The know-nothings criticize LaPorte County — and especially Michigan City’s government — for not joining the wonderful, forward-looking RDA. These know-nothings are the people who have had the insight on running and improving Lake County the past 15 years in terms of education, housing stock, high-tech jobs and airport development. Are we truly to believe the know-nothings that the RDA was going to be the new panacea for NWI? Maybe it is going to follow in the footsteps of that great panacea called gambling revenue? To the know-nothings, gambling was supposed to be the economic development panacea. It continues to have everything going for it. Lots and lots of money to distribute to the city governments of Hammond, East Chicago and Gary — and lots and lots of money to distribute to county government, which redistributes some of the money to each little town and city in Lake County.

Now, after almost $2 billion from gambling, NWI has higher crime, lower school performance, little new employment, a huge brain drain of its young people, higher education with no substance, and middle-class flight to LaPorte County.

The know-nothings now embrace the RDA. Its airport goal has always been a failure for one major reason — it is surrounded by incompetence. The know-nothing government will not allow it without its tribes benefiting. Then, there is the train to Valparaiso, paid for by the know-nothing governments of Gary, Hammond and East Chicago. There is no benefit for those cities, but rather, the benefit is for the politicians’ tribes.

The bus system is the biggest joke. No one wants it, least of all LaPorte County. It is being promoted by people who never would ride a bus, but this will make money for the politicians’ tribal contractors.

Not a single member of the RDA was placed there for competence — only because of their tribal connections. But you can be assured they will deliver the millions of dollars to the right tribal contractors and consultants.

If there really was a desire for change, people outside the know-nothings’ tribes need to be brought on board. NWI has many such people. A good example is my fellow columnist Joe Gomeztagle.

RDA and Airport Incompetence

Last week I had the pleasure of being a guest speaker at the Merrillville Rotary Club Monthly Meeting.  They are a very nice and well informed group of people as I have always found the various Rotary Club Members to be around NWI.

One of the central points that I made during my talk is that the people responsible, or claim responsibility, for economic development in NWI do not the slightest idea of how to go about it or even what it truly means and entails.  That is they have no conception of what the problem is as to why NWI lags in economic development nor do they have an idea of how to move NWI into self sustaining economic development.

The first poster-child of this state of affairs is Paul Karras, the executive director of the Gary/Chicago International Airport.  The title itself is an oxymoronic statement giving over importance to Gary and its airport.  The sole value economically of the airport is to provide wealth to a group of people associated with Paul Karras.  Competency is not an issue; it is an empirical proof that he has none.  The airport is a failure, who is in charge?  But, Karras does get over $150,000 per year as a consultant; not employee, from the airport.  This is a collusion on the part of the City of Gary and the Airport Board at unadulterated tax evasion.  This is not only unethical but criminal.  When you act as an employee you are an employee according to the IRS.

So kiss off the airport.  It will be nothing more than a method for Mayor Daley to keep pumping money into O'hare, as he should and the area should.  O'hare is the big transportation draw in this part of the Country and nothing is going to change that.  Just because NWI is not attractive to any business period; don't blame it on the airport but on the economic and political leadership that is failing all of us.  The fact is there is no down side to not having an airport; no serious business or any other institution will ever reject NWI if the Gary/Chicago International Airport was turned into a huge shuffle board with Karras as the shuffle board pro.

The moronic "tribe" called NWI citizens cannot learn that competence and performance is what counts in the 21st Century not smoke and mirrors.  In the end, smoke and mirrors, like gambling taxes and know-nothing school boards will be shown for what they are none performing entities when it comes to economic development for the citizenry.  Then it is always too late and everyone wonders how did we get fooled and why did not anyone tell us?  Well I have been telling you for fifteen years -- now listen.

The worse development showing the total lack of competence and performance criteria is the creation of the Regional Development Authority to "permit" NWI to spend its own funds.  On top of that insult is the appointment of the true collection of tribal individuals who were appointed because of their loyalty and ability to perform the necessary tribal dance rather than for any demonstrable capability in the arena of economic development.

The RDA Board is made up of a lawyer, a philosopher, two former bank gophers, a charity fund raiser, and a small business man (no women by the way).  Not a single one of these individuals can make any claim for developing anything, especially in the private sector.  The sole businessman is a small business owner with no knowledge of the workings of economics.  The bankers are lobbyists and back slappers.  Not a single individual has any unique knowledge or experience, scholarly or practically, about economic development.

The result is that the RDA will be allowed to spend NWI's own funds on useless projects, which they are.  The scary part is that they have the authority to bond, i.e. get us into debt for generations to come with no discernible economic value.  In the same way that at bottom line the airport has no demonstrable economic value, except for the Gary Tribalism, none of the other projects that the RDA is involved with has either. 

Well, except for getting Congressman Visckloskey a position at Notre Dame when he retires -- the tribal dance continues.

There is no demand for the buses or the trains -- only in the minds of tree hugging Democrats and the unions doing the work.  But the members of the RDA cannot even form the proper questions to ask as to where they are going, because none have any experience and they are only listening to the "tribes" with a vested interest in the money being spent -- effectively or otherwise on their pet project.

These pet projects have been shown consistently not to bear fruit for the population of NWI.  Yet, all of you seem to keep on listening to the same leadership or now their children as though these people know something.  According to the standard definition of insanity -- guess, in this case, who is insane by even giving lip service to these tribal chieftains.

NWI's Public Leadership is Clueless

Public officials in Northwest Indiana talk a lot about new directions and developments to enhance our future after the end of “King Steel.” Yet, over the last 20 years, nothing has worked and the future does not look any better. NWI’s problem is public officials lacking the leadership for creative ideas and vision.

NWI’s early solution was to place everyone on the public payroll. This was the East Chicago solution and the only one the city ever attempted.

It is still the city with the highest public employment ratio in the country. This is the simplistic and most unsupportable solution.

Then came the “gambling panacea” spearheaded by former mayors Thomas McDermott in Hammond and Thomas Barnes in Gary. This was the golden goose to be used by local officials for infrastructure and economic development.

Gambling in and of itself cannot be economic development; it is the tax that is extracted for the right of having a share of a limited license that is the economic development component. The local public leaders must creatively utilize that tax for it to have any economic development value.

The result from the gambling money over the last 10 years is marginal. To put things in perspective, NWI governments have received more than $1.5 billion in gambling tax revenues since it started. Besides some new wealthy individuals and new concrete and asphalt, there is nothing that is actually going to get NWI citizens into the 21st- century economy.

The sole exception is Hammond’s College Bound program.Its uniqueness in the desert that is NWI proves the point.

The next new savior was the Gary/Chicago International Airport, with its executive director, Paul Karas. He is being paid $150,000/year as a consultant — versus as an employee, like the rest of us, who are not allowed to deduct driving to and from work from our income taxes. This is a combination of Gary ego and individual greed.

Gary's ego is exemplified by former mayor Hatcher.  People really believe that Gary has something that someone outside of Gary is really interested in.  Individual greed is exemplified by the many public officials and their friends who continue to get wealth off the public dole.  This has become a tradition in Gary without the consummate requirement of performance that the white leadership use to require when they stole the money.

The newly announced plan for the airport underscores the lack of understanding of economic development by our public officials. This plan is to attract Delta Airlines to the airport and have Delta fly passengers from Gary to Atlanta to connect to the rest of the world.

Am I the only one who has heard of taking Interstate 294 to Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport, then connecting to the rest of the world?

The underlying assumption of public officials is that they can do this because they received $600,000 of public money to pretend they know what they are doing.

The latest manifestation of incompetent leadership is the Regional Development Authority. The number of incompetent officials involved in its inception is too numerous to mention.

Three things about the RDA: First, its major purpose is to permit NWI to spend its own money.

Second, in terms of economic development, it is focused on introducing NWI to 1950s technology: trains, roads and planes.

Finally, not a single person appointed to the RDA has the slightest knowledge about economic development, nor have they achieved anything in their careers that would indicate they can create a substantial ongoing enterprise. If none of these appointees knows about economic development in the positions for which they are being paid, what makes anyone think they can do any better in a job where they are not being paid?

Positive Economic Developments

For the first time in a long time, I have real optimism because of two significant events that bode well for the future of Northwest Indiana.

The first is Hammond Mayor Tom McDermott’s College Bound program. McDermott’s proposal would provide up to $7,500 annually to children of Hammond property owners for higher education within Indiana. Any Hammond student above a certain grade-point average would qualify.

At its most basic, College Bound will give to deserving Hammond students the opportunity to pursue higher education without having to be concerned about finding sufficient funds. This plan can change the very culture of failure that has permeated the former industrial cities of NWI by making higher education a premier value.

But most importantly, this plan will rejuvenate the home-owning middle class that has been deserting Hammond. This would not be just any middle class, but a middle class that believes in the value of higher education and, therefore, would demand competency on the part of the public school administrators.

The second great event is the announcement by John Aguilera that he will not run for re-election as an area representative in the Legislature. This man simply forgot that he represented NWI and thought he was representing Muncie, Lafayette and Bloomington.

In case you missed it, in my last column, I argued that it is wrong for students attending one state-funded university to get double the monetary support from our state government than do students attending other state-funded universities. I identified Aguilera as one of three officials who were in a position to make a difference, but can’t or won’t.

Well, I hit a nerve. Aguilera sent me a nice letter — well, maybe not so nice — threatening to sue me for defamation of character. I didn’t know you could defame a politician; they usually are pretty good at doing that themselves.

Aguilera is upset. He is not to blame for Purdue University Calumet losing $500,000 per year for higher education.After all, he was only going along with what the administration requested on behalf of PUC. Purdue accepted a budget cut for PUC, PUC administrators didn’t overly object and, according to Aguilera, his only course of action was to comply.

Note to John: that’s the problem. You’re the elected official. Purdue administrators don’t answer to the taxpaying public, but you do. Purdue should not tell you — our elected official — how to spend taxpayers’ money.

PUC administrators won’t ask for more money than what West Lafayette will allow. But you don’t have to play by their rules.Why should you allow more state dollars to go to the education of citizens in other parts of the state and not fight to get equality in higher education funding for citizens in your part of the state?

Aguilera wants a retraction and an apology because he’s no fraud. His legal residence is in East Chicago and, in 2004, the Indiana Election Board said so.

Aguilera is right. That was the ruling of the Indiana Election Board. So what? A “summer” home in Munster? Who lives in East Chicago and “summers” in Munster? Sounds like perpetrating a fraud to me.

What could make me more optimistic? Mayors George Pabey and Scott King following McDermott in making higher education the No. 1 value in NWI by actually putting money where it matters. King could start by helping fund IUN’s clinical research center that Indiana University has offered to build in Gary.