Major disagreements over 'Major Moves' at Crackerbarrel

By FRANK PHILLIPS
frankphi@hotmail.com
According to anecdotes told at Saturday's Clay County Crackerbarrel political meeting, the people of Indiana are united against leasing the Indiana Toll Road to foreign companies, but the Legislature is split along party lines.
During the question and answer portion of the program, one woman in the audience opposed the lease, saying it would take away jobs now being performed along the Interstate.
Rep. Clyde Kersey (D-Terre Haute) said there are 590 jobs at stake because of the I-80 toll road lease provision of Gov. Mitch Daniels’ Major Moves proposal.
Sen. Richard Bray (R-Martinsville) supports the proposal, saying “a few more jobs” may be created as a result of the lease.
“The jobs aren't going away,” he said, adding that unions support the governor's plan because it will take union employees to maintain the highway and do other jobs needed along the Interstate that runs near the Michigan's border in northern Indiana.
Bray believes a private company will do a better job maintaining the toll road than the state is doing.
That prompted another attendee, Steve Lamb, to say privatization of the food service at Indiana prisons resulted in less quality rather than better quality food.
“It sure looks like Indiana has a big 'for sale' sign on it,” Lamb said.
Rep. Vern Tincher (D-Riley) responded by saying he has eaten at the Wabash Valley Correctional Facility. Sen. Bray agreed when he said, “We never determined what kind of meat was served that day.”
David Schopmeyer mans a call center at the Statehouse, taking comments from constituents. He said the calls he received were running 150-to-1 against the proposed 75-year lease to an Australian-German company.
But, Rep. Andy Thomas (R-Brazil) also supports the governor's plan.
In a handout titled “This Week IN Session,” Thomas wrote, “This is a 10-year, $10.6 billion plan to provide infrastructure investment in Indiana, including building new highways and repairing existing ones. Under the current version, Clay County would receive $290,191.54 each year over the next three years.”
Thomas left before the question and answer session began. However, during his presentation at the start of the meeting, Thomas said the state has only two options to continue maintaining the state’s roads: accept Gov. Daniels’ Major Moves intiative or borrow money and raise the gas tax by 40 cents per gallon, “and that won't happen.”
Kersey spoke after Thomas.
HB 1008, the Major Moves bill, sparked a four-hour debate, the longest debate over a single bill Kersey’s colleagues could recall, he said. Kersey’s mail is running 80 percent against foreign control of American public property, such as the toll road.
One provision of HB 1008 that is causing Kersey “great concern” is a non-compete clause that would penalize the state if traffic chooses to travel nearby U.S. 20 or other roads, 10 miles on each side of the toll road. The provision would allow the foreign companies, Macquarie of Australia and Cintra of Spain, to charge the state for the difference.
Tincher would also like to see the toll road remain under state control.
“I think we should do what Texas did,” he said.
Before that state leased a highway to a foreign company, it spent money to hire experts to determine the long-range implications of the contract before signing. Texans wanted to decide what was best for Texas. Tincher thinks Major Moves is moving too quickly for wise decisions to be made on a contract that will obligate Hoosiers for 75 years.
“To do (the contract) in three months is a real concern,” he said. “Is it a good deal? I don't really know.”
Bray joined Thomas in supporting Major Moves.
“I don't like globalization, but that is history,” he said.
British Petroleum is a large investor in Indiana and the state was glad to get the Isuzu plant, he said.
“It's a fact of life," Bray said. "(Globalization) is here. I'm glad to see $3 billion coming into the country, not leaving it."
About 40 people attended the crackerbarrel at the Jackson Township Firehouse Saturday morning.

Aspire, aspire, aspire

Goldie Hawn is on "Larry King" tonight.

A few minutes ago, a caller asked her, "What advice do you have for aspiring performers?"

She said, "Aspiring is good. Keep aspiring ... Keep loving what you do. Do community theater." Do whatever you can and keep loving it, which got me thinking and reminiscing ...

I also got an e-mail from my old boss tonight. He and his wife are coming to Brazil to see "Guys & Dolls" at the Lark Theatre with Linda and me this Thursday.

Since 1994 I have been fortunate to work in news full time as a reporter and as an editor. Most of the time as both.

In 1994, Dick allowed his program director to hire me as news director at WCVL-WIMC, Crawfordsville, Ind.

I had about 25 years of "experience" as a a free-lance writer and part-time radio performer before then.

I remember one night, waking up from a dream, while I was involved full-time in another profession. The dream was about me working in radio in a studio with wood-grain paneled walls. And when I awoke, I was almost in tears because the dream was so beautiful.

Little did I know that within a matter of months I would be working in radio full-time.

Not as a DJ. I didn't like disk jockey work. I didn't like playing the same songs over and over.

In 1978, I worked full-time for WCVL. I was hired as a DJ and began producing short-form pieces to be dropped into my evening radio show. I did interviews with people like the guy who ordered giant jaws to move illegally parked cars and the man who built an igloo and then camped out in it with his son. Quirky stuff.

Then, I was the host of "Girl Talk" in the mornings for a short time. I remember interviewing two ladies promoting a golf outing one day. I told them (off the air) I was nervous because my wife was to learn if she was pregnant that day.

She was and I went back into the ministry, partly because I had a wife and child to support and thought the ministry was more secure than radio. What a laugh!

In 1994 I started getting up at 3 a.m. to pick up the police blotter information at the city police station and be ready to go on the air by 6:30. I learned to write fast, for the ear, with my audience in mind.

But four years later, on a Saturday, after working 50-60 hours that week, I took a nap on the couch and woke up with my legs and arms jerking uncontrollably. I felt I needed to make a change.

Fortunately (I guess) I was able to get on the local newspaper as a reporter. I learned to write (not so fast) for the eyeand how to package stories for the front page with art (photos, etc.). I was soon editing the weekend entertainment "tab".

Now, I am the editor of The Brazil Times, in Brazil, Ind. I've been doing this for about five years and find it's like riding my motor scooter. If I think I've got the job mastered, something comes along and bites me in the ass. Always something I didn't see coming.

But when I think about doing something else for a living, nothing, virtually nothing comes to mind.

As a child I would get bored while my parents played pinochle and walk around the table, shouting out the cards in each person's hand.

I am not only a teller of tales, but I am a voyeur. I love to tell the world what other people are doing. Especially politicians. I love to tell people the things they want to talk to their friends about. Nothing thrills me more than to overhear someone say, "Did you read in The Times ...?"

I welcome the current move of combining audio and visual content with print journalism in Web pages, blogs and other online content. For I still love talk radio. WBBM and WCBS do a great job on the commercial radio side. But I find myself listening to public radio more and more.

So, in my very much less than successful way, I would agree wholeheartedly with Goldie Hawn. Aspire. Aspire, and keep on aspiring and loving what you do. Not for money but because you love doing it.