Archive for the ‘Quality Of Life’ Category

Stimulus funds helping Hoosier businesses, non-profits

Tuesday, February 23rd, 2010

Marisa Kwiatkowski of the Times takes a look at the effect that stimulus spending is having here in Indiana, and finds numerous local businesses and non-profits who say they are seeing signs of economic recovery within their own organizations.

HealthLinc’s “miracle” came not a moment too soon, CEO Beth Wrobel said.

The nonprofit organization, which operates community health centers in Valparaiso, Michigan City and Knox, struggled to accommodate a 50 percent increase in patients between 2008 and 2009.

Its savior came in the form of $735,904 in stimulus funds, Wrobel said. HealthLinc used the money to hire another pediatrician and several behavioral health consultants — and to increase its number of exam rooms in Michigan City.

“Not only is it a lifesaver for HealthLinc, it’s a lifesaver for patients,” she said. “I don’t know what we would’ve done if we didn’t have that money.”

HealthLinc was one of at least 25 private agencies in Lake and Porter counties to receive stimulus cash in 2009, according to federal data. The federal government funneled at least $21.5 million in stimulus money to region nonprofits and private businesses last year, a Times analysis of data from the federal government’s Recovery.gov Web site shows.

Posted in Barack Obama, National Politics, Quality Of Life | No Comments »

Grandstanding 101

Tuesday, May 19th, 2009

You’d think, given the fact that state lawmakers will reconvene next month to pass a state budget after failing to do so in the regular session, that Senate Republicans would be hard at work meeting with the Guv to work out a GOP-backed plan, especially considering their last try netted zero Republican votes in the Indiana House.

Instead, they’re sending letters about something over which they have absolutely, positively no control and that doesn’t, in any way, affect the daily operation of state government. And Republicans wonder why they’re headed for the wilderness among moderate voters?

Thirty-one Republican state senators have asked U.S. Sens. Evan Bayh and Dick Lugar to oppose the nomination of an Indiana University law professor nominated by President Barack Obama for a senior position in the U.S. Department of Justice.

In a letter May 15, the state senators said Dawn Johnsen’s advocacy of abortion rights “is more than simply pro-choice — she is pro-choice in an extremely radical way.”

The letter, citing statements and writings by Johnsen, asks Bayh, a Democrat, and Lugar, a Republican, to oppose Johnsen’s nomination to be assistant attorney general for the Office of Legal Counsel in the Justice Department.

“It’s a statement from a very strong pro-life caucus,” said Indiana Senate President Pro Tem David Long, R-Fort Wayne. “It is not based on the fact she is pro-choice, it is based on the fact that she is radically so.”

Johnsen, in response to an e-mail from The Associated Press seeking comment, replied with an e-mail saying that as a nominee she was not to talk with the media.

White House spokeswoman Amy Brundage said Johnsen “will bring unquestioned integrity and a commitment to non-partisan interpretation of the law to the Office of Legal Counsel, and we’re pleased that both of Indiana’s senators have expressed support for her nomination.”

Posted in Congress, IDP News, Indiana General Assembly, National Politics, Quality Of Life, White House | No Comments »

Workers Gather At Statehouse To Rally For Unemployment Benefits

Monday, April 27th, 2009

Thousands of workers gathered this morning at the Indiana Statehouse to send the clear message to lawmakers that unemployment benefits, especially in this economy, should not be cut. The Associated Press reports:

Construction workers are gathering in Indianapolis for a rally at the Indiana Statehouse to protest proposed cuts in unemployment insurance benefits.

Republicans who control the Senate have proposed a plan that would increase employer taxes, reduce benefits for most jobless claimants and tighten eligibility standards. They and Democrats who control the House are trying to negotiate a compromise.

Sheet Metal Workers Local 20 business manager Jay Potesta says that under the GOP plan a worker who is injured on the job would not be eligible for unemployment compensation.

The rally was scheduled for midday Monday.

The state’s unemployment insurance fund has been paying out hundreds of millions of dollars more in benefits than it has been collecting in employer taxes.

Posted in Indiana General Assembly, Quality Of Life | No Comments »

Guv Hides From Terrible Environmental Record

Wednesday, April 22nd, 2009

Indiana is doing pretty poorly on environmental issues, according to this story in today’s Indianapolis Star:

Environmental comparisons can be difficult because of oceans of complex data generated and evaluated in different ways. But it seems that no matter who is compiling the survey — or what aspect of the environment is being measured — Indiana consistently ranks near the bottom.

So, what the guy who’s supposed to be safeguarding our environment have to say about his administration’s commitment to cleaning up our state?

Gov. Mitch Daniels’ office declined to comment for this story.

It must be a lonely life spending all that time hiding from the big issues.

Posted in Mitch Daniels, Quality Of Life, State Agencies | No Comments »

Dems’ Plan Would Preserve Workers’ Benefits

Tuesday, April 21st, 2009

House Democrats have proposed an unemployment insurance fund plan that wouldn’t hurt the unemployed Hoosiers who rely on the program to get them through tough times. Republicans, on the other hand, had put a plan on the table that would have cut some payments and eliminated benefits altogether for certain types of workers. The Associated Press reports:

Employers would pay higher taxes under a revised proposal Indiana House Democrats presented on Monday as a way to fix Indiana’s bankrupt unemployment insurance fund.

The taxes employers would pay into the fund overall would be higher than House Democrats originally proposed, at least initially, and the new plan still would not cut benefits paid to the jobless.

Republicans who control the Senate have proposed a plan that they said was balanced because it would increase employer taxes, reduce benefits for most jobless claimants and tighten eligibility standards. The parties are trying to negotiate a compromise by the April 29 deadline for adjourning this year’s session.

Rep. David Niezgodski, D-South Bend, said the revised House Democrat plan would fix a fund that has been paying out hundreds of millions of dollars more than it has been collecting in employer taxes. The fund has borrowed more than $700 million from the federal government to stay solvent, a figure that could top $1.2 billion by year’s end.

Posted in Indiana General Assembly, Quality Of Life, State Agencies | No Comments »

Indiana Unemployment Rate Hits 10 Percent

Friday, April 17th, 2009

Outside of Michigan, Indiana now has the worst unemployment rate in the Midwest, according to March 2009 data released today by the Department of Workforce Development. So much for all the Guv’s talking points during his first term:

The Indiana Department of Workforce Development (DWD) today released Indiana’s March employment report.

Indiana’s preliminary seasonally-adjusted unemployment rate in March was 10.0 percent. Indiana’s 0.6 percent month-to-month unemployment gain from February equals increases in Kentucky and Michigan. Illinois recorded a 0.5 percent increase. Ohio reported a 0.2 percent rise in unemployment.

Of Indiana’s neighboring states, Michigan continues to lead the region in unemployment at 12.6 percent. Kentucky stands at 9.8 percent. Ohio’s unemployment rate is 9.7 percent and Illinois reports 9.1 percent.

Indiana’s seasonally-adjusted unemployment rate last topped 10.0 percent from October 1981 to November 1983. It peaked at 12.8 percent in November 1982. Indiana’s unemployment rate stood at 5.3 percent in March 2008.

Posted in Mitch Daniels, Quality Of Life, State Agencies | No Comments »

More Problems For DWD

Monday, April 6th, 2009

UPDATE: It’s never a good sign when a state agency has to put out updates on prior updates that make said agency look unresponsive and disorganized:

Media Advisory
For Immediate Release

Please be advised that all eligible payments were posted to individual debit card accounts by 2:57 p.m. (EDT).

Today the Indiana Department of Workforce Development processed and posted nearly 200,000 individual deposits to nearly 100,000 claimants. Each Claimant receives two deposits per week, one for their weekly unemployment benefit and a second reflecting the $25 increase from the federal stimulus legislation.

-30-

EARLIER: Could someone please explain what is going on at the Indiana Department of Workforce Development these days? First, a federal report showed the agency breaking all sorts of rules and laws, and now comes this press release. The big question: Where the heck is Mitch Daniels hiding?

Media Advisory
For Immediate Release

The Indiana Department of Workforce Development (DWD) is aware that many media outlets are receiving calls from unemployment insurance claimants about today’s deposit of funds.

Please assure your consumers that all eligible payments will be paid in full by 4:00 p.m. today.

Due to slower than usual computer processing, it took greater time to finalize today’s payments to individual debit cards. DWD and ACS will work to adjust individual accounts that were charged additional ATM and bank customer service fees due to this delay.

Below is a statement from Marc Lotter, Communications Director, Indiana Department of Workforce Development.

“Every eligible unemployment insurance benefit will be paid in full by 4:00 p.m. today. The Indiana Department of Workforce Development apologizes to our claimants if this computer delay caused any hardship.”

-30-

Posted in Mitch Daniels, Quality Of Life, State Agencies | 2 Comments »

Study Shows Staggering Number Of Hoosiers Uninsured

Friday, March 27th, 2009

Think access to health insurance isn’t a major issue in our state and nation right now? Check out this survey, reported in the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette, that shows almost one-third of Hoosiers under 65 didn’t have health insurance at some point over the past two years:

Twenty-nine percent of Hoosiers younger than 65 lacked health insurance at some point during 2007-08, according to a report released Thursday.

The U.S. Census Bureau reports the number of people who don’t have health insurance for the full previous calendar year. But the data collected by Families USA, an advocacy group that promotes universal health insurance, also include those who were uninsured for a portion of the 2-year period studied.

Based on this calculation, about 1.6 million Hoosiers were uninsured, including 1.1 million who were uninsured for six months or more.

Nationally, one in three people younger than 65 was uninsured at some point during 2007-08, or about 86.7 million Americans. That compares with 45.7 million people who were deemed uninsured for the entire 2007 calendar year, according to Census Bureau data.

“At this point, almost everyone in the country has had a family member, neighbor, or friend who was uninsured,” Ron Pollack, executive director of Families USA, said in a statement “and that’s why meaningful health care reform can no longer be kept on the back burner.”

Ethnic minorities were disproportionately affected. In Indiana, 53 percent of Hispanics and 42.3 percent of blacks were uninsured, compared with 26.4 percent of whites, according to the report by Families USA.

Lower-income Hoosiers were more likely to be uninsured, and most uninsured Hoosiers in the report – 77.4 percent – came from working families.

Posted in Barack Obama, Congress, Quality Of Life, White House | 3 Comments »

It’s Raining, It’s Pouring

Monday, March 23rd, 2009

Gov. Mitch Daniels continues to oppose dipping into the state’s “Rainy Day Fund” to pay for critical services. If this current economic downturn doesn’t qualify as a thunderstorm, what does? To wit:

Updated projections from Indiana’s economic forecasters are expected to knock more than a billion dollars out of the state’s already pinched bottom line.

Analysts will update their projections next month, a couple of weeks before legislators finalize the state’s next budget. Governor Mitch Daniels expects the projection for the next two years to slide by another $1.2 billion or so, and says budgeters need to start planning accordingly now.

The state already downgraded its forecast for what’s left of this fiscal year in December. In three months since then, the state has missed even those reduced targets by $217 million.

Daniels is repeating his insistence on pulling back hard on state spending, leaving reserves intact as a failsafe.

“You simply have to make some decisions you’d rather not make, but we’ve shown an ability to do that,” Daniels says.

The governor has been similarly adamant about not using federal stimulus money to prop up the budget, warning that spending the money on regular expenses instead of one-time projects will leave the budget in worse shape when the stimulus ends in two years.

Shouldn’t we at least consider using some of the state’s excess cash to fund unemployment benefits or make sure those who most need social services are able to get them in these tough times? Now, while thousands of hard-working Hoosiers struggle to make ends meet, does not seem to be the best time sit on top of a pile of gold like Scrooge McDuck.

Posted in Indiana General Assembly, Mitch Daniels, Quality Of Life | No Comments »

Be Well: Indiana Fares Poorly In National Survey

Thursday, March 12th, 2009

It sure would be interesting to know what Gov. Mitch Daniels, who likes to tell everyone we’re doing fine, just fine, thinks about this Gallup survey showing Indiana at the back of the national pack for overall well-being.

Indiana ranks near the bottom in a new nationwide survey of well-being that queries people on mental, physical and economic health.

The massive survey of Americans’ daily lives — from how they are treated on the job to whether they had access to fresh fruits and vegetables — is designed to create a sort of Dow Jones industrial average for policymakers dealing with health care.

Indiana ranked 45th among the 50 states for overall well-being in the Gallup-Healthways survey.

“We’re always at the bottom of these,” Rep. Charlie Brown said. The Gary Democrat heads the House Public Health Committee. “It is beyond the pale why we are falling so far behind.”

What did our state’s leader have to say about the study?

Gov. Mitch Daniels’ office did not respond to a request for comment.

Funny, he always seems to have some talking points ready when it’s good news.

Posted in Mitch Daniels, Quality Of Life | 3 Comments »