Eminent Domain rears its ugly head in Indianapolis
Hopefully those of you from the Indianapolis metro area have heard of the plight of the N.K. Hurst Co., an family-run Indiana business who is about to lose its home of 58 years to government-sponsored piracy. Yesterday, the Indianapolis Star reported on the Hurst case (article). According to the article, the state sent a letter to Hurst, who own over four acres of property in the corner of what would be the new stadium's parking lot, announcing their intention to sieze the property and offering what Hurst claims is an entirely inadequate sum for its purchase. The company has gone out of its way to seek alternative solutions to the issue, including offering a land swap and allowing the state unlimited use of its private parking lots during stadium events. According to the state, the siezure of the property on which Hurst's 58-year-old building sits is non-negotiable.
Not only should this anger civil libertarians in Indiana and elsewhere, it ought to alarm those who believe that Indiana's businesses are our future. N.K. Hurst Co. is a business that has been operating in Indiana since before World War II. They've been in their present building since 1947 and it will cost them millions of dollars to relocate, most of which will not be covered by the paltry (but undisclosed) settlement that the state has offered them. I honestly would not be surprised to see this put them out of business permanently if the state wins its eminent domain case and siezes their property.
In addition to being constitutionally questionable and morally reprehensible, this act by the state is yet another indication of the Daniels administration's penchant for determining the outcome of a situation before they work through the details. Time and time again, I've seen (from the inside on too many occasions, sadly) this administration deciding that it wants something done and demanding it be completed at all costs, like a three-year-old child throwing a temper tantrum in a supermarket. Governor Daniels wanted all state government agencies to consolidate their IT departments. That project is moving forward at an alarming pace, with little consideration given to industry best practices or the impact the process will have on the people these agencies are supposed to be serving. A self-serving employee evaluation program is being implemented in state government starting in January that measures performance on a curve, rather than against real world assessments of the levels state government needs to perform at to serve its purpose.
Claims of monetary savings to the people of Indiana as a result of so much change are false. As mentioned in my entry from August 19th, even in my own agency steps to save money have immediately negative impact on the performance of the agency and are often negated by poor spending choices in other areas.
For example, the current unemployment insurance crisis in Indiana, caused when Commissioner Ron Stiver decided to relocate claims deputies to Indianapolis from our field offices (as discussed in the 8/19 entry), is being solved by forcing dozens of non-UI staff members to take time from doing their regular duties to sort through the backlog of claims in an effort to catch up. My own father, a statistician by trade with no experience with claims, is being forced to take two hours out of every Friday to go through these claims. At the same time, he has a myriad of deadlines of his own that will likely go unmet because of the Commissioner's recklessness.
Another side to this mess is the dangerous software licensing situation we're now facing. In order to do some of this "catch up" work on our backlog of UI claims, many people who were not originally licensed to use Microsoft Access are being required to do so. No one in charge had even considered the IT impact of dozens (if not hundreds) of employees suddenly switching functions. Stiver, in grand Daniels tradition, decided that this is what he was going to do and didn't stop to consult anyone who might actually know how it would impact day-to-day operations.
Citizens of Indiana, your government is on the verge of crisis. If DWD is any indication, you may expect service from your public agencies to deteriorate in quality and quantity at an alarming pace as long as Mitch Daniels remains the governor. We can't do anything about it now, but I pray you'll remember this when 2008 comes around.
The scary thing is that this behavior on the part of the Daniels administration does not seem to have originated with Mitch himself. This seems to be an attribute of the modern Republican leadership. From Bush to Daniels to Stiver, they do whatever they want, operating almost above government itself. Consequences are not considered until it is too late. Experts are not consulted. Once the decision is made and we're committed, measures to correct their oversights are often far worse than whatever the action was supposed to correct in the first place.
Please America, vote these idiots out of office at your first opportunity. The Democrats (or, God forbid, Libertarians) who replace them will not be perfect, but they will be different.
-Sam
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