Besides, it's bad form to correct a project while it's being investigated by the Feds for land fraud.
The IEDC was the public/private partnership (on the standard model: public money and private deals) Daniels got the Legislature to replace the fusty old Commerce Department with, either because existing regulations would have slowed down his henchmen plucking the thing like a chicken, or because none of 'em thought of sticking "Freedom" in the title somewhere. The IEDC had a three-pronged mission: 1) make it sound like Mitch Daniels was ushering in an era of New Economic Leadership instead of Old Shady Dealings; 2) to hold the funnel while tax abatements and development funds found their proper mark, and to hold the microphone while the beneficiaries thanked Mitch Daniels for Indiana's great business climate; and 3) to exaggerate the Jobs created by such Creative Jobs Creation Events by at least a thousandfold. And as a result of the new law, Hoosiers will now be able to get a look at (2).
Pence had already brought back the Commerce Department without eliminating its doppelgänger, apparently on the grounds that you don't fire the cook until you've counted the knives. The original bill also would have required the IEDC to report specific job numbers for each company being suckled, but that requirement was dropped from the final bill after objections. From the IEDC.
Earlier this year the General Assembly effectively killed Daniels' Coal Gasification Plant deal (which, irony of ironies, had been eagerly supported by the General Assembly at the time) by reneging on its promise to make the project profitable in perpetuity. This caused our "partner" in the deal, Leucadia National, to announce that, under the circumstances, the project just didn't look profitable to them any more.
For some reason, no one mentioned the 600,000 jobs that will be lost.
2 comments:
Should have heard Mitch's words at Purdue commencement today. Much about the burden of the deficit, and how awful it is that today's grads will be stuck with it. He may have left politics, but politics hasn't left him.
Coming from Mitch Daniels, GEORGE BUSH'S BUDGET DIRECTOR, I thought this was rich, to put it mildly. This is the guy who was budget director when we went from a $200 billion surplus to putting the deficit on the E train to fucking Mars, but that's all gone straight down the memory hole...
Either you realize what an incredible phony Mitch is or you've been snowed. What I still don't get is why the local media (present company excluded) crowned him king while he was in office. They NEVER asked hard questions about I-69 construction/land sales, non-compete in toll road sale, Leucadia, etc. until it was certain that he wasn't running for higher office and he was three steps from the door. And he closed every social service known to mankind so good luck to women, the handicapped, the poor or anyone who wasn't born with a silver spoon in their mouth.
What I did think was funny is that I know of two Purdue graduates who told Purdue fundraisers that they wouldn't donate as long as he was there. We'll have to see if he dismantles some of their schools and programs all in the name of "budgeting."
Post a Comment