Harrison Square Update
More than a message – Elections have consequences far beyond whatever irritations voters might have.
April 6, 2007
Leo Morris
Leo Morris
Sometimes, people are just fed up at election time and decide it’s time to “send a message” with their votes. But public officials do not view their primary mission as responding to those voter messages. They might or might not end up receiving and acting on signals from the electorate, but politicians also have their own agendas. Elections, to point out the obvious, have consequences far beyond whatever is irritating angry voters. This can be seen in national and state campaigns, and there are clear implications for our upcoming city election.
Voters in the national election might have thought they were sending a message to President Bush about the war in Iraq and to congressional Republicans about their ethical lapses. But they also created a divided government whose actions reverberate in many ways.
Your tax bill might be affected. President Bush and the House and Senate have all prepared Fiscal Year 2008 budget resolutions. Bush’s assumes his tax cuts will be extended beyond 2011. The House and Senate versions assume they will end then, as currently called for in the law. Maybe you don’t think ending the cuts and returning to previous rates is really a “tax increase,” but your bill from the IRS will go up just the same. (Why didn’t Republicans extend the cuts while they were still in power, by the way?)
Immigration policy will almost certainly be different because of the election. President Bush, with Senate Republican support, has favored a policy giving illegal immigrants a path to citizenship – or “amnesty,” if that suits your political sensibilities. The only obstacle was resistance by House Republicans, which the electorate eliminated. You say you don’t want an open-border policy? Too bad.
Hoosier voters may have intended to send a message to Gov. Mitch Daniels that he was moving too quickly on too many controversial issues, such as the Indiana Toll Road lease and daylight saving time. He certainly got that message – he recently gave up, at least for now, his plan for two toll-funded bypasses because of opposition from the public and the Democrat-controlled Indiana House.
But those voters also created a split legislature that has complicated the state’s operations. If Republicans had retained total control, some kind of property tax reform plan would probably already be in place. As it is, there is only a last-minute attempt at reform from a Senate committee. Depending on what does or does not emerge from the legislature, this difficulty could be a good or a bad thing.
Voters also guaranteed that the proposed constitutional amendment banning gay marriage would get derailed, at least for this year; and next year is the last shot to get it passed and put it before voters in a referendum. Again, this might be good or bad depending on your philosophical outlook, but it almost certainly wasn’t what voters were thinking about when they headed into the booths.
When voters go to the polls for the city primary next month and the general election in November, two things will probably be uppermost in their minds. Both the Harrison Square project and the public-smoking ban are hot-button issues that many voters feel passionate about. Harrison Square seems headed for approval, and there has been a lot of talk about “the big shots ignoring all the ordinary people who are against this,” so a certain number of retaliatory votes can be expected. And many smokers and bar and restaurant owners are talking about replacing certain council members.
Harrison Square, though, is likely to be voted on before the primary – and certainly before the general election. So it’s more than just the project itself voters – both pro- and anti-project ones – should be thinking about. Harrison Square represents a certain way of looking at economic development and the relationship between government and the public. What officials think about Harrison Square hints at what they would be like on other issues.
The smoking ban is set to start in June. No matter which candidates get the nod in the primary, the ban will have been in effect for five months before the general election. That means those both for and against it will have some actual history to look at. Were the benefits greater than the negative effects? Will council members who voted for this be more likely to exercise control over other business decisions? Is that good or bad?
Beyond smoking and Harrison Square, there are myriad issues the new council and administration will have to deal with – all those basics such as public safety and infrastructure maintenance, as well as economic development and whatever surprises and emergencies might arise. How can we learn how elected officials will respond to them? The smoking ban can be left alone or modified or thrown away. Harrison Square came up and will be dealt with in one council’s term. What things like it might come up in the next council’s four-year term?
Complicated stuff – voting done right is a lot harder than just learning a little about the candidates and making the best guess. But it is in our best interests to do it right.
