For those of who missed me this morning, I was over at the Indiana Tax Court listening to arguments involving one the recent lawsuits over property taxes. The main issue I was following was the 65-percent increase in the Marion County income tax.

The plaintiffs argued the tax was passed illegally because then City-County Councilor Patrice Abduallah did not live in his district at the time of the tax vote and therefore it was illegal. Attorneys for the city say the complaint should have been dismissed because Abduallah was a “defacto” elected official, which means although he should not have been on the Council there is a strong public policy reason to not overturn the tax increase.

The city’s attorneys did acknowledge that Abduallah did not live in the District and the office was vacant. However, they cited case law where officials who did serve improperly did have their decisions upheld. However, what distinguishes this case from those was the prior knowledge of the County Clerk and constructive knowledge of the Council President, Monroe Gray, that Abduallah did not live in his district.

If the Court were to hold that Abduallah’s vote was valid , this, in my not so humble opinion, would give elected officials cart blanche to break the law and if they get caught the decisions can stay. It is one thing to have an elected official forget to sign an oath of office, it is another thing to blatantly violate the law and there be no penalty.

A decision on whether the case should be dismissed is expected within 10 days.

The 7th Circuit Court of Appeals has dismissed a lawsuit challenging prayers delivered in the Indiana General Assembly. The Court did not rule on the substance of the case but on procedural matters. The court ruled the plaintiffs in the case did not have standing to sue because they could not point to a significant legislative expenditure that supported the prayers.

 The suit was brought back in 2005 and U.S. District federal court judge David Hamilton issued an injunction against the delivering of sectarian prayers. House Speaker Pat Bauer says prayers will resume when lawmakers come back for Organization Day on November 20.

Of course with the massive property tax crisis lawmakers are facing when they come back next session, divine intervention might be exactly what’s needed to solve the problem.

I’ve just finished reading Peterson Plan III, incumbent Mayor Bart Peterson’s plan for the next four years. Having followed the Mayor closely for the past year, there isn’t much new in it. Many of the themes he’s talked about: property taxes, neighborhood building and economic development are nothing new.

The Mayor did however, hit a salient point when talking about education and high school dropouts. I have advocated giving the Mayor control of the schools in the past and make a new argument for it in my monthly column in this week’s upcoming edition of the Indianapolis Business Journal.

I wish the Mayor would have focused on this earlier. By addressing the schools, he could have totally changed the dynamic of this race because schools tie into economic development, crime and property taxes and he would not be in the situation he is today.

  I guess not all Democrats in Indiana are scared Hillary Clinton will bring down the state ticket.  State Chairman Dan Parker and a majority of the other state party officials and district chairs today endorsed Clinton for President. 

This is probably linked to the recent Clinton endorsement by Sen. Evan Bayh.  Shortly after that, House Speaker Pat Bauer endorsed Clinton and said he was doing so at Bayh’s urging.  Bauer said he got a definite indication from Bayh that getting lots of Indiana Demo bigwigs to endorse Hillary would help Bayh’s vice presidential prospects.  Since Evan is the biggest dog on the party list, it would make sense that he’s pulling the state leadership along with him.

  Many Democrats disagree.  They fear that Hillary is too divisive and will drag down Democratic state and local candidates.  Anne DeLaney, who served as state chair when Bayh was governor, is co-chairing the John Edwards campaign here and recently indicated sympathy with that position. 

  One of the endorsers is National Committeeman and former East Chicago Mayor Bob Pastrick, who praised Clinton as a person with an “impressive track record of working across the aisle to get things done.”  Pastrick should know about “getting things done”, since his long reign as mayor was plagued by accusations of corruption linked to illegally doing favors for supporters.  And Hillary might not want to follow his example to the letter, since the Supreme Court tossed him out of office by ruling that he was elected the last time due to voter fraud. 

There are a couple items to report to get the week started and both, in a sense, are related to each other.

First, Mayor Bart Peterson’s campaign has been push-polling over the weekend. I’ve got a number of e-mails from voters who were annoyed at the calls. They say the pollsters talked about Greg Ballard’s lack of political experience and saying that if he got elected he would cut sidewalk repair and other city services. What’s interesting is that the polls seem to be pushing the voters in the other direction. This goes back to my underlying theory that the voters are really angry and there’s not much the Mayor can do about it, except hope they stay home.

Second, on Wednesday, the Indiana Tax Court will hear arguments on the city’s 65 percent tax increase. Attorney John Price says they will argue the tax increase was passed illegally because City-Council member Patrice Abduallah should have never voted because he vacated his seat when he moved out of his district earlier this year. The city argues case law say even when an official is elected improperly they can still serve, however Price says this case is not about elections, but the fact that Abduallah was sitting on the council illegally when the vote was taken. No smart lawyer would ever try to predict what a court would do, but looking at the city’s track record on legal issues (child welfare, violent video games, etc.) I would not be surprised if the tax court came down on the side of the taxpayers.