Sweeping Changes to Local Government

Local government will likely see drastic changes soon, as Governor Mitch Daniels asked volunteers to serve on the blue ribbon Indiana Commission for Local Government Reform. Over the past several months these members have been working on examining and developing recommendations, and the commission members recently submitted 27 specific recommendations to streamline local government and reduce costs in their final report.

Of course, changes do not come without hardship, and the Commission acknowledges this. In fact, they say sweeping changes will not be easy and write in their report that their recommendations will be "disruptive, even painful, in the short run". Nonetheless, they also write "We've got to stop governing like this."

Some of their recommendations included:

*Establish a single-person elected county chief executive.
*Consolidate emergency public safety dispatch by county or multi-county region.
*Move the funding of child welfare from counties to the state.
*Reorganize school districts to achieve a minimum student population of 2,000.
*Reorganize library systems by county and provide permanent library service for all citizens.
*Prohibit employees of a local government unit from serving as elected officials within the same local government unit.

To learn more, you can read the entire report here:
http://indianalocalgovreform.iu.edu/asse...

Indiana Foreclosure Rate: 1 Out of Every 516

The Indianapolis Business Journal reported the other day that 1 out of every 516 Indiana homeowners was in one stage of foreclosure or another in October, ranking the state ninth in the country. They also stated that this figure is up 19.3% from September and 50.7% from a year ago. By comparison, they wrote that Nevada ranked first in the nation with 1 foreclosure for every 154 homeowners.

Court: Be a Man!

As often as we all say that our legal system is broken, this judge's recent court decision may reinstate our faith in it.

In November, the Indiana Court of Appeals ruled that an unwed father must pay back Medicaid for at least 50% of the birthing expenses, according to Indiana statute. Doing so does not violate the father's rights, as he tried to argue unsuccessfully.

The father of the child argued "that I.C. § 31-14-17-1 violates the Equal Protection Clause of the United States Constitution because it requires the father of a child born out-of-wedlock to reimburse the infant's birthing expenses to Medicaid while no similar obligation exists for a married father." (Can you believe he tries to shirk responsibility by using the U.S. Constitution?!)

But it gets even more ridiculous with this excerpt from the case:

"Meneses now claims that he is treated differently from married fathers in that only fathers with children born out-of-wedlock are held responsible for fifty percent of the child's birthing expenses. See I.C. § 31-14-17-1. If unmarried to the mother, a man has no legal obligation to provide any type of support on behalf of the child, until paternity is established; whereas, on the other hand, a familial support obligation is inherently associated with a marriage."

To these futile arguments, the judge wrote in her opinion that requiring men to provide for children born out of wedlock and reimburse medical expenses is a legitimate goal because it requires a man to accept financial responsibility similar to what married men do voluntarily.
For the whole published opinion, please see:

http://www.state.in.us/judiciary/opinion...

Great Book Suggestions

With this post, I thought I'd list some of the best business and investing books I've found lately.
One of the best on "investments systems" is the "The Richest Man in Babylon" by George S. Clason. It dispenses timeless investment principals and sage wisdom, not the latest investment fad. I'll admit that it isn't the easiest of books to read because of the proverb-style text though.

A great book to prepare for any interviewing situation is "101 Great Answers to the Toughest Interview Questions" by Ron Fry. The title pretty much describes what it is about and how it is written, so just pick up a copy for a lot of superb advice. It's also a great gift for high school and college graduates -- or that seemingly forever unemployed family member that's just holding out for management.

"The Magic of Thinking Big" by David J Schwartz, PhD was written sometime back, and some parts are obviously dated when you start to read it, such as what he considers a wonderful salary for a top-notch salesman. Nonetheless, it's a great book with a very positive attitude, essentially telling its readers that sometimes the only person holding us back is ourselves. There's a lot more to it than that though, and it's such an easy read that you should be able to fly through it in one evening.

One book I like because I can actually put names and faces to the descriptions in this book is "The Cashflow Quadrant" by Robert T. Kiyosaki. In it he describes four different quadrants and who is in each one. I'll warn you that Kiyosaki tends to be wordy and somewhat vague in his series of Rich Dad, Poor Dad books as a whole, but I believe this is one of the best in his series.

Although I don't care for his on-air TV antics, which basically makes it just stupid to watch, Jim Cramer did write a very good book called "Confessions of a Street Addict" about five years ago. I find his intensity is very entertaining, while he gives his readers the real story of how people make money on Wall Street. Before he started pushing noise-making buttons on his show, Mad Money, he was a very successful hedge fund manager with let's call it "psychotic anger management issues".

There you have it: five great books!

It's Friday, Here's Your 6-Pack!

In the stock market lately, several great names have been at great prices in my opinion.
Companies like Pfizer (PFE), German American (GABC), Cedar Fair (FUN), Kimball International (KBALB), Duke Realty (DRE), and Bank of America (BAC) all have some local ties too. Two are headquartered in nearby Jasper (GABC & KBALB), PFE has a plant in Terre Haute, and DRE is headquartered in Indianapolis. Of course, BAC is everywhere.

All are paying healthy dividends rivaling top-paying CD rates, while having the potential to have a nice run up in the coming years, as soon as everyone figures out if the nation is in a recession or not. Some would even call these picks "defensive" since pharmaceuticals tend to do well when the overall economy isn't, and KBALB has a strong balance sheet to weather some storms too.

Notice that this "6-pack" of stocks is in different industries. (Well, there are two banks I guess, although one is nationwide and the other has a footprint in Southern Indiana only.) This is key because a diversified 6-pack will perform typically as follows: two will perform very well, two will just tread water, and two will lag. You just have to expect and accept that going into it.

Oh, and in case you began reading this thinking you were going to get free beer, you can always try Anheuser-Busch (BUD) as a long-term keeper. After all, they have a great business: when times are good people drink, and when times are bad they drink... they pay a little less in dividends (about 2.5% right now) though.