IS IT TRUE October 10, 2013

1. I heard on the today show that the approval rating for Congress was 5%.

   Also, a heads-up for everyone. Gas is going to go up in Evansville today. Fill up before it does.

   • Correct and we put that in IIT. Another tidbit of polling is that the RCP average of polls now shows that 71% think the country is on the wrong track and 52% are opposed to ObamaCare.

     • Councils,Congress,innovation. ?

       “Fugit inreparabile tempras.”
       (Virgel)
       “irretrievable time flie’s.”

       “Finis coronat opus.”
       (Ovid)
       “The ending crowns the work”

       Data et accepta.

       Expenditure and receipts.

2. It is true that the President polls badly, but it also true that Congress polls worse, Republicans poll worse than Democrats, and the President will not be running again.
   Btw, the poll you cite is considered something of an “out-lyer”. Others poll POTUS at 40-ish.
   The Republicans in Congress are aware of this. That, along with the displeasure of the Kochs, is what is driving the temporary, partial “deal” that will likely happen today.

   • Elkay, you’re going to be wore out defending this president before his term is over. Obama democrats remind me of the guy that goes out and buys a Corvette on an emotional whim, then goes home to his wife and 4 kids and tries to logically justify it.

     • Yeah maybe we can return the Bush tax cuts and the Iraq war for at least a store credit, not to mention the massive deregulation that was a part in the Great Recession.

       Obama has the lowest increase in govt spending in 60 years, and neither Congress nor the President can directly control the revenue side.

       Net worth(Assets-Liablilities) of the US is up $25T under Obama, while it declined under W the Lesser.

       In others words, FAIL.

   • See response to other comment. We reported the AP because I heard it on NPR driving home yesterday. It is the most recent poll. 40 ish is not good and your are correct that Congress has a lower approval rating than root canals.

     • I think Gallup came out today. Congress is lower than any point in history and POTUS is only 5% above G.W. Bush at his worst. Alan Grayson says hemorroids and dog poop poll better than Congress. I just want to see this mess get cleared up and let us move on. I hope to see a year debt ceiling raise ASAP and the shut down ended.

     • It is you’ve, not your.

       • I should have said you’re, not you’ve.

         • Actually should have just been “you”, since it was followed by “are”. 😉

3. I think you are (as usual) distorting the numbers. I just looked at RCP, and Obama is 44.3 approve to 50.4 disapprove. Care to update your paragraph above. You are CLEARLY cherry-picking the poll that slants the most against Obama instead of reporting the average.

   RCP shows that Congress has an approval of 10.5 and a disapproval of the enormous amount of 82.0.

   • I believe I heard that POTUS averages around 45 in the polls, which is still not good, but his polling doesn’t matter a lot as he will not ever be a candidate for office again. The far right seems to want to be able to stop him from being President, and I guess making his numbers look bad makes them think they can diminish his place in history.

   • We did not distort anything. We reported the AP poll that came out yesterday and you have found the RCP average of polls which contains the AP poll in its average. We chose the AP poll because I heard it on NPR yesterday and Googled it. Here is a link.

     http://hotair.com/archives/2013/10/09/ap-poll-obama-at-37-approval/

4. One of the faults of our government is that they govern by popularity rather than integrity.

   • There are some people in government that have a great deal of integrity, and they are aware that we are a country of laws. We do not govern by opinion polls.

     • We just have a president that selectively upholds which ever laws he likes or not like (for political reasons) and illegally amends others after they became law such as the ACA.

     • As many times that BHO has changed the ACA after it was passed, he would be one that has no integrity.

5. Because I’d like to personally thank him or her, I’d like the editor to give credit to the person who brought it to the city council’s attention that they neglected to honor Curt John’s motion to freeze the county homeowners’ sewer rate surcharge until a study is completed that justifies the obviously unjustified rate differential.

   And I’d like to remind the city council that on several occasions, both person to person, and in front of the council, although not recently, I have encouraged them to give justification for the unreasonable surcharge rate for county users, although they usually just give you that blank stare.

   As I pointed out, at the meeting when Curt John graciously made his motion, the 35% surcharge was only about $15 difference between county and city rates for a typical household. Now, after the last two rate increases, the differential is nearly $20. Moreover, after the three annual rate increases just approved, the same household in the county will pay about $50 more per month than the same usage inside the city limits. There will be no end to the exponential surcharge differential since it is percentage based rather than flat rated.

   The only rationale the water department ever offered was the distance that sewage has to be piped from a county residence compared to a city residence. But now that the city has annexed areas all the way out to and just past I-164 on the east side, those new areas pipe sewage much farther than many county residences on the north side.

   Where’s the justification for the 35% surcharge?

   And thank you sincerely, whoever it was that recently reminded the city council they have not yet produced the promised study or justification for this unfair rate differential.

   • You’re absolutely right about that, Bill. What a mess this city is! I’m not saying that because of political leanings, I’m saying it because it is true and has been through a lot of administrations.

     • I didn’t make my comments based on partisan politics either. It’s been the same situation since the Russ Lloyd, Jr. administration initiated the 35% rate surcharge. So, it’s been through several council and administration changes, as well as the consolidation debate. That’s not in any way my issue.

       And I know the rate increases were needed to complete the storm sewer projects on the Southeast Side. Now the rate increases are needed to complete the federally mandated combo sewer separations, etc. I understand and accept all that.

       What I want is a fair, flat rate surcharge or no surcharge at all. This 35% crap represents an unjustified, unfair, exponentially escalating surcharge imposed by city council members for whom the county rate payers of the surcharge cannot vote.

       • Due to decades of neglect and the EPA mandate on CSO the Evansville Water & Sewer department has been targeted as the new goose that lays the golden eggs. Organized labor is all-in on spending in support of their jobs, and the former mayor of Evansville is up to his eyeballs in the bonding of the water & sewer departments current projects. I believe the lawyer lingo is that you “eat what you kill”, and according to some recently released figures on W&S Dept. bonding, Mr. Weinzapfel should be “eating” well nowadays.

         This water department debt is going to require very close monitoring in order to protect ratepayers from excessive charges brought about by fast-tracking these projects at a rate the customers payments can not match.

         __

6. thanks CCO for reporting that barry husseins poll numbers are below Mr. Bush at the same time in his second term……..the tea party for smaller government is about to take over…….to bad the courier and press are kept people and are scared to report the poll results……..

   • Observation; Your local newspaper and one broadcast station it seems from afar, sometimes meet the requirements of an old axiom.
     When, to be known, the preference would be the latter.

     asinus asinum fricat

     The ass rubs the ass. ….(; conceit flatters each other about qualities not owned by themselves )

     aurea mediocritas

     The golden mean….(;the goodness and truth is generally found in the middle…(ethical goal.)

     • ah yes I agree ass to ass donkey to donkey liberal compassion to the poor as long as they are using other peoples money……the golden mean disagree there is the ethical truth and the unethical untruth no goodness in between……

       • tolerabiles ineptiea.

         bearable abusurdities.

7. I was just wondering who the next Mayor will be who goes to jail for taking $$$$$$$$$$$$$$ do you think he could be from Evansville..

   Former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick was sentenced Thursday to 28 years in prison for corruption, after a series of scandals destroyed his political career and helped steer a crisis-laden city even deeper into trouble.

8. Hey Joe, what’s the Republican dominated house’s approval rating? Biased writing. I swear if a bird **it on your head on your way out the door tomorrow morning it would be Obama’s fault.

   • Hey John, I do not see any polls on the republicans in the house. I see plenty on congress as a whole. The approval is between 5% and 10%. That clearly is testimony that the people of this country are disgusted with both republicans and democrats. As for the President, that 37% approval says enough about what the majority thinks about his performance too. What does where a seagull relieves itself have to do with anything?

   • Could be that both are disgusted with Washington and the over reach of the central government.
     http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/mood_of_america/generic_congressional_ballot

   • I’m tired of blindly assigning blame to Obama for every single problem. It shows ignorance. The deck was stacked heavily against Obama from day one. Sadly, if you don’t quack like the protoypical rich good ole boy, you’re dead on arrival.

     • And I am tired of seeing the GOP blindly being blamed for every problem. It shows ignorance. And in what fashion was the deck stacked heavily against Obama?

       • Is that a serious question? Wow.

         • Someone took their arrogance pills this morning.

9. I’m very surprised that Curt John took a pro sprawl position but not the least bit surprised that McGinn did. These types of financial positions are right down his alley. It is the issue of sprawl where we really understand who knows how to financially manage a city and who doesn’t.

   Everyone knows that the parks dept shouldn’t be expanding parks when they are currently unable to take care of existing ones. Everyone knows that we shouldn’t be closing down fire stations that aren’t being replaced by better combined stations. And everyone knows that we shouldn’t keep letting our sewer system erode.

   But what everyone doesn’t know is that we shouldn’t be expanding our sewer system when we are staring down a lawsuit that is heading for a billion dollars. Yes, it was a complete mistake to put sewer lines in the county and yes they are already intact. But that doesn’t mean present day rate payers should have to pay the same price to maintain and run lines further out than they live in the city. It also doesn’t mean that city and county should pay the same, thus encouraging more sprawl.

   And yes, I do understand that some in the county live closer to the water and sewage plants than some in the city. I am in complete agreement that the lines need to be redrawn in some areas. But I’m not in agreement that the whole entire sewer system in the county should be on the same rates as the city, nor am I in agreement that a rural lifestyle couldn’t be closer to sewage lines than an urban lifestyle and thus the need to protect it with higher sewer rates for anyone who shall come up with the idea of developing those areas.

   Heck in the act of fairness, pull the GPS on out again (still waiting on the ball fields results). Building father away requires more funds, thus more charges. The fact that these lines kept getting put in while existing sewers were neglected is all the proof as to why leveling the paying rates is a financial disaster just waiting to happen.

   You can either take a pro fix the sewers position or a pro expand the system and level the pay rates position. You cannot take both. You are complaining about needing a solution while advocating for a problem at the same time.

   • First off, Curt John did not necessarily take a “pro sprawl stance.” On this issue, he took a pro fair stance.

     Secondly, we in the county are not particularly asking for the exact same sewer rate as the city users. We are asking for a fair rate, and if we are charged a surcharge, we are asking that it be a flat rate, fair rate, and not some arbitrarily imposed, unjustified excessive and exponentially escalating rate imposed by a council over whom we have no political control. Do you not understand that?

     Now, as to your incessant use of the “urban sprawl” blanket definition. Do you not understand that the City extended the water and sewer trunk lines out U.S. 41 and S.R. 57 in the 1970s and ’80s specifically to spur industrial development? And that the residential and commercial development that followed is an essential component of a healthy, local economy and tax base that supports the City and its urban core?

     Do you not grasp the fact, Jordan, that Evansville does not have a roach’s chance in an insecticide storm of surviving without suburban growth, and its intendant industrial, residential, and commercial components?

     Now, to the water and sewer utility board and the city council: Do you not understand that excessive and punitive sewer rates for county property, in the form of the 35% differential surcharge, chase development out of Vanderburgh County, and lower the potential of future growth for Evansville?

     • “First off, Curt John did not necessarily take a “pro sprawl stance.” On this issue, he took a pro fair stance.”

       Sprawl is sprawl

       “We are asking for a fair rate, and if we are charged a surcharge, we are asking that it be a flat rate, fair rate, and not some arbitrarily imposed, unjustified excessive and exponentially escalating rate imposed by a council over whom we have no political control. Do you not understand that?”

       No I don’t. You are being charged a flat 35% rate. If anything it should be more. You think a 35% surcharge on those who will be going into majestic place is going to be enough to cover that additional sewer capacity? I agree they should have an exact formula that charges for excessive sewer maintenance and construction outside of the city.

     • “Do you not understand that the City extended the water and sewer trunk lines out U.S. 41 and S.R. 57 in the 1970s and ’80s specifically to spur industrial development? And that the residential and commercial development that followed is an essential component of a healthy, local economy and tax base that supports the City and its urban core?”

       I understand that those lines were put in for development of the airport and that obviously an airport is something you cannot put in a downtown. Holding the fact that I think the airport is a colossal waste of money and doesn’t make economic sense in today’s megaregion economy, I can see why an airport wasn’t built across from downtown as originally proposed.

       What that being said, hardly any commercial development has followed the airport specifically. The Marriott does feed off of it I suppose but hardly any cargo is even flown out of there making it an even bigger waste. And what person wants to buy a house by it? Most were there before.

       “Do you not grasp the fact, Jordan, that Evansville does not have a roach’s chance in an insecticide storm of surviving without suburban growth, and its intendant industrial, residential, and commercial components?”

       1960 was the last year the city of Evansville gained residents. Here has what it’s been from 1960 to 2010 here are you census figures…

       Vanderburgh
       1960 165,794
       1970 168,772
       1980 167,515
       1990 165,058
       2000 171,922
       2010 179,703

       Evansville

       1960 141,543
       1970 138,764
       1980 130,496
       1990 126,272
       2000 121,582
       2010 117,429

       In that 50 year span, the city lost 24,114 residents while the county gained 13,909. Where are you getting this idea that this sprawl is somehow a positive for Evansville and not just a shift away from a dying city. Now we have less residents and probably nearly double the size of our infrastructure to maintain. How does that make good financial sense?

     • “Do you not understand that excessive and punitive sewer rates for county property, in the form of the 35% differential surcharge, chase development out of Vanderburgh County, and lower the potential of future growth for Evansville?”

       Outside of certain situations like the airport or industrial warehouses along 41 that cannot fit inside the city limits necessarily, chasing development away from the county is a good thing not a bad thing. If a developer doesn’t want to stay inside the city core it would make much more financial, environmental, and resident health sense to let them walk to Warrick Co or Posey Co or whereever.

       The residential neighborhoods surrounding downtown, the warehouse districts surrounding downtown, the infrastructure surrounding downtown, and just about everything else is going to complete crap because of this unsustainable sprawl. It’s time to reign it in.

       Curt John didn’t take a fair position, he took a sprawl position.

       • Jordan, as I said in another post (Oct 11 IIT), some of the comments are uniformed at best and ignorant at worst.

         Example – you say the water and sewer lines of which I speak were extended to the airport because it could not be built inside the city.

         The airport is and has been inside the city for many decades.

         And the sewer and water trunk lines of which I speak were extended up U.S. 41 to I-164 under the Russell Lloyd, Sr. administration in the 1970s, to create an industrial corridor, which in fact has seen successful development.

         Subsequently, water and sewer trunk lines were extended up S.R. 57 to Vanderburgh Industrial Park out past Daylight.

         These are the trunk lines from which private developers extended all the feeder lines and infrastructure that serves the residential growth out here on the North Side. And we who live out here paid for that infrastructure in the price of our lots and housing when the developers passed their cost of constructing the infrastructure on to us. The water and sewer utility only assumed ownership and maintenance of those feeder lines after our developers finished them and we paid for them in the price of our homes.

         The same will happen with Majestic Place = the developer will have to extend or pay for the extension of the water and sewer infrastructure.

         Now, you never responded to my statement that suburban growth in Vanderburgh County, including its industrial, residential, and commercial components, are an essential component of a successful, healthy local economy … that the urban core cannot survive without the tax based support of the suburban component. That’s a fact you will have to accept. It’s an accepted fact of economic development science.

         Try to get past your sprawlophobia long enough to let that fact sink into your thought processes.

         • “as I said in another post (Oct 11 IIT), some of the comments are uniformed at best and ignorant at worst.”

           Says the guy who claimed there was an artesian well under Roberts and you couldn’t put a stop light at First Ave.

           “The airport is and has been inside the city for many decades.”

           Yea they literally had to wrap the city limits boundary all the way around it. The county is the north, south, east, and west of it. Like I said, it was clearly an exception that had to be made. The east side even past 164 is even in the city limits but I hardly consider that the core either. There was no where else to put the boondoggle. It’s not something you place in downtown or even right outside of it.

           “And the sewer and water trunk lines of which I speak were extended up U.S. 41 to I-164 under the Russell Lloyd, Sr. administration in the 1970s, to create an industrial corridor, which in fact has seen successful development.”

           Yea while the whole core’s system was rotting and thus putting us in the current position we are in. And once more, hardly any of that is shipped out via air. Extending the industrial corridor while the entire Business 41 District rots in a post WWII era? Not the greatest of ideas.

           “Subsequently, water and sewer trunk lines were extended up S.R. 57 to Vanderburgh Industrial Park out past Daylight.”

           What a great idea. Extending a sewer system that has been in dire need of repairs.

           “The same will happen with Majestic Place = the developer will have to extend or pay for the extension of the water and sewer infrastructure.”

           And then it will never cost an extra dime to maintain these lines, or to service these additional lines. Not to mention, places like Majestic Place (if it ever comes to fruition) will have to steal existing business from the dying city, as has clearly been the case since 1960. Thus, expanding and shifting infrastructure for an area that isn’t growing despite it appearing that way.

           “Now, you never responded to my statement that suburban growth in Vanderburgh County, including its industrial, residential, and commercial components, are an essential component of a successful, healthy local economy ”

           You have to be blind. I specifically showed you the figures showing that suburban “growth” was just a shift away from the city. Now we have over 10,000 less residents combined yet a much larger area to maintain infrastructure and gov’t services and that doesn’t even include the environmental and health consequences that are beginning to rear their ugly head.

           Cities like Ann Arbor and Lexington put in urban growth boundaries and are thriving. Cities like Detroit and Gary sprawled and are now having to give serious consideration to contracting. Ironically, the infamous list that had Evansville as the 7th worst city had Ann Arbor as the 7th best iirc.

           “Try to get past your sprawlophobia long enough to let that fact sink into your thought processes.”

           I’m still trying to grasp the idea of how you can logically think reconstructing detroit is in the best interests of the city. And of course it has nothing to do with the fact that you live in the county and would benefit from equal sewer rates.

         • You don’t seem capable or reading or comprehending very well. But it would take my repeating over and over again to point out what you skim over and fail to retain, so I will simply enjoy the rest of my vacation.

         • Sounds good BILL. I heard a few weeks ago u were under the weather. if u are get well soon before ur vacation!

10. If the property taxes of city property inside the city is partially funding the sewer system, there is justification for a surcharge. The amount of that funding should dictate the amount of the surcharge. I thought the sewer system was user based, if so, no surcharge is justified. I’m not on water or sewer, so I have no dog in this fight. It’s a matter of what’s right.

11. On the polls issue, with congress ratings so low, is either party smart enough to run someone for any office not entrenched in political deals to the teeth? WE are tired of these hacks who can’t make it in civilian life leaching off society, and drawing a lifetime pension for 6 years “work”, when the military works 30 yr. to get a 75% stipend.

12. Maybe Obama’s approval ratings are low because he’s more concerned with the name of an NFL franchise in Washington than maintaining appropriations:

    http://www.mediaite.com/online/hail-to-the-redskins-try-as-they-might-president-pc-media-will-never-get-team-name-changed/

    • How’s him answering a question make him more concerned about that? What’s he supposed to do, say no comment? More blind partisanship.

      • Blind partisanship? Funny. It’s about the leadership skills, or lack of, that result in low approval ratings. IMHO, the entire political process, both sides of the aisle, are lacking in leadership and credibility.

        Hail to the Redskins!

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