Today was the day, the snow blower was turn on and let run until all the gas was used up and the mower was filled, oil checked and started. The snow blower moved to the front of the garage and the mower to the side near the front. Winter to summer conversion has been accomplished.
But the bad news continues, I actually had to mow the weeds, they popped up over the last few days and they and a little grass needed to be cut. So now starts the war of man against his lawn. Two shots of weed killer already applied and, one even by a professional outfit, and the weeds treat these killers as if they were fertilizer. So much for weed killer. Will have to call the pros back for another shot.
Other than that flowers are jumping up form the ground and making the place look rather nice. I was also out near here and drove past one field after another with the farmers out plowing. It’s a little late this year, we had too much rain.
Well that’s it from the heartland for today.
Saturday, May 3, 2008
Thursday, May 1, 2008
Geist Reservoir 2008
In 2007 Geist Reservoir was off limits to swimmers, etc, as toxic algae bloomed in the water. In 2008 we have no idea if this will happen again, but at a meeting on April 29th a number of government officials came to tell the residents what they are going to go. As a former government engineer I saw the handwriting on the wall right away. When you don’t know what to do, or what you should do will cause too much controversy – study the problem and hope people will go away nodding their heads. Well they are going to study and study the reservoir this summer and all the water sources in the Upper Fall Creek Watershed. Wow, 73 testing stations and they made a big deal about placing one buoy in the water near the dam. I am surprised they didn’t try and get a grant to buy six more buoys and place them all over the 1800 acres of the reservoir. That would be more in line with government/university thinking.
What was also interesting was that two state senators and one representative attended the meeting. All of their districts touch the reservoir, also were people from several state agencies, the water company, other cities that use the water and even people from the governor’s office. But of course missing were the Town of Fishers, who annexed the reservoir last year and Representative Kathy Richardson. I can understand the Town of Fishers, you see they only would show up if they could make money form the reservoir, if they could figure out a tax or fee to fight the algae they would be at the meeting. Just watch if they annex the homes around the reservoir they will institute a water clean-up fee, blaming the use of fertilizer from the homeowners and do nothing. Also missing was Kathy, who it appears does not go to meetings, and I am running against her in the fall election. Now I was at the meeting. Part of Geist is in Kathy’s district. But Kathy a long time ago forgot what represent the people means.
What am I going to do? The message was loud and clear one of the factors that can cause the growth of the algae is fertilizer with phosphorus in it. So my lawn has non-phosphors fertilizer being applied this summer and from now on. I have also installed a water aeration pump by my dock to add air into the water that helps with water quality.
If elected I will do something no one at the meeting was willing to stand up and do. I would submit legislation to ban the use of phosphors fertilizer anywhere in a watershed in Indiana or for sale in stores for use on properties less than five acres. This would still allow the use by farmers, but would remove the use by all homeowners and by the commercial lawn care companies.
My name is Joe Weingarten and I approve this message.
Weingarten for 29th District State Representative
What was also interesting was that two state senators and one representative attended the meeting. All of their districts touch the reservoir, also were people from several state agencies, the water company, other cities that use the water and even people from the governor’s office. But of course missing were the Town of Fishers, who annexed the reservoir last year and Representative Kathy Richardson. I can understand the Town of Fishers, you see they only would show up if they could make money form the reservoir, if they could figure out a tax or fee to fight the algae they would be at the meeting. Just watch if they annex the homes around the reservoir they will institute a water clean-up fee, blaming the use of fertilizer from the homeowners and do nothing. Also missing was Kathy, who it appears does not go to meetings, and I am running against her in the fall election. Now I was at the meeting. Part of Geist is in Kathy’s district. But Kathy a long time ago forgot what represent the people means.
What am I going to do? The message was loud and clear one of the factors that can cause the growth of the algae is fertilizer with phosphorus in it. So my lawn has non-phosphors fertilizer being applied this summer and from now on. I have also installed a water aeration pump by my dock to add air into the water that helps with water quality.
If elected I will do something no one at the meeting was willing to stand up and do. I would submit legislation to ban the use of phosphors fertilizer anywhere in a watershed in Indiana or for sale in stores for use on properties less than five acres. This would still allow the use by farmers, but would remove the use by all homeowners and by the commercial lawn care companies.
My name is Joe Weingarten and I approve this message.
Weingarten for 29th District State Representative
Sunday, April 27, 2008
E-mail from a neighbor on property taxes.
I just got this e-mail from a neighbor:
I have lived in Indiana for 33 years. At least 30 of those years
Assessed property taxes were due and payable no later than May 10th
And November 10th.
I stopped by the courthouse to inquire about my property taxes.
"The taxes are not ready yet", I was told. "In Indiana property
taxes are in arrears. You pay the 2007 taxes in 2008 and this being
an election year, the Indiana General Assembly did not want property
taxes arriving just before the spring election."
"Many property owners are going to pay higher taxes in 2008!"
He is right. A number of factors come to play; first and foremost the people in office will use every trick in the book to make you believe they are working for you. Look at all the e-mails and flyers in the mail form the statehouse or congressmen still in office, making you think they are working for you. Well folks they are costing you a lot of money. Those mailings are not cheap. The four color printing and mailing to thousands. It’s all your money. No wonder taxes are so high.
Delay collection of taxes by a few days, so you don’t remember how much your are paying, why not. Get your vote before you get mad over the tax bills.
I wrote a letter to the Governor asking that the state take action to notify banks and mortgage holder of the reductions in taxes so the monthly payments to them could be reduced. No reply from the Governor. I can’t image why. Is it because a candidate for office asked that he do something for the people? Well, maybe. But I doubt it.
Its time for a change, its time to change and remove people from office who have been in office so long they forgot what the word “represent” means.
My name is Joe Weingarten and I approve this message.
Weingarten for 29th District State Representative
I have lived in Indiana for 33 years. At least 30 of those years
Assessed property taxes were due and payable no later than May 10th
And November 10th.
I stopped by the courthouse to inquire about my property taxes.
"The taxes are not ready yet", I was told. "In Indiana property
taxes are in arrears. You pay the 2007 taxes in 2008 and this being
an election year, the Indiana General Assembly did not want property
taxes arriving just before the spring election."
"Many property owners are going to pay higher taxes in 2008!"
He is right. A number of factors come to play; first and foremost the people in office will use every trick in the book to make you believe they are working for you. Look at all the e-mails and flyers in the mail form the statehouse or congressmen still in office, making you think they are working for you. Well folks they are costing you a lot of money. Those mailings are not cheap. The four color printing and mailing to thousands. It’s all your money. No wonder taxes are so high.
Delay collection of taxes by a few days, so you don’t remember how much your are paying, why not. Get your vote before you get mad over the tax bills.
I wrote a letter to the Governor asking that the state take action to notify banks and mortgage holder of the reductions in taxes so the monthly payments to them could be reduced. No reply from the Governor. I can’t image why. Is it because a candidate for office asked that he do something for the people? Well, maybe. But I doubt it.
Its time for a change, its time to change and remove people from office who have been in office so long they forgot what the word “represent” means.
My name is Joe Weingarten and I approve this message.
Weingarten for 29th District State Representative
Friday, April 25, 2008
Geist Files Suit against Fishers, IN
Approximately 1700 Geist property owners have filed suit against the Town of Fishers, IN to stop the unwanted annexation of their property. That is out of 2200 properties. That’s close to 80 percent.
Of course Fishers is continuing its attack. They don’t seem to care what the people want, its only what they want. Recently I was a little dismayed when I found out that Fishers, IN had been awarded the Voice of the People Award last October.
Voice of the people? I have written the organization that gave this award and asked that they take it back. Fishers doesn’t listen to the voice of the people. It seems the leaders of Fishers hear voices.
My name is Joe Weingarten and I am running for the 29th District State Reprsentative and I approve this message.
Of course Fishers is continuing its attack. They don’t seem to care what the people want, its only what they want. Recently I was a little dismayed when I found out that Fishers, IN had been awarded the Voice of the People Award last October.
Voice of the people? I have written the organization that gave this award and asked that they take it back. Fishers doesn’t listen to the voice of the people. It seems the leaders of Fishers hear voices.
My name is Joe Weingarten and I am running for the 29th District State Reprsentative and I approve this message.
Wednesday, April 23, 2008
Fat Fishers
This mornings Indy Star had a note that over 40% of Fishers residents are overweight. So I wanted to see first hand what is going on and went to http://www.fishers.in.us/?cantaloupeItemID=5 and needless to say two very overweight guys right on the pictures of the Fishers web site.
I guess the article was correct. Now Fishers also claims to have lower taxes, that's because they use all kinds of fee's instead such as the new storm water fee (TAX), maybe with the property tax cut they will have to start a new fee and at the same time reduce overweight people, I can see them having a "Biggie" fee, when you order anything biggie at a fast food joint, you get hit with the biggie fee, order a single, no fee, a double a 10 cent fee, a triple a 25 cent fee. Of course a monster burger would be a dollar fee. Same with sugar filled sodas.
Now I would rather see a program on education on how to eat properly. This would be a lot better than Fishers growth objective of adding as many strip malls and business such as all the fast food restaurants all the time.
My name is Joe Weingarten and I approve this message.
Weingarten for 29th State District Representative.
I guess the article was correct. Now Fishers also claims to have lower taxes, that's because they use all kinds of fee's instead such as the new storm water fee (TAX), maybe with the property tax cut they will have to start a new fee and at the same time reduce overweight people, I can see them having a "Biggie" fee, when you order anything biggie at a fast food joint, you get hit with the biggie fee, order a single, no fee, a double a 10 cent fee, a triple a 25 cent fee. Of course a monster burger would be a dollar fee. Same with sugar filled sodas.
Now I would rather see a program on education on how to eat properly. This would be a lot better than Fishers growth objective of adding as many strip malls and business such as all the fast food restaurants all the time.
My name is Joe Weingarten and I approve this message.
Weingarten for 29th State District Representative.
Saturday, April 19, 2008
Geist Alage Fight
The Geist Algae problem of last summer is being fought by a non-profit group and they are having a meeting on April 29th with several state lawmakers. Missing form the list of legislators that will be at the meeting is Representative Kathy Richardson. Not only is Geist in part of her district more importantly is Morse Lake, which also suffered from toxic algae last year. In addition if you look at a map a lot of the run-off into Geist is from an area that is in her district.
I am running for the seat she now holds and believe the development of a comprehensive plan to limit phosphorous needs to be put into place. It may be as simple restricting the use of lawn fertilizers that contain phosphorous within the water shed area of both lakes.
In any case we need someone in the statehouse that cares about the environment and this area. My name is Joe Weingarten and I approve this message.
Weingarten for the 29th District State Representative.
I am running for the seat she now holds and believe the development of a comprehensive plan to limit phosphorous needs to be put into place. It may be as simple restricting the use of lawn fertilizers that contain phosphorous within the water shed area of both lakes.
In any case we need someone in the statehouse that cares about the environment and this area. My name is Joe Weingarten and I approve this message.
Weingarten for the 29th District State Representative.
Monday, April 7, 2008
A very simple property tax
Well, well, well the citizens of the State of Indiana can on-mass to the capitol and demanded a reform of the property tax mess. People were seeing tax increases in the 100's of percent, the government was forcing people out of their homes and people were being force to sell their homes because of a reckless government.
So the government sort of listened and sort of reformed the property tax setting a limit of 1 percent of the home value that can be taxed. But if your a farmer they made it 2% and if you own a business 3%. If you rent a place to live the landlord is also going to be charged 2%. Now what they didn't do was stop the process of assessment that provides the value of the property, in ten years we will be right back where we started, storming the statehouse, complaining about high property taxes, about people being forced from their homes.
So the farmers are going to be charged more for their property, so do you think the farmers are not going to charge more for the food they produce. Lets look at the landlord, of course the landlord is not going to raise rent to pay for the increase in taxes, in fact watch them round off the increase to a higher level. And last the business is now going to have a higher cost factor and no they are going to very good hearted about this and not increase their selling prices.
What were they thinking, maybe I know, hide the real factors from the public. Then they added a small little clause that Cities and Towns can enact an income tax, of course they need the approval from the County Commissioners, but after this years election and they get re-elected for four years, why not approve a tax increase, who will remember four years from now.
My last question is to reduce the taxes to the above in simple terms took almost 1000 pages. So my other question is what else are they hiding in the property tax law?
What I did find out was that our elected officials don't seem to know how to think out side of the box. The word inovation is missing from the language they speak. So here is what I would have proposed.
What if when a house sold the state charged a 1% sales tax and the selling price becomes the assessed value for as long as that owner lives in that house. That's it. How come a bank can offer a 30 year loan and the cost of your rent to the bank never goes up, well I would expect the government to be able to do the same. So when you buy your house you know up front what your taxes are going to be until the day you sell the house. When you sell the buyer pays a 1% sales tax and the new selling price becomes the assessed value.
What happens right away the entire cost of assessment is gone, all the government employees gone, all the appeals gone, all the paperwork gone. The cost of government goes down, when a property is transferred the county recorder, sets the property tax. Plain and simple. I like plain and simple.
While I am at it I would reduce the percent cap on farmers and renters to 1%. If I could I would reduce farmers to zero. On business I recognize that they cost government to operate but would lower their cap to 2% and hope I can get more businesses to move into Indiana. The more business we get the more revenue we get from people working, its a great cycle. Business is not here to rescue government, but to provide jobs for people and to provide products and services to people.
If you were in business you know your income and adjust your spending, well government leaders its about time you took a lesson from business and do the same. You can't just keep growing government and not consider the public. If your income were set, you would have to limit the growth of government. Again outside of our governments way of thinking. We need to make government think. I know its beyond most of them to do, they just expect the public to bail them out with more tax dollars.
Well, my name is Joe Weingarten and I am running for State Representative for the 29th District of the State of Indiana and I approve this message.
So the government sort of listened and sort of reformed the property tax setting a limit of 1 percent of the home value that can be taxed. But if your a farmer they made it 2% and if you own a business 3%. If you rent a place to live the landlord is also going to be charged 2%. Now what they didn't do was stop the process of assessment that provides the value of the property, in ten years we will be right back where we started, storming the statehouse, complaining about high property taxes, about people being forced from their homes.
So the farmers are going to be charged more for their property, so do you think the farmers are not going to charge more for the food they produce. Lets look at the landlord, of course the landlord is not going to raise rent to pay for the increase in taxes, in fact watch them round off the increase to a higher level. And last the business is now going to have a higher cost factor and no they are going to very good hearted about this and not increase their selling prices.
What were they thinking, maybe I know, hide the real factors from the public. Then they added a small little clause that Cities and Towns can enact an income tax, of course they need the approval from the County Commissioners, but after this years election and they get re-elected for four years, why not approve a tax increase, who will remember four years from now.
My last question is to reduce the taxes to the above in simple terms took almost 1000 pages. So my other question is what else are they hiding in the property tax law?
What I did find out was that our elected officials don't seem to know how to think out side of the box. The word inovation is missing from the language they speak. So here is what I would have proposed.
What if when a house sold the state charged a 1% sales tax and the selling price becomes the assessed value for as long as that owner lives in that house. That's it. How come a bank can offer a 30 year loan and the cost of your rent to the bank never goes up, well I would expect the government to be able to do the same. So when you buy your house you know up front what your taxes are going to be until the day you sell the house. When you sell the buyer pays a 1% sales tax and the new selling price becomes the assessed value.
What happens right away the entire cost of assessment is gone, all the government employees gone, all the appeals gone, all the paperwork gone. The cost of government goes down, when a property is transferred the county recorder, sets the property tax. Plain and simple. I like plain and simple.
While I am at it I would reduce the percent cap on farmers and renters to 1%. If I could I would reduce farmers to zero. On business I recognize that they cost government to operate but would lower their cap to 2% and hope I can get more businesses to move into Indiana. The more business we get the more revenue we get from people working, its a great cycle. Business is not here to rescue government, but to provide jobs for people and to provide products and services to people.
If you were in business you know your income and adjust your spending, well government leaders its about time you took a lesson from business and do the same. You can't just keep growing government and not consider the public. If your income were set, you would have to limit the growth of government. Again outside of our governments way of thinking. We need to make government think. I know its beyond most of them to do, they just expect the public to bail them out with more tax dollars.
Well, my name is Joe Weingarten and I am running for State Representative for the 29th District of the State of Indiana and I approve this message.
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