[photopress:IndianaCapitol.jpg,thumb,pp_image]I’m not sure if you can see the top of the [tag]Indiana State Capitol[/tag] building but there is an interesting story about the top of the dome. I interned at the state house my last semester of [tag]college[/tag] and so I heard all kinds of stories about ghosts and things. The funniest thing I heard was that one of the janitors went up to the top and stepped out to the dome to get the flag. It was very windy and a storm was brewing. The poor guy slipped and hung out there for hours. I’m sorry but I can just picture the cars driving by and wrecking because they saw this guy hanging from the capitol building. They don’t let anyone hang the flag out like that now. It is on a pully and they raise and lower it from inside.

I don’t understand the way some people come to their conclusions. A guy I live with said that he thinks that in order to fix the property tax crisis facing Indiana, we should raise taxes for businesses, but then offer the businesses tax breaks for funding certain educational programs.

There are two reasons that won’t work. First and foremost, if you move the taxes to businesses, but then you don’t charge the businesses all of their taxes, where are you going to get the money that you would otherwise have been getting from property taxes? You can’t give them tax breaks and still expect to receive all of your funding.

The second reason this won’t work is because it’s an anti-business bill, which is an anti-economy bill. In a state like Indiana, where much of our industry is dying, we have to be competitive in recruiting new businesses and showing them that they would benefit from being in Indiana. Having high taxes for businesses won’t do the trick. If they want to be close to Chicago, then we should be showing them the benefits of being located in Northwest Indiana and not giving them reasons to locate in Illinois or Wisconsin. After all, those states are doing the best they can to recruit businesses, too. We must stay competitive so that we can provide jobs for our citizens.

All interns at the Indiana General Assembly have the opportunity to apply for a scholarship provided by Verizon. Four interns are awarded the $3,000 scholarship, one from each caucus. That means one from the House Republicans, one from the House Democrats, one from the Senate Republicans, and one from the Senate Democrats. Well, I’m applying even though my grad school is paid for. If I get it, the $3,000 will go to my school next year, and I can withdraw it from my student account. There are a lot of things I could do with $3,000.

Well, we had to write an essay. Here’s mine!

For nearly four years, I have been a very active part of the Butler University Political Science Department. However, my interest in politics goes back much further than 2003. I was twelve years old when Bill Clinton ran for his second term as President of the United States. It was on this evening in November of 1996 that I was introduced to the world of politics. My father took me to my county’s Republican Headquarters where I observed the announcement of results as they came in. My parents had never been involved in the political arena, but they were supporting a friend who was running for his third term as a State Representative. I was excited for Bill Friend, who won his election, but did not realize that I would one day have the opportunity to work with him.

More than ten years later, I find myself a part of the legislative process. As I worked through high school and college, I was an outsider, looking in, trying to figure out how the legislative process truly worked. Even after an internship in Washington, D.C., I still found that I had difficulty understanding the intricacies of the process. It was this confusion that increased my desire to work in the Indiana House of Representatives. I had seen the national legislature, and I had witnessed the Senate, but I still wanted to experience the fast-paced atmosphere of the Indiana House. This is where my view of the legislative process has been substantiated.

My knowledge of the legislative process has changed to someone who is now living and breathing the process and experiencing it firsthand. I have a firm belief that experiential education is the most valuable opportunity that modern students have available, and it is one which we should not take for granted. That is why I have tried to make the most of my semester at the Statehouse.

Through my time here, I have learned that the legislative process is not outdated, like I once thought. Instead, I now believe that the legislative process is one that can stand the test of time. However, this is not to say that modernization is a bad thing. This is evidenced by the events on Friday, March 23, 2007.

“The network went down.” That sentence is enough to make Dave Warycha’s blood pressure rise immeasurably and cause many government agencies to come to a screeching halt, but not the House. When the network failed, the House pressed on, even though the process was a bit more time consuming. This leads me to the question posed for this personal statement. How does a bill really become a law? The answer is simple: through any means possible.

A bill can become a law quite easily if it is not controversial. The session has been filled with many of these bills. Water is the new state drink. It is now even more illegal to have sex with farm animals. It is possible to commit battery by using body waste. These are bills that are not controversial. They are accepted on both sides of the aisle. The difficulty lies in how a divisive bill becomes law. This is a much more difficult accomplishment.

There is a great deal of opinion regarding how we should create a budget, define marriage, fund Medicare, and manage property taxes. Often, even the caucus does not have a consensus. These are the issues in which we truly see the intricacies of the legislative process. A bill can pass on a party line vote or it can pass with half of the Republicans and half of the Democrats. As long as there are 51 votes, a bill will pass out of the House, but it is still not law.

As we learn in fourth grade, the bill must also pass the Senate and go to the governor. If this does not happen, it still does not mean the bill is dead. Conference committees are where most controversial bills eventually come roaring back to life. Controversial bills are used as bargaining chips at the end of the session. If you want to pass the cigarette tax, then you need to pass my budget. If I want to kill SJR7, then I’ll vote for your Slots bill. Some may call it compromise, but I think it is more like chess. Sometimes you have to sacrifice your Queen to save your King. The only question is, which bill is the King and which is the Queen? This must be answered before the legislature reaches stalemate, resulting in a dreaded special session. No one wants to be here in June for a special session for one simple reason: there are no interns. Let’s face it…interns make session worth the hard work. Just ask Representative Whetstone, the intern who never left.

During my internship at the Statehouse, I have realized that I will always be surrounded by individuals who are, well, not that intelligent. I have one co-worker, in particular, who gives new meaning to Rami Belson’s famous quote, “It’s better to keep your mouth shut and give the impression that you’re stupid than to open it and remove all doubt.” This girl’s problem is that she never shuts her mouth, and certainly does not think before she speaks.

Let’s take a look at an example from last week when the House was debating a sex offender bill. Included in this bill was a provision that individuals would not have to register as sex offenders if the age difference between the criminal and the minor was four years or less. Here’s the encounter:

Please note that she is called Dee, as in “Tweedle Dee.” We also have “Tweedle Dumb” in our office, but that’s a whole other story.

Dee: “I don’t get the four year thing.”

Me: “If you’re more than four years older than the minor you have sex with, you have to register as a sex offender.”

Dee: “What if you’re not more than four years older”

Me: “Then you don’t. Like, if you’re 18 and she’s 17, that’s illegal, but you don’t have to register as a sex offender.”

Dee: “What if she’s 17 and a half?”

Does she really think the government recognizes 17 and a half?!?!

She’s also the office pig. The following is from another coworker:

For all of you to know, Jamie is currently talking about how she is going to devour the left-overs in the fridge to “save it from death.”

“With how much food people eat and how much food people throw away, I just try to balance it out to save them by collecting peoples’ to-go boxes, so that nothing is wasted.”

I know, I know, waste not, want not. But eating other people’s leftovers? That’s disgusting.