Letter to the Editor<\/strong>:<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
I recently sent two letters to Senator Tom Wyss, who I am challenging for the State Senate Seat in Fort Wayne, District 15. One was a pledge for a clean campaign. The other was a request for a series of debates on the vital issues facing residents of our district, our city, and our state. I heard no response until reading an article in the Journal Gazette on Sunday, August 22nd, titled \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcNo Debate for You’. Mr. Wyss referred to telephone calls which he attributed to my campaign addressing his travel on taxpayer money. He used these as justification to ignore my debate request. I am troubled by his response, but consider it an opportunity to address the legitimate questions of how our representatives are spending our taxpayer dollars and the public’s right to know.<\/p>\n
Recently, I pledged my full support to create an online, checkbook view, of our state budget which would make state income and spending reviewable by anyone. The goal is to make the state budget transparent. I believe this issue is important if we are ever going to assure our government functions appropriately and our officials are held accountable. The need for this stems from a recent, non-partisan study, which gives Indiana an F in transparency. Indiana is one of the few states whose budget is not online for citizens to monitor. There is absolutely no reason why citizens of Indiana cannot go online and review the financial dealings of our state, which of course, are funded by tax-dollars. Further, having many watching eyes (voters) may create immediate savings as our legislators take this into account when passing any spending bills. <\/p>\n
In this time, when faith in government officials is so low, elected officials and candidates need to be even more open. Personal attacks should not occur but we should not be offended when asked to explain why any taxpayer funded expense is justified. In this setting the fact that Mr. Wyss felt justified to “ignore the debate request” based up anyone raising the issue of travel on taxpayer money is troubling. I will be focused on proactively seeking long-term jobs which pay fair wages; fighting for our children by fighting for properly funded education; and, creating transparency in our government. We need to do all this within our means which requires scrutiny of all expenditures. Expenses must be for essentials and, even then, we must ask if can we afford it or would the money be better spent elsewhere. I plan to give the citizens what they deserve: an open, honest, substantive, and clean discussion of these issues throughout the campaign. Jack E. Morris, Candidate for Indiana State Senate, District 15<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Morris for Indiana State Senate campaign website<\/span><\/p>\n
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