Say no to a dumb idea (4/12/03)

Now here’s a dumb idea.

State Rep. Dick Mangus (R-Lakeville) is pushing for a $2 a ton “fee” on newsprint used by some Indiana daily newspapers.

Before you get the idea that we’re complaining about our ox being gored, The Commercial Review isn’t one of the newspapers who would face the special tax.

Instead, Mangus has targeted dailies with a circulation of more than 12,500. That eliminates small county seat dailies like this one. It also eliminates weeklies and shoppers.

The rationale being argued is that newspapers are a burden to the state’s solid waste stream. Mangus says he’d take the $2 a ton tax and use it for 4-H programs and clean water efforts. What those have to do with newspapers and the solid waste stream is anybody’s guess.

The fact is, newspapers make up only about four percent of the state’s solid waste stream, far less than things like packaging, food, and yard waste.

And according to the most recent figures available, 78 percent of newspapers are recycled. That compares to 22 percent for plastic bottles.

What you have here isn’t really a bill to address solid waste issues. What you have is a bill designed to whack the press.

Our guess is that The Indianapolis Star or The South Bend Tribune, which is the closest metropolitan paper to Mangus’s district, have gotten under the representative’s skin.

He wants to exact some punishment.

That’s precisely the sort of heavy-handed government reaction to freedom of the press which the First Amendment was designed to prevent.

The Mangus bill may come up to a vote in the next few days. Our hope is the Indiana House will have enough sense to laugh it off the floor as one of the dumbest ideas to come down the pike in years. — J.R.[[In-content Ad]]