Hammer is Back and He’s Fuming
“What the hell, Timmons!”
The silence of a quiet Saturday in a mostly deserted office shattered when the giant of a man named John Hammer bellowed from my doorframe.
Me? I was mentally sitting on the dock and overlooking the bay with Otis Redding (or at least that’s what was playing on my iPod). As you can imagine since I’m still here writing, the heart attack was at least momentarily avoided.
“For the love of St. Michael the Archangel John!” I yelled. “Can you give a guy a friendly warning or something . . . please!”
As usual, nothing.
“Let me see if I have this straight,” a red-faced Hammer growled – his deep bass voice bouncing off what were the quiet walls. “I voted for Mike Braun because he told us that he was going to fix the mess our property taxes are. He talked real big about how much waste he was seeing in the Senate and how it wasn’t going to go away anytime soon . . . but in Indiana, yeah, here in Indiana boy, he could make a real difference.”
Hammer snorted.
“So then he says he’s going to roll back our taxes a few years,” Hammer continued. “You know, that sounded like a good start, but Braun said he was going to go farther. The man said he had a plan to get it all fixed . . . to make it fair to homeowners again.
“DO I HAVE THAT RIGHT?”
Heck, I wasn’t worried about my heart attack now. Hammer looked like he was going to burst at any second.
For those who don’t know John Hammer, he is a giant of a man. He’s retired now but clearly worked hard for a living. His huge hands are rough with callouses and his neck lined deeply with creases that were caused by heavy lifting and too many hours under a hot sun. That neck is red, and his heart bleeds red, white and blue.
“The Legislature hasn’t adjourned yet, John,” I tried. “So there’s nothing final yet on property taxes. It seems that-”
“DIDN’T HE SAY HE REACHED AN AGREEMENT WITH TODD HUSTON AND ROD BRAY?”
Hammer was almost screaming.
“John, I’m afraid you’re going to have a heart attack, you need to sit down and take a breath.”
He did. The chair creaked under his massive frame.
“Timmons, you said it in something you wrote. One side or the other is going to feel the pain. Either the government isn’t going to have as much to spend because they get less of our money, or they’re going to take more of our money so they can spend it. Why does the government always choose them over us?”
Hammer let out a long sigh. I really was worried about the big guy.
“I know it’s not a done deal yet,” he said, as he slowly got to his feet. “But from what I’m hearing some folks are going to have an increase in what they pay. Another damn increase. Others are going to have a decrease, so I guess that means the folks in the statehouse are picking and choosing winners and losers. So much for treating everybody equal.”
Hammer looked around.
“This is what I see,” he said – almost sounding defeated. “Braun got us to vote for him by saying things would be different. He convinced us. And then he does this. He does what government always does. He compromises. He caves. He plays politics. I’m sick to death of politics. I want change. I want fairness. I want to keep more of my money instead of giving it to these clowns to waste.”
The defeatist tone abruptly stopped.
“There’s no reason – NO REASON – why this can’t change and change now. A plan that takes two or three years? That’s just more politics. That’s more of them choosing themselves over us.”
His face was getting red again. I was worried. “John, you know the governor has to work with the legislature. If he doesn’t, they’ll block everything he does. It’ll be a long four years.”
“BULLCRAP, TIMMONS!” he roared. “So what if they block him? You think they win? They’ll look so petty and so political they’ll be lucky if they last until the next election and not get run out of town on a rail. And it ain’t four years. The next election is in two and if this becomes Braun standing up for us and legislators playing games, voters will stand behind the governor. If Braun stands up for taxpayers, I’d hate to be a senator or representative on the other side.”
Hammer headed for the door – but stopped.
“I tell you this, Timmons. The Republican Party used to be about limited government. It used to be about responsible spending. I thought Braun was going to help get it back to that. If this tax mess continues, I’ll never vote for any of them again.”
Hammer walked out. I wondered how many other Hoosiers are feeling the same way?
Two cents, which is about how much Timmons said his columns are worth, appears periodically in The Times. Timmons is the chief executive officer of Sagamore News Media, the company that owns The Noblesville Times. He is also a proud Noblesville High School graduate and can be contacted at [email protected].