Indiana News Update

Teachers bristle at altered calendar
A proposal by Indiana’s education chief to no longer allow training activities and parent-teacher conferences in the traditional 180-day school calendar is getting a frosty reception from area teacher representatives.  Superintendent for Public Instruction Tony Bennett, a Republican elected in November to a four-year term, described his desire to have 180 full days of instruction each year as “an urgent state priority.” The Indiana House, controlled by Democrats, passed legislation attempting to block the policy changes. Local teachers said they are in general agreement with Bennett on one point – that days lost to inclement weather should be made up.

Some Indiana public universities wait for new budget before announcing tuition
The new school year isn’t far off, but some Indiana college students are going to have to wait to find out how much their tuition will be.  Some public universities are delaying tuition decisions until the General Assembly approves a new state budget.  The legislative session is scheduled to end on April 29th.  But the Indiana Commission for Higher Education isn’t expected to give its recommendations for tuition rates at each state university until May.

Home’s backers make case at Statehouse
More than 200 sign-wielding supporters, united in the fight to keep open the Indiana Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Children’s Home, staged another rally Monday at the Statehouse, where school leaders were more optimistic about the institution’s survival. Supporters held their first rally after the Indiana State Department of Health announced plans in January to close the 143-year-old Knightstown school for troubled children and move its 114 students in Grades 5-12 to other schools.  Since the announcement, the House passed legislation that would bar the planned closing in May and move the home from Department of Health control. House Democrats’ one-year budget proposal also includes $10.4 million for the school, which is about 25 miles east of Indianapolis.

Parties still far apart on new state budget
Lost of late in the turbulent, political waters of the General Assembly is a must lawmakers face — passing a new state budget during a deep recession with a Democrat-controlled House and Republican-ruled Senate.  It’s been overshadowed recently by the partisan fight over trying to fix Indiana’s bankrupt unemployment insurance fund, one that’s been paying out hundreds of millions of dollars more in benefits than it’s been collecting in employer taxes.  It’s a huge problem, but drawing up a new spending plan with billions of dollars at stake also has Democrats and Republicans at odds. House Democrats already have passed their version of a budget and Senate Republicans are working on their own, but clear differences have emerged.

Messer eyes Burton’s seat
Former state Rep. Luke Messer will toss his hat in the ring for Congress later this week, The Shelbyville News has learned.  Messer’s announcement that he is seeking the Republican nomination for Indiana’s 5th Congressional District will occur in his hometown of Shelbyville, said the source close to Messer’s campaign who asked not to be identified.  The May 2010 primary race for the 5th District seat is shaping up to be one of the most hotly contested congressional primaries in the nation.  U.S. Rep. Dan Burton, R-Indianapolis, is expected to seek re-election to a 15th term, and Carmel businessman Brose A. McVey recently announced his candidacy for the seat.

Sam Turpin – Indiana Lobbyist

Indiana News Update

Joe Heerens ‘84 is Indiana Governor’s Chief Legislative Counsel
March 25, 2009, Greencastle, Ind. – Joseph R. Heerens, a 1984 graduate of DePauw University, has been appointed chief legislative counsel for Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels. This morning’s Indianapolis Star notes that Heerens comes to his new post from Marsh Supermarkets, where he was senior vice president and assistant secretary.
 
State smoking ban may fail
Legislative efforts to ban smoking in public places statewide could be up in smoke. Indiana lawmakers are clashing over whether they should try to pass a watered-down bill or sacrifice this year’s proposal in hopes of passing a stricter rule later. The Democrat-controlled House approved legislation last month that would ban smoking in some places while allowing it in casinos and many bars.  But the proposal has hit a snag in the GOP-led Senate, where the bill’s sponsor does not want exemptions included in the legislation.

Senate passes unemployment insurance bill
The Republican plan to fix Indiana’s bankrupt unemployment insurance fund by increasing taxes on employers and decreasing benefits for out-of-work Hoosiers cleared the Senate on Tuesday evening.The proposal passed the GOP-controlled Senate by a vote of 30-20, largely along party lines. That sets the stage for negotiations between the Senate and the Democratic-controlled House, where leaders have voiced a litany of objections to the Republican plan.  The two sides aim to repair a fund that is paying out hundreds of millions of dollars more in benefits than it is collecting in employer taxes each year and is relying on borrowing from the federal government to remain solvent.

Bill would turn up the heat on metal thieves
Thieves  cost Indianapolis Power and Light Co. almost $800,000 last year.  Their target? Valuable metal found in the company’s transformers and substations.   More serious charges and harsher penalties await anyone who targets locations critical to the state’s infrastructure — places such as rail yards and utility companies — under a bill being considered by state lawmakers.

Sam Turpin – Indiana Lobbyist

Indiana News Update

Governor Outlines State’s Stimulus Energy Conservation Plan
Governor Mitch Daniels Friday said the state’s plan to use nearly $132 million in federal stimulus funding for energy conservation efforts that are 11 times the current annual program will be submitted to the federal government in the next few days.  “In using federal stimulus dollars, our template is speed, jobs, and lasting value. In the conservation context, that means helping as many low-income Hoosiers as fast as possible while permanently reducing state energy consumption by the equivalent of one small power plant every 10 years,” said Daniels.

House votes to speed caps on property taxes
The Indiana House voted Monday to accelerate implementation of the state’s property tax caps, a move that could provide $200 million in relief for taxpayers this year but hurt local governments already struggling with sagging revenues.  Democrats insisted the move would save taxpayers money during a deepening recession. Republicans voted for the measure but called it a “phony measure” aimed at drawing attention away from the GOP’s push to make the tax caps permanent by placing them into the state constitution.  Sen. Luke Kenley, R-Noblesville, said the Republican-controlled Senate is unlikely to agree to the legislation because it would “cut the throats of local government.”

Bill would help youths boost financial smarts
For those students brought to tears by this spring’s statewide math exams, more painful challenges may be ahead: At least one state lawmaker has suggested adding financial literacy to ISTEP tests. Legislators think Hoosier youths are learning too little about managing their money, so they’ve considered adding a finance section to the mandatory exam as a way to change that.

Sam Turpin – Indiana Lobbyist

Indiana News Update

State Rep. L. Jack Lutz: A few bills to look out for in second half
With half of the 2009 legislative session under our belt, I’d like to take the time to give you a report on what important bills have been passed through the House. These are also some of the bills that should be carefully watched, as they could have a potentially negative effect on you and your family. House Bill 1730 is the greatest threat to Hoosier taxpayers this session. The bulk of House Bill 1730 proposes to retract the taxpayer protection laws promised in 2008, leaving you without input on major construction projects in your area. All that would have to happen is that the projects require “green technology” in the plans.

Harper chides Bauer over state tax caps bill
Porter County Commissioner President Robert Harper on Tuesday ramped up his plea for state lawmakers to solidify property tax caps in Indiana, by directly calling on fellow Democrat and Speaker of the House Patrick Bauer to “stop playing games.”  Harper, who has been outspoken in his support of adding the state’s new tax caps to the state constitution, said lawmakers can be against a constitutional amendment, but that they should at least take a vote on the issue. But he said Bauer, a South Bend Democrat who controls the House, has blocked that vote from occuring.

‘Silver Alert’ bill passed to House
In December 2007, 91-year-old Jack Oberchain set out to do the same job he’d been doing for 25 years – deliver machinery across Indianapolis.   When the mini-strokes hit, Oberchain stopped making his delivery rounds and started driving.  He made it as far as Ohio, where police pulled him over after he almost hit an Amish family riding in a buggy. Rather than arrest him for reckless driving, though, police let him continue on.

Area abortion doc subject of House debate
The only doctor who performs abortions in Fort Wayne became the center of attention at a legislative hearing Wednesday on a bill that would require him and his counterparts around the state to have admitting privileges at nearby hospitals.  At times the testimony became emotional with supporters saying the legislation is about providing adequate follow-up care for women and tracking complications. But opponents called it an attempt to limit abortion statewide.
 

Bill stiffens feticide law
A House committee could vote next week on legislation that would lengthen prison terms for those who kill or attempt to kill a pregnant woman and cause the death of her unborn child.  The House Public Policy Committee heard testimony Wednesday about the bill prompted by the shooting of an Indianapolis bank teller in April 2008. Katherin Shuffield was five months pregnant when she was shot in the abdomen during a robbery. She survived, but the twin girls she and her husband were expecting did not.  Bill sponsor Sen. James Merritt, R-Indianapolis, said Indiana’s current sentence for the loss of the unborn children is too weak.

Sam Turpin – Indiana Lobbyist

Indiana News Update

Indiana judge nominated for U.S. Court of Appeals
President Barack Obama picked an Indiana federal judge for his first judicial nomination Tuesday, but first he locked in the support of Indiana’s Democratic and Republican senators.  Obama nominated David Hamilton, a federal district judge for 14 years, to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit in Chicago, the last stop before the Supreme Court for cases from Indiana, Illinois and Wisconsin.  “Judge Hamilton has a long and impressive record of service and a history of handing down fair and judicious decisions,” Obama said.

Plan to repair jobless system advances in Senate
A plan designed to fix Indiana’s bankrupt unemployment insurance fund drew misgivings from business and labor groups Tuesday as it advanced to the Republican-controlled Senate, which is expected to pass some version of the proposal.  The Senate Tax and Fiscal Policy Committee endorsed the plan on a 9-3 vote after four hours of public testimony, a key step toward fixing a system that has been paying out millions of dollars more in benefits than it has been taking in through employer taxes.  The fund has borrowed about $535 million from the federal government to remain solvent. That figure could climb as high as $1.2 billion by the end of the year unless lawmakers fix the system.

Indiana lags in government transparency efforts
You can find almost anything on the Internet these days, but in Indiana you won’t find on government Web sites such useful information as political campaign contributions, disciplinary actions against doctors and lawyers, environmental citations or a thorough accounting of state agency expenditures. Yet all those records are available in most other states, according to the just-released Sunshine Week 2009 Survey of State Government Information Online.  The survey was the first of its kind and suggests Indiana has much work to do to get its records widely available in digitized format, considered the key to open government in the 21st century.

Sam Turpin – Indiana Lobbyist

Indiana News Update

State’s budget process ranks second worst
A new report scores Indiana’s state budget process as the second worst in the nation largely because the governor doesn’t have a line-item veto and there’s no requirement for a balanced budget. Indiana scored just 45 points out of a possible 100 and ranked ahead of only New Hampshire in the 2009 Index of State Budget Process Quality published by the Federal Funds Information for States, a Washington, D.C.-based group that tracks how federal budget and policy decisions affect states.  The report was broken down into four main areas: balanced-budget requirements, gubernatorial power to reduce spending, stabilization funds, and understandable finances.

Michael talks about failure of reform bills
One issue dominated our work in the Indiana House this past week: reorganization of local government as recommended by a task force created by Gov. Mitch Daniels that was led by Indiana Supreme Court Chief Justice Randall Shepard and former Gov. Joe Kernan. The focal point for this debate was Senate Bill 452, which was considered by the House Government and Regulatory Reform Committee. At first, SB 452 only dealt with election reforms. It included language that would move municipal elections to even-numbered years, place school board elections at the same time as general elections (rather than primaries) and give all counties the option of establishing vote centers.

Statewide smoke-free air legislation should be a priority
If reducing the cost of health care and attracting new business are top concerns for legislators, business leaders and taxpayers, then passing statewide smoke-free air legislation should be a priority. Indiana’s lack of action on this topic will continue to take an extraordinary and unnecessary toll on both our personal and economic health.  All evidence points to the inevitability of statewide smoke-free air legislation. Almost half of all states already have such laws, and studies that demonstrate their effectiveness and public support continue to accumulate.

Sam Turpin – Indiana Lobbyist

Indiana News Update

Indiana government hires as factories fire

Indiana’s deepening recession failed to halt government hiring and growth in the education and health service sectors in January even as the state’s factories continued jettisoning jobs, new federal statistics show.  A state-by-state unemployment report released Wednesday by the U.S. Labor Department shows that Indiana lost about 12,400 jobs in January, when its unemployment rate rose to 9.2 percent — the highest level in a quarter-century.

Driven to distraction
A bill to impose additional restrictions on new teenage motorists – including a ban on their using cell phones while driving – remains alive, though far from assured that it will pass in the current session of the Indiana Legislature.  The bill passed easily in the Indiana Senate, but may not do as well in the House; similar legislation has faltered in past sessions.  While we take no issue with tougher restrictions on beginning drivers and on who may be in the car during a probationary period, there is something bothersome about the cell phone provision, and it is not that we, in any way, would endorse teens talking on phones or texting while driving. We would never make that endorsement.

Rep. Borders attends rally supporting property tax caps
District 45 State Rep. Bruce Borders (R-Jasonville) on Tuesday joined Gov. Mitch Daniels, other legislators and Indiana citizens in support of permanent property tax caps at a rally at the Statehouse. Gov. Daniels urged the legislature to pass Senate Joint Resolution 1, which would make the current statutory caps permanent.  ”Permanent property tax caps are all about making good on our promises,” said Rep. Borders. “There’s no denying things are tight right now, and the public needs to know we’re behind them 100 percent.”

Indiana needs a checkup
Indiana ranks near the bottom in a new nationwide survey of well-being that queries people on mental, physical and economic health.  The massive survey of Americans’ daily lives — from how they are treated on the job to whether they had access to fresh fruits and vegetables — is designed to create a sort of Dow Jones industrial average for policymakers dealing with health care.  Indiana ranked 45th among the 50 states for overall well-being in the Gallup-Healthways survey.

Sam Turpin – Indiana Lobbyist

Indiana News Update

House panel taking up local government revamp
An Indiana House committee plans to consider Senate-approved proposals for reorganizing local government.  Democratic Rep. John Bartlett of Indianapolis says the Government and Regulatory Reform committee that he leads will hold an initial hearing on the issues Tuesday.  Republican Gov. Mitch Daniels proposed several recommendations that he says would streamline local government, including having a single county executive and eliminating township government. Several of the proposals struggled in the Senate, getting watered down or killed outright.

Indiana’s jobless rate hits 2 percent
Indiana’s unemployment rate rose to 9.2 percent in January, the highest monthly mark recorded in the state since the recession of the early 1980s.  State officials blamed the latest jobless numbers on several factors, including drops in manufacturing and a greater than normal loss of retail jobs after the holiday shopping season. Unemployment rates were also up in Ohio (8.8 percent) and Michigan (11.6 percent).  “The manufacturing sector is the hardest hit area of the economy right now,” said Marc Lotter, a spokesman for Indiana’s Department of Workforce Development.

Tax dollars fund both sides in battle over townships
The lobbying campaign over the fate of Indiana townships has consumed hundreds of thousands of dollars, including, according to both sides, tax dollars.  The Indiana Township Association sent a letter to township trustees in the fall telling them they needed more money to lobby against the reforms and providing instructions on how to shift funds around in their taxpayer-supported budgets to pay for a “special dues assessment” to foot the bill.  Although it’s common for cities, counties and states to use some of their taxpayer dollars for organization memberships and to lobby, Marilyn Schultz, the executive director of Mysmartgov.org, a lobbying group leading the drive to restructure local government, said that seeking those additional taxpayer dollars went too far.

Sam Turpin – Indiana Lobbyist

Indiana News Update

1st round of stimulus funds will help state infrastructure
The Indiana Department of Transportation announced Friday that funding for 29 additional infrastructure improvement projects worth $43.6 million across Indiana will come from the federal stimulus package.  The list is the second the department has presented this year. An earlier list, released Feb. 6, identified 27 other projects valued at $44.5 million.  Although the exact total Indiana will receive is still unknown, the stimulus package allocates $658 million for Indiana infrastructure projects, of which $440 million will go to the Department of Transportation, $198 million to local agencies and $20 million to mandatory transportation enhancement projects across the state, according to a release from Gov. Mitch Daniel’s office.

Indiana investment pool dwindles
State officials had high hopes for an investment pool created last year to give Indiana’s school districts and local governments a safe, short-term place to deposit taxpayer money and earn interest.  Then the economy tanked.  The account’s daily interest rate fell from 3.23 percent last February to just 0.53 percent Wednesday. Its balance dwindled from a peak of more than $1 billion in December to $473 million — and that includes $200 million the state government invested to demonstrate that the fund is secure.

Senator wants stimulus to buck up schools
A leading state senator wants to rely on money from the federal stimulus package to give a slight spending increase to Indiana’s public schools. Senate Appropriations Chairman Luke Kenley, R-Noblesville, said Wednesday that he still is developing his proposal. But he wants to use $683 million in stimulus money in hopes of increasing basic funding for schools by an average of between 1 percent to 2 percent. Kenley said by using the stimulus money, some state dollars that otherwise would have gone to funding schools could be put in a reserve fund. The state could then rely on those reserves if needed to keep school funding at adequate levels once the stimulus dollars run out in about two years.

Support growing for smokefree workplaces
A poll conducted at the end of January and released recently finds that voters in every region of the state and across political party lines strongly support a statewide law prohibiting smoking inside all workplaces, including restaurants, bars and casinos, according to a news release from CHANCES for Indiana Youth.  By a nearly 2-to-1-margin (64 percent to 34 percent), Hoosier voters support a law prohibiting smoking “in indoor public places, including workplaces, public buildings, offices, casinos, restaurants and bars.” Nearly half of all voters (49 percent) strongly favor such a law. Support for a smokefree workplace law is up 5 percentage points from a similar poll conducted at the same time last year. Support for a smokefree law is evident across party lines, with a majority of Republicans (66 percent), independents (59 percent) and Democrats (65 percent) supporting the measure

Sam Turpin – Indiana Lobbyist

Indiana News Update

State bill to help cancer patients moves to Senate
Cancer patients could receive help to continue the battle. The Indiana House of Representatives unanimously voted in favor of alleviated medical costs for patients willing to participate in clinical trials furthering cancer research. The measure now moves to the Senate for consideration. If passed, the bill will take effect July 1. Democratic representative and Bloomington native Peggy Welch, who authored the bill, said it is an important advancement in cancer care.

Senate urged to decrease unemployment benefits
Small business owners urged the Senate Tuesday to decrease unemployment benefits to Hoosiers and make eligibility requirements tougher as the state tries to fix its increasingly overburdened unemployment system.  A litany of business people testified before a joint hearing of the Senate Labor Committee and its Tax and Fiscal Policy Committee, weighing in on what has become one of the most vexing and contentious problems among the many facing the General Assembly this session.

Failing schools may be placed in state control
Indiana’s new schools chief plans to funnel help to struggling schools like never before but also expects to be aggressive in taking over those that fail and running them himself.  That new aggressiveness to force low-performing schools to improve will be a hallmark of his administration, Tony Bennett said in an interview, and a defining characteristic of his reorganization of the Indiana Department of Education.

Sam Turpin – Indiana Lobbyist