Indiana News Update

Hoosier Park faces possible shutdown
Hoosier Park could be a victim of Indiana’s budget crisis, at least temporarily.  “We are all watching and waiting and hopeful we don’t have to broach that subject,” said Jim Brown, general manager for gaming at Hoosier Park.  The casino and racetrack — and all other licensed gambling operations in Indiana — could be forced to close if lawmakers in Indianapolis are unable to approve a new state budget or pass a continuing resolution to pay for state operations. Indiana’s biennial budget expires at midnight tonight.

Indiana prison population hits 99 percent of capacity
Indiana is running so short on prison space that it has just 26 beds available for its worst offenders. Inmates are already sleeping in beds stacked three high in one prison, and officials are considering renovating common areas like gymnasiums into cells.  Department of Correction leaders thought their prison crowding problem would be alleviated – at least a bit – when Gov. Mitch Daniels proposed expanding two prisons to add 1,200 beds. Daniels said it was a priority because Indiana’s prisons are at about 99 percent of capacity.

Partial state government shutdown looms if no budget
State lawmakers are due back at work today as they face a deadline of midnight Tuesday to pass a new state spending plan.  Without a budget or a stopgap funding measure, much of state government would shut down on Wednesday. That includes state parks, BMV branches and most state offices.  Lawmakers return to work Monday with little time left to settle their differences and reach a budget agreement.  Gov. Mitch Daniels says there is legal authority to keep essential services like state police and prisons running, but most of the state’s nearly 31,000 employees would be furloughed.

Daniels credited for nudge on welfare
Though he opposed efforts by Southwestern Indiana lawmakers dealing with the subject, Gov. Mitch Daniels played a key role in convincing contractors hired by Indiana’s welfare agency to take steps to bolster a modernization project.  During a stop in Evansville last week, Daniels said he has been “very dissatisfied with at least certain aspects” of the plan to have the state’s Family and Social Services Administration use call centers and process documents online.  The state signed a 10-year, $1.16 billion contract with a team led by IBM Corp. and Affiliated Computer Services Inc. to complete the project.  “And that’s why we’ve had more than one very direct conversation with IBM and their partners,” he said

Sam Turpin – Indiana Lobbyist

Indiana News Update

Budget: State Senate OKs 2-year bill
Indiana Senate Republicans passed their version of a two-year state budget bill on Tuesday, setting the stage for a showdown with the Democrat led-House as lawmakers try to pass a new budget before the current one expires June 30.  Senate Republicans billed their $28.5 billion, two-year budget — which includes about $1 billion in federal stimulus money — as fiscally prudent given the economy’s drag on state revenues. It would leave about $1 billion in reserves by July 2011.  That’s the minimum amount that Republican Gov. Mitch Daniels wants in the bank at the end of two years. In a symbolic show of unity, minority House Republicans joined Senate leaders in calling on House Democrats to accept the Senate’s budget bill.

Act would build housing after floods
Sen. Evan Bayh is pushing to make $230 million funding available for housing development in flood-ravaged areas.  On Tuesday, the Indiana Democrat proposed the Disaster State Housing Recovery Act, which makes funding immediately available to begin work on shovel-ready affordable housing projects.  The legislation could create up to 1,728 new jobs in Indiana, according to the National Association of Home Builders.   Because of the economic downturn, the number of new residential construction projects initiated each month has dropped 80 percent since the industry’s 2006 peak, the lowest in 13 years.

Daniels on road to push budget plan
Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels is traveling in the southern part of the state to talk about the special legislative session and negotiations on a new state budget.  Daniels will visit Terre Haute and Evansville Wednesday, and will go Thursday to New Albany, Madison and Lawrenceburg.  The Republican governor is urging Democrats who control the Indiana House to sign off on a budget proposed by the GOP-led Senate. Daniels says that budget is acceptable to him and that House Democrats should accept the proposal without any changes.

Sam Turpin – Indiana Lobbyist

Indiana News Update

State budget wrangling picks up
State lawmakers have two steps left to take today before the clock will start on bipartisan, legislative budget negotiations. The Republican-led Senate is expected to pass its two-year, $28.5 billion budget. Then, the Democratic-controlled House will meet late this afternoon to dissent from that budget.  That will send top negotiators in both chambers into joint conference committee discussions, where they’ll try to bridge their differences and broker a deal that can pass both the House and the Senate and also meet Gov. Mitch Daniels’ muster.

Former Ind. lieutenant governor dies at 89

Richard O. Ristine, a Republican who served one term as Indiana’s lieutenant governor and cast the deciding vote that established the state’s sales tax in 1963, has died at age 89.  Ristine died Saturday at his home in Leland, Mich., after a brief illness, U.S. Sen. Dick Lugar, R-Ind., said Monday in a statement that called Ristine “a remarkable Indiana leader.”  “The state of Indiana and his many friends will miss him very much, while appreciating his great character and remarkable life of service,” Lugar said in his statement.  Ristine earned a law degree from Columbia University before serving with the Army Air Corps during World War II in the Philippines and Japan. 

State’s casinos battling lower revenue
When Debra Butler relocated her salon in January to be closer to Hoosier Park, business grew so quickly that she doubled her staff and began laying out plans to expand.  But now, with talk of the horse-track casino’s financial struggles and even a possible bankruptcy, Butler and other business owners in Anderson are worried — especially because the city already has endured a long string of factory closings. “There’d be a lot of job loss that trickles down,” Butler said. “I don’t think Anderson can afford to lose anything job-wise.”  While Hoosier Park’s struggles are more severe than most, other Indiana casinos have hit a downturn, with more than half of the state’s 13 riverboats and horse-track casinos having sought financial help or struggling to emerge from — or avoid — bankruptcy.

Sam Turpin – Indiana Lobbyist

Indiana News Update

Daniels opposes tax breaks for Hoosier Park
Hoosier Park may be flirting with bankruptcy, but the racetrack and casino won’t likely get any help from the governor.  During a scheduled visit in Elwood to discuss the state budget on Wednesday, Gov. Mitch Daniels told The Herald Bulletin that he has no intention of bailing out Indiana’s two struggling racinos.  Both Hoosier Park and the Indiana Live casino in Shelbyville paid $250 million licensing fees to the state.

Lawmaker pulls bill to audit FSSA privatization

A measure to audit the partial privatization of many data collection and management functions for state welfare programs likely won’t become law during the legislature’s special session.  The bill’s author, Rep. Gail Riecken, D-Evansville, said Wednesday that she had withdrawn the bill because lawmakers were busy working to draft a state budget. She said she still would try to have its provisions included in the budget. But Riecken said that with Gov. Mitch Daniels’ opposition to the bill, it’s unlikely she would succeed. In that light, Riecken said she will push to establish a legislative committee to look at what’s happening in the Family and Social Services Administration.

Clear up confusion over CIB plan
A decision by the House Democratic leadership to kill off a rescue package for Indianapolis’ troubled Capital Improvement Board is disappointing. Worse, if not reversed, the move would seriously jeopardize the strength of the city’s convention and tourism industry, the source of tens of thousands of jobs in Central Indiana.  Yet, state legislators can be forgiven if they don’t quite know what to make of the confusing signals sent by Mayor Greg Ballard’s administration on this matter.

Sam Turpin – Indiana Lobbyist

Indiana News Update

Rep. Riecken honored for helping former POWs
State Rep. Gail Riecken, D-Evansville, has been named “Legislator of the Year” by Indiana’s chapter of the Disabled American Veterans for her work on legislation that honors former prisoners of war.  House Enrolled Act 1258 allows cars with POW license plates to park for free at any metered spot in the state. This puts POWs on par with disabled veterans.   ”I truly appreciate this honor, but it is our veterans who fought courageously to protect our freedoms and
independence who deserve the praise,” Riecken said in a statement.

GOP resists Dems’ state budget plan
Democrats who control the Indiana House advanced their version of a new state budget to the full chamber Monday with little sign that it will gain much, if any, support from outnumbered Republicans. The House Ways and Means Committee endorsed the plan on a 15-10 party-line vote after approving several amendments to the one-year spending bill. The changes included provisions that would increase spending for certain items and programs, as well as tax incentives to help the beleaguered recreational vehicle industry in northern Indiana.  The committee also added a provision by Rep. Robert Cherry, R-Greenfield, that would make the administration of Republican Gov. Mitch Daniels reopen a state school for troubled and needy youth for at least another year.

Bill seeks audit of FSSA modernization
It’s been two years since Indiana began an ambitious plan to modernize the Family and Social Services Administration, and a bill introduced in the legislative special session aims to tackle the many problems some say stem from the overhaul.  Critics of the $1.16 billion modernization drive say it has created a digital bureaucracy, filled with difficulty and frustration for some of the most vulnerable Hoosiers. These people have been stripped of personal caseworkers, been forced to deal with long response times and even seen benefits dropped amid increasing complications as a result of the shift, critics say.

Sam Turpin – Indiana Lobbyist

Indiana News Update

Special Session Called for June 11, 2009

State to debate public university funding based on graduate rates
Indiana will soon join more than two dozen states re-evaluating  public university funding.  State legislators will debate new public university funding practices in a special session June 11. Some Indiana lawmakers have suggested funding should be based more on graduation rates  than enrollment numbers.  The majority of Indiana public university funding comes from student enrollment numbers but also includes degree graduation rate, which is determined by the number of first-year full-time students’ rate of graduating in four years. 

Veterans home in line for extra $3 million in governor’s budget
If Gov. Mitch Daniels’ proposed Indiana budget passes as proposed, the Indiana Veterans’ Home would gain $3 million from the federal stimulus package.  But there’s a catch. It could be used only for repairs and rehabilitation on the home’s facilities near West Lafayette.  According to Ryan Kitchell, director of Indiana’s Office of Management and Budget, those repairs are long overdue. “It’s been neglected for a long time,” he said.  The money can’t be used for any expansion because state officials don’t want the money to fund projects that will result in a rise in operating expenses down the road when the stimulus money is no longer available, Kitchell said.

Special session slated
Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels is calling legislators back to the Statehouse next week to resume work on a new state budget, and legislative leaders are already meeting to lay the budget groundwork.  Daniels told a bipartisan group of lawmakers Tuesday that the special legislative session would begin June 11. The Republican governor said he hopes that gives lawmakers plenty of time to agree on a spending plan before the current budget expires on June 30.  “Let’s get on with it,” Daniels said.  A special joint budget committee heard a budget pitch from Daniels Tuesday and listened to administration officials detail his proposal. Democrats, who peppered Daniels with questions, said they would comb through the two-year budget and could have more questions when the group meets again Thursday.

Attorney general’s office sees jump in identity theft
Indiana Attorney General Greg Zoeller understands many Hoosiers are frustrated with the lawmakers for not yet agreeing on a state budget.  But Zoeller wants Hoosiers to know the General Assembly approved bills that allow his office to safeguard them against fraudulent predators.  “If you don’t pass a budget, that dominates the news cycle,” he said. “But frankly, from the consumer protection perspective we offered 12 bills. Eleven of them passed.”  Zoeller, a Republican, became the attorney general last fall in a close election race against Democrat Linda Pence. He was the chief deputy under the previous attorney general, Steve Carter.

Sam Turpin – Indiana Lobbyist

Indiana News Update

Local legislators weigh in on governor’s budget plan
Local delegates to the Indiana General Assembly were mixed in their support for Gov. Mitch Daniels’ budget proposal announced Monday.  Democrat Rep. Scott Reske and Sen. Tim Lanane both said the governor’s small increases to the public education budget likely still would equate to a decrease in school funding because it wouldn’t keep up with inflation.  “He doesn’t want to harm education coming out of the gate, but the flatline is actually a decrease in school spending because of inflation, so that has to be factored in,” Reske said.

Governor’s plan for special session: Cut spending but give Indiana schools a boost
Gov. Mitch Daniels wants to slash overall state spending by 2.5 percent, but the budget he outlined in a live broadcast Monday would give public schools and student aid a boost. The Republican governor also said he’s willing to reach into the state’s piggy bank — a bit. He said he wants to keep at least $1 billion of the state’s $1.3 billion in reserves in case the economy gets worse.  “If legislators want to spend more on some favorite cause, that’s fine as long as they offset it elsewhere,” Daniels said.  Daniels said a budget proposal that cleared the GOP-led Senate in the regular session but didn’t pass the Democrat-ruled House spent too much. A revenue forecast released last week predicted Indiana will collect $1.1 billion less through June 2011 than April estimates had predicted.

Sam Turpin – Indiana Lobbyist