INDIANAPOLIS - As House Democrats derailed one key piece of Gov. Mitch Daniels' legislative agenda, the governor ramped up pressure on House Speaker Patrick Bauer to keep another of his top priorities on track.
On Tuesday, just hours after the governor's drive to overhaul local government was defeated in a House committee, Daniels joined 200 people at a Statehouse rally. He urged lawmakers to vote this year for a proposal that could write property tax caps into the state's constitution.
"There's one man who can make possible one vote that can protect Hoosier taxpayers forever," Daniels said, referring to the speaker.
It's the latest turn in the relationship between perhaps the two most powerful people in Indiana government.
Daniels has said Bauer's authority is total, and no legislation passes through the House without his OK - a claim underscored by the speaker's ability to thus far block top priorities of a governor recently re-elected in an 18-point landslide.
After killing the Kernan-Shepard Commission local government reform bills, Bauer appears poised to punt the amendment that would make permanent last year's property tax caps - 1 percent for homes, 2 percent for rental properties and 3 percent for businesses - until next year.
Bauer said those who demand the Legislature pass the "circuit-breaker" amendment this year "simply do not know how to tell time."
If the Legislature passes the amendment either this year or next year, voters will have the final say in the November 2010 election.
Bauer said last week that because the caps are already state law, there's no need to rush.
"If we wait until 2010 to act, we will have another year to determine the impact of the caps on schools and local units of government," Bauer said. "We will have more data to make a better informed decision."
Cooperation needed
But Bauer needs help from Daniels and the Republican-controlled Senate or he can't get anything through the Legislature, either.
In the Senate, a host of House Democratic bills are tied up, including a state transportation stimulus bill. Meanwhile, Republicans are starting nearly from scratch on the state budget the House sent them earlier this year.
The two sides will stand their ground until the last two weeks of April, when they're forced to hash out their differences in "conference committee," a two-week sprint to the session's April 29 end date.
In other Statehouse news:
Lawmakers could vote as early as today on a bill that would move forward funding for a proposed $2 billion coal-to-gas plant in Spencer County.
The plant would turn coal into pipeline-quality gas that could heat customers' homes. Senate Bill 423 calls for the state to act as a broker, buying the natural gas and reselling it at the same price to utilities.
That would help developers clear a key hurdle toward building the plant.
The bill is scheduled for a final vote during the House's session today, but that schedule sometimes sees last-minute changes.
This afternoon, the Senate Appropriations Committee will hear from the state's public higher education institutions - including the University of Southern Indiana, Ivy Tech and Vincennes University - as it works toward crafting the state's next spending plan.
Higher education spending will be a key battle as lawmakers work on the budget.
Daniels called for a 4 percent budget cut, but House Democrats seek to boost the funding.
The Indiana Department of Transportation will appear before the same panel Thursday morning.
A projected increase in new violent felons and already overcrowded prisons have put Indiana in desperate need of more cell space for maximum security inmates, Department of Correction officials said Thursday.
Daniels wants lawmakers to approve $40 million in bonding authority to expand the Miami Correctional Facility near Peru and the Wabash Valley Correctional Facility near Sullivan.
Each would add about 600 beds, and the state would make $3 million in annual bond payments.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.