INDIANAPOLIS By this time next week, the Legislature could be wrapping up the details of a final budget deal or on its way to a special session because no deal was reached.
The coming days will determine whether the Indiana General Assembly can pass a two-year state budget, mete out property-tax relief, fund public education and full-day kindergarten and compromise on gambling and cigarette taxes.
The deadline for legislators to complete their work and pass a state budget is April 29. If they don't finish by then, they'll be back for a special session a possibility all sides say they want to avoid.
Here is a look back and ahead as the 2007 session hurtles to a conclusion:
INTERLOCKING BILLS: Much of the remaining high-profile legislation is interconnected, one bill dependent on the passage of another.
As passed by the Senate, the $26.3 billion budget bill would fund K-12 education and full-day kindergarten. A related component, House Bill 1478, would make funding shifts and provide additional homestead credits in an attempt to spare homeowners a projected 15 percent increase in property taxes. But the property-tax legislation is partly dependent on new gaming revenue from the horse-track slot-machine bill, House Bill 1835. And the Senate's budget version also hinges on revenue from franchising the Hoosier Lottery, a proposal contained in Senate Bill 577 that passed in the Republican-controlled Senate but died in the Democratic-controlled House.
Juggling all those priorities, state senators and representatives are working in conference committees to try to hammer out compromise wording for bills that passed in different versions in the Senate and the House. Also unresolved is whether a cigarette tax increase will be used to fund health coverage for uninsured Hoosiers.
I-69: Democratic House Speaker Patrick Bauer proposed the Legislature itemize funding in the budget specifically for the Interstate 69 extension and other highway projects, rather than allocating the Indiana Department of Transportation a lump sum and letting INDOT decide.
"Well, they ought to be careful about the legalities, but it's a positive signal," Republican Gov. Mitch Daniels said Tuesday. "I always said we would get this worked out. We would have the money; we want to use the money for I-69, and I knew (Bauer) didn't fundamentally disagree."
Though the I-69 project has bipartisan support, one legal issue is whether the Indiana Constitution allows the Legislature to specifically itemize funding for a highway project, as opposed to allocating a lump sum. Article 4, Section 22, of the state constitution prohibits the General Assembly from passing "local or special laws providing for laying out, opening and working on highways."
Democratic Rep. Dennis Avery of Evansville said one legal interpretation is that the constitutional ban applies only to the Legislature funding local roads, not to state highway projects such as Interstate 69. "If we can itemize those projects as far as the legislation is concerned, I would like to do that," Avery said. "However, if it puts in question the funding for those projects, I think we should be very careful and not do that. I do think it's important we talk about all these issues over the next few days."
MINIMUM WAGE: The Indiana House concurred with Senate changes to House Bill 1027, which would tie Indiana's minimum wage to an expected increase in the federal minimum. Approximately 30,000 Hoosier workers who are not covered by the federal minimum wage receive the state minimum, $5.15 an hour. If the governor signs the bill into law, and if Congress also passes an increase in the federal rate, then the state wage would also increase, to $7.25 an hour over two years.
DARFUR: Human-rights advocates had sought this session to divest Indiana state pension funds from any companies doing business in Sudan, because of atrocities committed by the Sudanese government in the Darfur region. The divestment bill died in committee, but supporters hope to amend the bill's wording into a separate bill that deals with teacher pensions, House Bill 1067, on Tuesday.
MILITARY: The Indiana National Guard and Gov. Mitch Daniels announced this week that the former Muscatatuck State Development Center in Jennings County will become a military training center as part of a $100 million renovation. During the first drill on the site in May, more than 1,000 guard personnel will use Muscatatuck's buildings to simulate the aftermath of a nuclear bomb going off in an urban environment, said Maj. Gen. Martin Umbarger, Indiana's adjutant general.
Although Muscatatuck will replicate a nuclear detonation in Indianapolis during the May exercise, Umbarger said the facility could simulate other cities if officials requested it to train their first responders and guard units. "They could replicate Evansville or whatever venue they wanted to do, whether it would be anthrax found, or in this case a nuclear blast," Umbarger said Tuesday. Eventually, Muscatatuck could host up to 10 major urban training events a year.
IDENTITY THEFT: Senate Bill 403 would combat identity theft by requiring consumer-reporting agencies to put security freezes on Hoosiers' credit reports upon request, at no charge. The bill passed the Legislature and was sent to the governor for consideration.
FUNERAL: The state Senate and Indiana House will not be in session Monday so that legislators and staff can attend the funeral of the daughter of state Sen. Timothy Skinner, D-Terre Haute. Skinner's daughter, Shanna S. Branch, 29, died Thursday in a chain-reaction crash southwest of Muncie. Skinner was elected to the Senate in 2002, and he represents Parke, Vermillion, Vigo and Warren counties.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.