Although property-tax relief is still the predominant issue in the Legislature, the kickoff of the session's second half saw a new issue emerge: Another possible expansion of legalized gambling.
Since 1988, Indiana has in stages approved a state lottery, riverboat casinos, two pari-mutuel horse tracks, a land-based casino in French Lick and charity gaming.
Last week, a Senate panel heard a bill that would allow bars and taverns to offer paper gambling games: raffles, pull-tabs, punch boards and tip boards.
Nonprofit fraternal organizations such as American Legion halls and VFW posts already have the right to offer paper gambling games under a law passed last year.
But for-profit bar owners, many of them small businesspeople, complained Thursday they are at a competitive disadvantage and they demanded parity.
They found a receptive audience when the Senate Appropriations Committee heard House Bill 1153.
"If you want to go into a tavern, that's your call, as long as you're legal, 21 years of age," Sen. Jim Arnold, D-Michigan City, said. "If you want to go in there and play a punch board, that should be your call as well. Nobody puts a gun to anyone's head and makes them gamble."
Under the bill, a 10-percent excise tax collected from such games would be distributed to local governments and schools.
The same committee heard House Bill 1224 that would let an interim trustee operate a riverboat casino temporarily if the casino's owner ever lost its gaming license. Authored by state Rep. Trent Van Haaften, D-Mount Vernon, the bill was motivated in part by the ownership transition and impending sale of Casino Aztar in Evansville.
The committee did not vote on either of the bills, but senators will study them further and vote this week.
In other action:
Voting centers - Voters would be able to cast absentee ballots by mail without giving an excuse, under an amendment to an election bill that a House committee approved Wednesday. The underlying bill would let counties use centralized voting centers instead of traditional neighborhood polling places. Supporters said both proposals should be in the same bill because they both make it easier to vote. But the change may make it more difficult to get the bill passed. Senate Republican leaders have opposed no-excuse absentee balloting by mail.
Property tax - A Senate committee is holding hearings on the House version of the governor's property-tax relief plan while a House committee is doing the same to the Senate version. The Senate plan would phase in the caps on property taxes over two years while the House would implement them all at once. The Senate plan would allow referendums on all public construction projects while the House plan would leave out school projects. The House plan would eliminate all 1,008 township assessors and the Senate plan would keep assessors in the 44 largest townships.
Both plans incorporate Gov. Mitch Daniels' proposal to cap residential property taxes at no more than 1 percent of assessed value and increase the 6 percent sales tax to 7 percent.
Education leaders told the House Ways and Means Committee on Thursday that the Senate plan would drain more than $170 million from schools, especially poor urban districts that need the most help.
In the House, municipal officials warned of police and fire cuts; social service advocates said they wanted protection for programs for the poor; and school officials said they wanted stable funding.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.