INDIANAPOLIS —Another day. Another Democratic boycott.
The day after they stepped off the Indiana House floor in protest of the “right to work” measure’s advancement, Democrats on Tuesday again refused to allow majority Republicans to cobble together the two-thirds presence of all members they need to do business.
It’s the fourth time in the 2012 legislative session’s first four weeks that Democrats have ignited a stop-and-start standoff. They wouldn’t say when they’ll be back this time, either.
“It could be as early as tomorrow, but who knows what ill winds may blow between now and then,” said House Minority Leader B. Patrick Bauer, D-South Bend.
House Speaker Brian Bosma, R-Indianapolis, imposed a $1,000 fine on the absent Democrats on Tuesday, bringing the total he’s fined them to $4,000 during this year’s session.
He said he’ll fine Democrats again Wednesday if they do not show up, and will continue doing so “as long as their strike continues.”
These fines come after Bosma imposed $3,150 in penalties on most House Democrats during last year’s five-week standoff, when they left the state and stayed at a Comfort Suites hotel in Urbana, Ill.
“Someone shouldn’t have to demand it. Someone shouldn’t have to call them and ask them, pretty please will they show up? They just need to get here,” Bosma said.
The two leaders, Bosma and Bauer, said they have not spoken since Democrats left the House floor Monday night.
“He knows exactly what my phone number is; he’s utilized it many times. He’s welcome to sit down in my office,” Bosma said.
The latest dust-up started Tuesday after four and a half hours of debating amendments to the “right to work” proposal, which is contained in identical forms in both House Bill 1001 and Senate Bill 269.
The chamber had just voted down on party lines a Democratic amendment that would have sent the issue to a statewide referendum. Bosma asked if House members had further amendments to present, and none immediately stood up to offer one.
Six seconds later – a longer-than-usual wait for more amendments – Bosma ordered the bill to “engrossment” – the legislative term for closing the amendment stage and readying a bill for a final vote as soon as the next day.
Democrats then howled in protest. They said they had as many as 50 more amendments, and intended to offer some of them, but were not given a chance.
Bauer called it an “unprecedented show of abuse of power.” Bosma, meanwhile, said he reviewed video footage of what had happened, and felt comfortable he’d given Democrats ample opportunity to present more amendments.
Asked whether Democrats could stay out through the full 10-week session to try to prevent the bill’s passage, Bauer said, “I don’t think that’s our intention. Our intention is to make sure people know more about it before it happens.”
He said Republicans are “afraid of the Super Bowl,” which is in Indianapolis on Feb. 5. Labor groups have indicated they could mount a protest to coincide with the game.
“They’re bringing in union players to entertain them in a union-built coliseum,” Bauer said, adding that he considered it “inhospitable” to pass a “right to work” measure.
What they’re debating is a proposal that would allow workers to opt out of paying union dues as a condition of employment.
Republicans and their business lobby allies have championed the idea, saying it would give workers more freedom and attract businesses that strike Indiana off their lists of places to locate simply because the state lacks such a law.
Democrats and their labor backers, meanwhile, oppose it, calling “right to work” a union-busting bill that would undermine the financial footing of the groups that protect workers’ wages, benefits and safety protections during labor negotiations.