By Eric Bradner, Evansville Courier & Press
INDIANAPOLIS - The Indiana House approved constitutional property tax caps Monday afternoon with bipartisan support as 30 of the chamber's 52 majority Democrats joined 45 of the 48 Republicans voting "yes."
Since the caps' passage is all but certain in the Republican-led Senate, the House vote clears the way for voters to make the final decision through a statewide referendum in November.
Southwest Indiana's legislators split on the vote. Reps. Suzanne Crouch of Evansville and Mark Messmer of Jasper, both Republicans, voted yes, as did Democratic Reps. Gail Riecken of Evansville.
Meanwhile, Democratic Reps. Dennis Avery of Evansville, Kreg Battles of Vincennes, Russ Stilwell of Boonville and Trent Van Haaften of Mount Vernon voted no.
Rep. Dennie Oxley Sr., D-Taswell, is recovering from a November heart attack and has not yet returned to the Statehouse.
Some lawmakers warned against the amendment, saying it will tie the hands of local government units and put the Legislature in the position of bailing them out in the future.
"You have a choice between reducing services or raising taxes - income taxes," said Rep. Win Moses, D-Fort Wayne.
On Monday the House also passed on a bipartisan 97-2 vote legislation that would chill the relationship between lawmakers and lobbyists.
The bill institutes a one-year waiting period before former legislators can lobby the General Assembly. It would require lobbyists to report all gifts they give lawmakers worth $50 or more - a reduction from the current $100 minimum.
"What it does in this bill is try to bring clearance to many issues and try to bring a little bit more public confidence" in state government, said House Speaker B. Patrick Bauer, who authored House Bill 1001.
Though he listed a series of complaints with Bauer's legislation, House Minority Leader Brian Bosma, R-Indianapolis, encouraged members of his caucus to vote for the bill.
"It's a little bit unique, what we're doing today, because there's no major scandal going on in the state of Indiana, yet legislators are significantly tightening their ethics laws," he said.
Particularly important, he said, is the one-year cooling off period. Bosma called it "a needed confidence-builder for the public."
The two "no" votes came from Rep. David Wolkins, R-Winona Lakes, and Rep. Timothy Brown, R-Crawfordsville.
"In my mind this bill is not so much about ethics as it is about politics," Wolkins said. He added that he'd like to see the General Assembly spend more time discussing more significant changes.
One provision Wolkins said he liked was the lower gift reporting minimum, but he said he'd like to see the bill go further.
"I think there ought to be total disclosure all the way around," he said.
In other news Monday:
- On a 61-38 vote with some Republicans joining most Democrats voting "yes," the House passed a bill that would require Hoosiers to make up at least 80 percent of those who are working on state-funded public works projects. "The bottom line is, we need jobs. This bill provides those jobs," said its author, Rep. Clyde Kersey, D-Terre Haute.
- A state Senate panel endorsed a bill that would require Indiana to keep communities such as cities and counties together during the redistricting process. It was one of several bills in a package Senate Republicans are pushing this year in an effort to lessen the role politics plays in the legislative map-making process.
- The House Government and Regulatory Reform Committee advanced a bill that would allow Hoosiers to vote on whether to abolish township government. Under House Bill 1181, authored by Rep. Bill Crawford, D-Indianapolis, voters in each of Indiana's 1,008 townships would decide whether to keep their trustees and advisory boards, or eliminate them and transfer their duties to the county government.