If Indiana House Speaker Brian Bosma, R-Indianapolis, is serious about his pledge to work in concert with Democrats on key pieces of legislation, he is being put to an early test.
The atmosphere was a bit contentious on the opening day of the General Assembly on Wednesday when two bills opposing the interests of organized labor were introduced.
They involve:
* The so-called right-to-work legislation that would prohibit companies from making union dues or membership a requirement of employment. The bill would make it a Class A misdemeanor to violate the law.
* Giving bidders, contractors and subcontractors working on public works projects the ability to avoid agreements with labor organizations.
Moving forward with either bill could serve to make it virtually impossible to get minority Democrats to work with Republicans on key issues such as education reform, government reform and criminal justice reform to name a few issues.
Republicans would be well-advised to look back to 1995, when their proposal to change the state's prevailing wage law would have reduced pay for workers in public construction projects.
That proposal brought 20,000 angry union members to a Statehouse protest and helped Democrats win a majority in the House the next election.
While there are strong arguments on each side of the two labor issues, neither is critical to the future of the state and thus ought to be shelved for another day.
The state has serious concerns that must be addressed -- particularly the school funding issue, which has school districts across Indiana in fiscal straits.
Government reform and legislation that will lead to a reduced prison population also are vital. This isn't the time for the Legislature to turn to divisive political issues.