A new Indiana General Assembly will soon arrive in Indianapolis, where its members will debate education reforms, smoking and alcohol laws, and whether Hoosiers should be allowed to use their cell phones while they drive.
Most importantly, they'll decide how to handle a projected $800 million deficit and balance Indiana's two-year general fund budget, estimated at about $28 billion. Both parties have promised not to raise taxes.
"That's pretty much going to be our major focus this year," Rep. Mara Candelaria Reardon, D-Munster, said. "Trying to address the shortfalls."
The first legislative session of the 117th General Assembly is set to begin Wednesday. Lawmakers will have until the end of April to answer several pressing questions for Indiana.
They'll do so while navigating a shift in power at the Statehouse. November's election put Republicans in control of both chambers and gave them a supermajority in the Senate. That means the GOP can pass bills there without the presence of a single Democrat.
It isn't clear what that will mean for Northwest Indiana's mostly Democrat delegation, which is returning all its incumbents.
The clock is also ticking on Republican Mitch Daniels' second term as governor. He's offering up a legislative agenda of his own while pundits speculate about his plans beyond 2012.
"We're not talking about politics for a good long while here," Daniels told reporters in November.
Reardon is a member of the House Ways and Means committee, where the House budgeting process begins. She said the state must cut costs, but she also said it's operating at 1982 staffing levels.
"There's not much more that can be cut," Reardon said.
Sen. Ed Charbonneau, R-Valparaiso, is the ranking Republican on his chamber's appropriations committee, which will also consider the budget. He said the state has about $13.9 billion in fixed expenses, but revenue will likely fall short of that number until late 2013.
Reardon and Charbonneau each said lawmakers might look for ways the state could raise revenue, despite the no-tax-increase promise. Reardon said fees could go up.
"You're talking about providing services," Reardon said. "The only way to do that is charging a fee."
Charbonneau said the state could eliminate a portion of its deficit by eliminating delays between the time money is received and when it becomes available for use.
Adam Horst, the state's budget director, said he expects Indiana will have $681 million in the bank at the end of this fiscal year at the end of June.
If the state can keep spending flat, he said, it could survive on its reserves until revenues improve in 2013.
The closest thing to a sacred cow in this year's budget is education. Daniels said in November he saw no need to cut further into the budget for Indiana's K-12 schools. Many, like Crown Point, are experiencing funding woes.
"We'll flatline what schools have gotten this year," Charbonneau said.
Education
Reardon also predicted a debate over priorities in education, and whether money should be shifted around within the current education budget. Among Daniels' legislative priorities are several educational reforms. He's said he wants to give students the opportunity to finish their education one year early and put the savings from their senior year of high school toward studies after high school.
Daniels also said he wants to offer more choices to parents beyond the traditional public schools. He even pointed to a Gary charter school where there are 1,000 families on the waiting list.
"That's not right," Daniels said.
Rep. Vernon Smith, D-Gary and a professor at Indiana University Northwest, is a member of the House education committee and says charter schools aren't the best way to expand those choices.
Smith said the governor could more easily convince him of the need to break down the boundaries between public school districts than of the need for more charter schools.
"One thing we have to keep in mind with charter schools," Smith said. "The governor's anti-union. That's a way of breaking the teachers union."
Smith also said he opposes merit pay for teachers, another Daniels agenda item, unless it's part of a larger equation. He said there are too many variables in student performance for it to be the sole basis of compensation for teachers.
"I know how passionate, how sincere I am about trying to get (students) to change their lives," Smith said. "They have to decide that they want it."
Alcohol
While the budget and the public education system might dominate the conversation, lawmakers have plenty of other issues to tackle.
Lobbyists for gas station convenience stores and grocery stores have continued to encourage a movement among Hoosiers to allow alcohol sales on Sundays.
Stores that are open on Sundays want the right to sell alcohol every day of the week. Package liquor stores, meanwhile, say they could be put out of business if state law is changed. They say they'd see no increase in sales, but they'd need to pay workers for an additional day of work, costing them money.
Local lawmakers have also said they'll try to repeal a law passed in the last session that requires everyone who buys alcohol to show identification, regardless of age.
Smoking ban
Rep. Charlie Brown's priority for the last few years has been passage of a statewide smoking ban. Brown, of Gary, is the ranking Democrat on the House health committee. He said he'll push for the ban once again.
And although he offered last year to exempt casinos, a maneuver he said he made to avoid gaming lobbyists, he said there are no exemptions in his latest proposal.
"Everyone would have to be smoke-free," Brown said.
Daniels' office says the governor continues to support the idea. So does the Indiana Chamber of Commerce.
"Usually the third time is the charm," Brown said. "Perhaps now it's the fourth time that's a charm."
Casinos
Sen. Earline Rogers, D-Gary, already filed a bill that would let the owners of her city's gambling licenses propose a land-based casino.
Rogers and Brown have sought the change for years. Last year, the idea was shot down after House members from other Northwest Indiana communities voted against it.
Gary leaders believe a land-based casino would give Northwest Indiana's largest city the economic jump-start it needs to fund its services properly. Meanwhile, proposals are moving forward in Illinois to build a casino in Chicago's southern suburbs.
Rogers' proposal says a licensed Gary casino boat operator could propose an inland casino to the Indiana Gaming Commission. The casino could move only one of its licenses on shore.
Brown, Rogers' partner in the House on past casino legislation, said he and others are working through the state's casino association to calm the fears of Blue Chip Casino in Michigan City, Horseshoe Casino in Hammond and others who suspect they'd lose money to a Gary land-based casino.
"It's a matter of strategizing," Brown said.
Gary
Although a land-based casino could give Gary's economy a boost, it might be too late for it to ward off City Hall's fiscal doomsday.
When Hoosiers passed a referendum to write the state's property tax caps into the constitution this fall, they cut off a crucial lifeline for the Steel City. Gary has limped along financially since 2009 by asking the Indiana Distressed Unit Appeals Board to raise the caps for local property owners.
The DUAB complied in 2009 and 2010, and Gary wants it to do so again in 2011. It won't have that option in 2012, because the DUAB can't raise constitutional caps.
But Charbonneau filed a bill to give Indiana cities a path to bankruptcy. It would reduce the DUAB to a three-member board and give it the power to appoint an "emergency manager" to run insolvent governments.
Gary Mayor Rudy Clay, and at least one candidate running for mayor next year, say bankruptcy isn't an option for the city. However, a qualifying creditor could also petition the new DUAB for a distressed ruling.
Other issues
House Speaker Brian Bosma, R-Indianapolis, surprised many state lawmakers when he appointed Rep. Chet Dobis, D-Merrillville, to chair a committee on government reduction. It's rare, if not unprecedented, for a member of the minority party to lead such a body.
Dobis said he's still preparing for his trip down to Indianapolis, but he said he'd like to identify "obvious reforms" so his committee could begin making changes quickly.
"This is a two-year deal," Dobis said.
Many other issues will also fall to the General Assembly this year. Topics of bills already filed include texting while driving, "sexting," the possible suspension of elected officials charged with a crime and residency requirements for police officers and firefighters.