By Peter Schnitzler, The IBJ
Ask around about what to expect from the 2006 Indiana General Assembly. Two facts will color the conversation: Next year is both a short session and an election year. The Statehouse will be closed for business by mid-March. Eight months later, voters will hold every representative and half their senators accountable for anything they’ve done. With that in mind, many leaders in the business community fear legislators will do nothing. “It takes time to digest the issues,” said Senate Minority Leader Richard Young, D-Milltown. “We’re going to be out of here by the middle of March. You want to leave a week or more for conference committees. That just gives us 30 days for bills on either side. That doesn’t give us much time to really get in depth.” Legislators don’t have to write a new budget until 2007. So it will be difficult to introduce, much less pass, most anything bearing a significant fiscal impact. Instead, to curry favor with voters, lawmakers may spend much of the little time they have on hot-button cultural issues, like daylight-saving time or intelligent design. “Maybe the intelligent design they’re really taking about is their plan to divert attention from the primary issues of budget and economic growth, which is what we really should be talking about,” said House Minority Leader Pat Bauer, D-South Bend. But where pessimists see only obstructions, optimists eye opportunities. Gov. Mitch Daniels is expected to push for a major statewide transportation package. The need to increase local governments’ authority to consolidate services will again be discussed. Business lobbyists will push for improvements to a slate of economic development incentives. And property tax reform is expected to be the largest issue on the agenda (see story below), although the debate may simply set the table for next year. “It will not be a ‘get in, get out and go home’ session,” said House Majority Leader Brian Bosma, R-Indianapolis. ‘Major Moves’ Perhaps Daniels’ top priority is his 10-year, $10.6 billion transportation plan, “Major Moves.” Indiana has already identified the $5.3 billion it needs for preservation projects, or maintenance of its existing roads. Daniels also wants to spend another $5.3 billion to build new roads. But Indiana is $2.8 billion short. “It makes sense for Indiana as a crossroads state to invest in its transportation infrastructure,” said Neil Pickett, Daniels’ senior adviser for policy and projects. “Failing to do so would be detrimental to its long-term prospects.” Legislators are lining up along partisan lines over how to fill the $2.8 billion gap. Republicans are generally inclined to support the governor’s proposals, which would increase the use of toll roads and sell some state assets to private companies. “The old method of increasing gas taxes by a dime while building roads, while serviceable, is certainly not optimal,” Bosma said. Democrats, for the most part, also want to see new roads built. But they aren’t so keen on using privatization to provide their funding. “That incoming [toll] revenue would be a constant stream that would be ours, but instead we’re giving it to somebody else up front,” Bauer said. “That’s the same as mortgaging your future.” The problem is that Indiana is still attempting to recover from the financial woes of its recessionary years. There’s not much cash to spare. “The alternative is not to do the projects, or not to do as many of them as quickly,” Pickett said. “The challenge is, which of these major strategic projects do you not want to initiate and complete? Which is what our critics need to answer.” Local governance Indianapolis Mayor Bart Peterson, a Democrat, is expected to again lobby for his “Indianapolis Works” package of local government consolidation proposals. Given the recent failure of his police merger plan in the local City-County Council, his uphill battle is steeper than ever. He starts with a base of support within his own party. “I think the idea that they did in Marion County should have gone forward,” Bauer said. “It should have been the model.” But Republicans hold the majority in both Statehouse chambers. Instead, House Republicans want to focus on some of the “unfunded mandates” that spurred the consolidation debate in the first place. County officials around the state, but particularly in Marion County, have long complained they’re required to pay ever-higher bills for programs the state administers. Child welfare in particular has been thorny, and Marion County is tens of millions of dollars behind in its payments to the state for juvenile incarceration. Bosma proposes moving child welfare completely to the state level by shifting the associated homeowners’ property tax levy to the state next year, with business property taxes following in 2007. He also wants to further study the potential consolidation of other services on a local level. “There is no reason why two units of government should not be able to go through a corporate merger, like two businesses,” he said. “The plan the mayor put on the table was not well-thought-out. But business, community and government leaders are convinced we have the potential to provide more efficient government at a local level.” If some form of local government consolidation emerges from the General Assembly, don’t expect it to directly challenge township government. Many business leaders consider it an outdated relic of the 19th century. But Senate Majority Leader Robert Garton, R-Columbus, still sees a need for it. “I support and respect trustees and what they do,” he said. “I know the criticism is out there, but for a unit of government that can address problems quickly, I don’t know of any other that can move as quickly as township trustees providing assistance to folks who need it the most. I really think it operates well.” Other issues
Health care is a perennial issue in the Statehouse. So is education. Expect plenty of debate on both subjects, although the lack of money means new spending isn’t likely. “I don’t know if there will be additional money for education,” Garton said. “But maybe [we’ll make] a change in how it will be spent at the local level.” The Indiana Chamber of Commerce has an ambitious slate of economic development and work-force education incentives it hopes to see initiated or tweaked. It also wants to promote investments in the state’s broadband network infrastructure. But an even higher priority is protecting the gains it’s made for businesses in previous sessions. Due to election-year politics, cultural issues may end up making more headlines than property taxes, transportation, local government consolidation or economic development. Some expect the debate over daylight-saving time to return. Daniels had to push DST through along party lines last session. Democrats may attempt to introduce legislation to keep the issue alive, in the hope that voters punish Republicans at the polls. Expect Republicans to limit the DST debate wherever possible. “Those [DST] battles were fought and, from my perspective, won,” Bosma said. On the other side of the aisle, the issue of “intelligent design,” or the notion that a creator-based hypothesis should be taught alongside Darwin’s Theory of Evolution in public schools, has already sparked much local attention. It’s just the sort of issue business leaders hope won’t dominate the General Assembly next year, especially given the limited days available in the short session. “I think sometimes these things are [debated] to make sure the far right is out there and that base gets out to vote,” Young said. “They need issues to bring ’em out.”
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