High-stakes issues may bring hectic final day of Indiana legislative session

INDIANAPOLIS — State lawmakers are stuck in a stalemate on a host of high-stakes issues as they enter a day certain to be hectic and likely to bring the conclusion of this year’s legislative session.

Today’s focus – and the point of greatest contention – is legislation that could reverse course on the higher business taxes lawmakers passed last year in hopes of replenishing the state’s bankrupt unemployment insurance fund.

“We’re not making much progress,” said Luke Kenley, the Noblesville Republican who chairs the Senate Appropriations Committee.

“They’ve forgotten the art of compromise,” House Speaker B. Patrick Bauer, D-South Bend, said of his opposition.

Looming beneath that issue is a Democratic package of job-creation initiative, a Republican proposal to save as much as $40 million by merging two major state pension funds, and a dispute over whether and how to give schools more flexibility with their funds.

The debate over the unemployment premium rate increase has been stagnant now for days. Delaying the tax hike sits at the top of Republicans’ agendas. Democrats one-upped Republicans, amending the legislation to repeal the hikes altogether. But first, they added provisions such as expanded eligibility and higher weekly jobless benefit payments.

Though the GOP-led Senate is prepared to remain in session another 10 days until the constitutionally-mandated adjournment, leaders in the Democratic-controlled House say today is it.

“We’re not getting any response” from Republicans on key issues, Bauer said, adding that lawmakers have had two months to vet those issues. “So it’s better to go home. It’s better to say we did our best.”

One Democrats appeared not to have thoroughly considered is Gov. Mitch Daniels’ administration’s proposed combination of the administrative functions of Indiana’s $14 billion Public Employees Retirement Fund and $8 billion Teachers Retirement Fund.

House Labor and Employment Committee Chairman David Niezgodski, D-South Bend, said he still had major concerns over how the savings would be realized and what that would mean for oversight of those pension funds.

A dejected Kenley said questions raised by Democrats and by lobbyists for teachers and unions during a meeting Wednesday evening were easily answered. The problem, he said, was that Democrats hadn’t asked early enough.

Meanwhile, Democrats were annoyed with Republicans who have so far scuttled their jobs package that includes authority for a sales tax increment finance district to pay for the construction of Village Earth, a nonprofit educational attraction developers hope to build in northern Warrick County.

After Wednesday’s closed-door discussions, some lawmakers suggested that jobs package could wind up in either the unemployment-related bill or the pension merger legislation.

Frustrated with negotiations himself, Bauer suggested Wednesday that the Republican-led Senate simply agree with bills that passed the Democratic-led House, without arguing for any changes.

“I just think ‘concur’ is the word of the day. They can concur,” Bauer said.

Here’s a look at other issues still to be sorted through as joint House-Senate conference committees enter their final days of negotiations:

Township reform

The fate of township government reform appears grim with a conference committee still gridlocked.

Sen. Connie Lawson, the Danville Republican negotiating for her chamber, said the House and Senate are “worlds apart right now, and this is not a good time in the session to be worlds apart. We’ll just have to see what we can do.”

The House endorsed township-by-township referendums on whether to keep township trustees and advisory boards or eliminate them and transfer their duties to the county level – much like the state did with township auditors two years ago.

The Senate, though, approved eliminating advisory boards without referendums and handing fiscal oversight of trustees’ budgets up to counties – a measure the House specifically rejected.

Gun bills

Lawmakers have already approved legislation to make private the names of Hoosiers who apply for gun permits. They’re still working, though, on a bill that would prevent businesses and government entities from making rules against employees bringing firearms to work, as long as those firearms remain locked in their vehicles.

That bill’s author, Rep. Bob Bischoff, D-Lawrenceburg, noted there has been debate about exemptions to the bill – including schools, child care centers and private residences – but Bischoff said he wouldn’t speculate as to which exemptions would make it into the final bill.

He said he expected a conference committee to finalize its work on the bill late Wednesday or early today.

"We're getting very close," said Sen. Johnny Nugent, R-Lawrenceburg and a member of the board of the National Rifle Association.

A proposed draft by negotiators would exempt more employers from the legislation. They would include investor-own natural gas and electric utilities, certain chemical plants, and agencies whose drivers transport developmentally disabled people.

Earlier versions already had exemptions for school property, child care centers, domestic violence shelters and group homes.

Net metering

A conference committee meeting Wednesday to discuss a net metering bill ended with committee members optimistic they’d reach a compromise today.

Sen. James Merritt, R-Indianapolis, the chair of the panel and author of the original Senate bill, said the final version would likely give much of the rule-making authority to the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission.

The bill currently would give homeowners or schools that generate their own renewable energy a credit of 10 kilowatts, and 200 kilowatts for any company that uses renewable energy.

This did not sit well with some of the members of the committee, including Sen. Sue Errington, D-Muncie, who wanted higher limits.

“We’re looking too much at where we’ve been and not enough at where we can go,” Errington told other members of the committee. “I’d hate to see us cut off our potential without giving the IURC the opportunity to see what’s out there, and then make a decision.”

Rep. Ryan Dvorak, D-South Bend, the House sponsor of the bill, said he is “hopeful.”

“The problem is there’s a pretty wide difference between the House version and Senate version,” he said.

Courier & Press staff writer Evan Shields and the Associated Press contributed to this report.