Eric Bradner, Evansville Courier & Press
INDIANAPOLIS — Talks among the Indiana General Assembly's power brokers crumbled late Thursday night, just more than an hour before lawmakers' self-imposed deadline to adjourn.
Now, instead of wrapping up the year's business before daybreak, legislators will take six days to cool off and try again Wednesday.
Still left to resolve are a handful of high-profile issues. Among them: Legislation to put off a planned unemployment premium hike that business groups call a job-killer, a bill that would increase school funding flexibility and Democratic jobs-creation initiatives such as the proposed Village Earth development in Warrick County.
House Speaker Patrick Bauer, the South Bend Democrat who chose not to try to piece things back together, pointed the blame directly at one man: state Sen. Brandt Hershman, R-Lafayette.
Hershman, who was one of the conferees and therefore among the key negotiators on the unemployment bill, took 2-1/2 hours Thursday night to attend the Republican Party's Lincoln Day dinner in Boone County.
"Hershman is the author of the bill, the chairman of the conference committee. He's a vital part of this," Bauer said. "When you're negotiating, you do it face to face."
Hershman called Bauer's remarks "political silliness." He said he left Bauer his cell phone number, his e-mail address and a proposal to consider and agree to or counter.
Not to mention, Senate Appropriations Chairman Luke Kenley, R-Noblesville, was meeting one on one with Bauer in an attempt to hammer out an agreement anyway.
Senate President Pro Tempore David Long, R-Fort Wayne, blasted Bauer afterward, saying Hershman had been "spending long hours here in the Statehouse" in recent days trying to work under Bauer's deadline.
"I can only say that Sen. Hershman has been unfairly castigated. He is owed an apology in my opinion," he said.
Under the Indiana Constitution, state lawmakers don't have to adjourn until the end of next week. However, Bauer wanted to get out early, saying it would save taxpayers money in per diem legislative pay and transportation reimbursements.
Long said Hershman and other Senate negotiators were "working feverishly to try to accomplish that goal, even though we had 10 more days."
Here's a look at how high-profile pieces of legislation played out in the final days:
What passed
Gun rights: Businesses and municipalities won't be able to make rules against their employees bringing guns to work, as long as those guns remain in the owners' trunks or locked in their vehicles.
Exemptions include child care centers, schools, universities, jails, chemical plants regulated by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, power utilities and organizations whose drivers transport developmentally-disabled people.
Child support: Casinos will confiscate the winnings of deadbeat parents under legislation approved Thursday and now awaiting Gov. Mitch Daniels' expected signature.
Being negotiated
Unemployment taxes: Last year, lawmakers passed a bill that would increase the premiums businesses pay into the state's unemployment insurance fund. This year, legislators sought to delay or repeal that. But for Democrats to agree to Republicans' requests, they wanted to add extras such as higher jobless benefit payments and expanded eligibility.
Jobs bill: Democrats wanted to push through a series of jobs-creation plans, using them as a bargaining chip in the unemployment bill negotiations. Among that series: approval for a sales tax increment finance district in Warrick County to fund the Village Earth educational facility.
On life support
Township reform: For the second consecutive year, Indiana's 1,006 township governments have survived pushes to reduce or eliminate their roles, with counties taking over their duties instead.
Rep. Bill Crawford, D-Indianapolis, wrote a final bill that included township-by-township referendums on whether to keep township trustees and advisory boards, and added to that bill anti-nepotism provisions and a rule against townships using public money to campaign ahead of the referendum. But Republicans would not agree, so the bill's passage is highly improbable.
Statewide smoking ban: Despite a hard push by Rep. Charlie Brown, D-Gary, and despite a series of exemptions to which he agreed, a statewide smoking ban did not emerge from conference committee.