INDIANAPOLIS | The end-of-session committee work crush looks to be more hectic than usual next week after Indiana lawmakers debated, but declined Wednesday to act on numerous complex legislative proposals.
Throughout the Statehouse, committee leaders closely reviewing measures that already have won either House or Senate approval repeatedly discovered the plans might not be ready to become laws without substantial revisions.
For example, House Bill 1019, which establishes a limited right for the public to view recordings captured by police cameras, had its scheduled committee vote postponed to give senators time to devise amendments expected to ease public access to police videos.
Similarly, state Rep. Ed Soliday, R-Valparaiso, chairman of the House Roads and Transportation Committee, only permitted public testimony, but no vote, on Senate Bill 333: Gov. Mike Pence's plan to allocate surplus funds, increase appropriations and borrow money to spend $1 billion improving state roads through 2020.
The road-funding issue is playing out like a game of chicken between the Republican-controlled House and Senate.
Soliday's House Bill 1001 got a Senate Appropriations Committee hearing, but no vote, last week, as GOP lawmakers remained divided on the wisdom of increasing cigarette and gasoline taxes in an election year.
However, the electoral threat posed by appearing to do nothing about Indiana's crumbling highways likely will force some kind of compromise by the end of the month.
Other measures stuck in committee limbo Wednesday included proposed new restrictions on abortion access (House Bill 1337, Senate Bill 313) and regulations on fantasy-sports wagering (Senate Bill 339).
Though not everything got held up.
The eagerness of state Sen. Phil Boots, R-Crawfordville, to advance House Bill 1004, a potential reduction in pension benefits for new teachers, produced the absurd situation of Hoosiers testifying against legislation that Boots already successfully voted out of the Senate Pensions and Labor Committee he leads.
All legislation must advance from committee by Feb. 29 to get a final vote on whether it should go to the governor for his signature or veto.