House Bill 1052 Lottery audit. Requires the State Board of Accounts to conduct an annual audit of the lottery. Rep. Woodruff’s amendment requiring an audit of the lottery’s business in 2003 & 2004 passed 76-16.
HB 1078 Coal issues. Revises the reclamation fees per ton of coal produced for surface and underground coal mining operations. Directs the center for coal technology research to investigate matters concerning coal bed methane. Provides that clean coal and energy projects include projects that use coal bed methane. Passed 87-0. For those who are interested, here is a FAQ on coal bed methane.
HB 1183 Operation of watercraft. Provides that no speed limit applies to a boat in a boat race, a water ski event, or any other organized boating activity over a fixed and marked course for which the department of natural resources has issued a permit. Passed 94-0. My guess is that there is a specific story behind this one. One thing that surprised me about the legislature is how often legislation was introduced to solve a problem that happened to one constituent on one occasion.
HB 1230 Indemnity agreements in motor carrier contracts. Provides that certain indemnity agreements in a motor carrier transportation contract are against public policy and are void and unenforceable. (Specifically provisions that indemnify and/or hold the promisee harmless for negligent or intentional acts or omissions of the promisee.) Passed 94-0.
HB 1288 Title 20 (elementary and secondary education) recodification. Passed second reading without amendment. I hadn’t realized they were recodifying Title 20 this year. The Code Revision Commission and the Office of Code Revision really deserve our gratitude for their recodification work. It’s tedious and largely thankless. But, when you compare Indiana’s statutes to other states or *shudder* the United States Code, there is just no comparison. Indiana has some of the cleanest, best organized statutes around. Particularly where we’ve recodified. (Disclosure: I used to work for the Office of Code Revision — though I never had to do a recodification. I did, however, put together 1999s technical corrections bill.
HB 1375 Waiver of insurance producer requirements. Requires the commissioner of the department of insurance to establish a policy to allow a waiver of continuing education and license renewal requirements for insurance producers who are in active service in a combat zone. Passed 92-0. SB 75 exempts an insurance producer who is at least 68 years old from continuing education requirements. That passed the Senate 44-2. Good day for old insurance producers in combat zones who don’t want to mess with continuing education.
SB 115 Interstate probation compacts. Adds a cross-reference to specify that certain hearing and notification provisions that apply to the Interstate Compact on Out-of-State Probationers and Parolees also apply to the Interstate Compact for Adult Offender Supervision. Passed 46-0.
SB 209 Changes the term “poor relief” to “township assistance” in the Indiana Code. I sure hope this has some practical effect and isn’t just an undertaking designed to preserve the feelings, somehow, of those receiving poor relief. Passed 46-1. In any event, it looks like the change in terminology was mandated by HEA 1972-2003.
SB 223 Designation of blood type on license and identification card. Allows a person’s documented blood type information to be on the person’s driver’s license, driver’s permit, or identification card. Passed 45-1.
SB 282 Municipal riverfront development projects. Allows a municipal riverfront development project to be located in certain community revitalization enhancement districts. Passed 46-0.
SB 285 Bullying. Defines “bullying”, and requires a school corporation to adopt rules to prohibit bullying. Allows the use of grants from the safe schools fund to provide education and training to school personnel concerning bullying, and requires the inclusion of anti-bullying training in school safety specialist education. Requires each school to establish a safe school committee. Passed 40-7. You know, I’m not a big fan of bullying. You might be surprised that the author of a blog obsessing over the activities of the Indiana General Assembly was the target of bullies from time-to-time. But, I assure you, it’s true. Nonetheless, I don’t think a mandate coming down from Indianapolis is going to help the gangly 6th grader in Muncie or the paste-eating 2nd grader in Kentland. Bullying is defined as “overt, repeated acts or gestures, including verbal or written communications transmitted; physical acts committed; or any other behaviors committed; by a student or group of students against another student with the intent to harass, ridicule, humiliate, intimidate, or harm the other student. Just one more piece of bureacracy for schools to keep track of.
SB 301 Cheerleading safety. (Was I just talking about school bureaucracy?) Requires the state board of education to develop standards and guidelines concerning cheerleading safety in schools. Passed second reading.
SB 298 Administrative rules requiring fiscal review. Makes the following changes to the administrative rulemaking statute requiring an agency to submit a rule with an estimated economic impact greater than $500,000 to the legislative services agency (LSA) for a fiscal impact statement: (1) Requires the agency to consider the rule’s annual economic impact after the rule is fully implemented. (2) Specifies that the $500,000 threshold applies to the impact on all regulated persons. (3) Requires the agency to submit to LSA a rule meeting the threshold for a fiscal impact statement not later than 50 days before the public hearing on the rule. (4) Requires the agency to consider the rule’s impact on an entity that already voluntarily complies with the rule. Makes conforming changes to the statute requiring the education roundtable to determine the fiscal impact of certain recommendations it makes. Passed 65-0.
SB 308 Qualification of assessing personnel. Allows the county fiscal body to reduce the compensation of a county assessor, an elected township assessor, or a trustee assessor who does not obtain a required assessor-appraiser certification, in an amount proportional to the assessor’s real property assessment duties. (Basically the reduction calls for the fiscal property to determine the ratio the assessor’s real property assessment duties bear to the assessor’s overall duties and reduce the pay according to that ratio.) Passed 42-4.
SB 340 Court involvement in child neglect and adoption proceedings. Among other things, the court has to determine that the proper papers have been provided to adoptive parents before adoption. The State has to give a reason for dismissing a CHINS petition. Prohibits a sex offender from adopting. Passed 46-0.
SB 372 Transfer tuition. Specifies that if a transferor school corporation fails to take action within thirty (30) days after receipt of a transfer tuition request, the request is considered approved. Provides that a student who is placed in a facility, a home, or an institution may attend school in the school corporation in which the facility, home, or institution is located, and that the state is required to pay transfer tuition for the student if no other person or entity is required to pay the student’s transfer tuition. Passed 46-0.
SB 417 Requires the appraisal of Westville Correctional Center and Putnamville with reports to the legislative council concerning such property that could be sold. Passed 46-0.
SB 442 Removes geophysical surveying from DNR regulation. Exempts certain activities connected to near surface or subsurface use of regulated explosives associated with oil and natural gas from criminal act regarding reckless violation of a rule concerning the use of explosives. Passed 46-0.
SB 569 Safety of children during storms. Requires the state department of health to adopt guidelines and enforcement mechanisms concerning the safety of children during bad weather conditions and to distribute the guidelines to the department of education and to relevant organizations.
Passed 46-0.
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