The Evansville Courier Press has an article with an update on last week’s legislative activity and the upcoming schedule:
Looking ahead to the coming week:
– Long days are likely ahead for legislators. Monday is the last day to amend Senate bills; Wednesday is the deadline to pass Senate bills and send them to the House. Meanwhile, Tuesday is the deadline for the House to pass its bills and send them to the Senate. On Monday alone, the House has 80 third-reading bills on its docket.
– A proposal affecting the funding available for I-69, House Bill 1830, is eligible for a conclusive third-reading vote Monday.
Of the $1.1 billion in the Major Moves construction fund, House Bill 1830 would spend $60 million on local road and street projects instead of the 10-year list of major highway projects that INDOT had already planned, such as I-69.
Authored by Democratic Rep. Terri Austin, House Bill 1830 would tap the investment earnings on the Major Moves fund but not the principal. An INDOT spokesman warned last week that INDOT was counting on the interest, too, to fund its 10-year projects list and if the money is tapped, it could create funding problems in the “out” years.
– A proposal to outsource the state lottery and use the money for life-sciences research and for college scholarships goes before the full Senate this week. Senate Bill 577 was passed Tuesday by a Senate committee, 7-5. The bill would allow Gov. Daniels to lease the Hoosier Lottery to a private company that would operate it and collect the profits. In exchange, the company would pay the state $1 billion up front and another $200 million each year.
– A ban on “serial meetings” is eligible for amendments Monday. Senate Bill 103 would prohibit elected boards or university trustees from breaking into groups smaller than a quorum and then voting behind closed doors to circumvent the Open Door Law. The Senate bill has some exceptions for officials to make economic-development visits, for example, and it allows university boards to conduct videoconferencing. It was approved by a Senate committee last week and now goes to the full Senate.
For all those folks who thought it was silly that the government had to think about prohibiting this sort of thing, well, here’s your answer. Dumb, dumb, dumb.
Serious question: are members of the legislature hourly or salaried? I assume it’s the latter.
Apart from the usual gripes about “gee, now they know what I feel like” I do wonder if having to work late and early makes them any more or less productive?
There is a base salary but it’s supplemented in a variety of different ways, particularly a per diem for every day the legislature is in session and days in which legislators have to do things like go to study committees. I think the legislature has tied the amount of the per diem to the federal rate so they don’t have to actually vote increases for themselves.
Check out SB 401, which would give legislators about a $9,000 bump in their pay. They receive $11,600 base, not including other compensation. A Indy Star article last week said the average compensation paid to our state legislators was $40,350. This is a part-time job and they make more than I do! They say you get what you pay for and you have to pay well to get good people. The bill was ordered engrossed.