Introduced Version, House Bill 1100 Thanks to PSoTD for cluing me into this one. This is one of the silliest bills I’ve seen introduced to date: “Changes the statutory description of the state seal to provide that the sun is rising instead of setting.”

It doesn’t actually alter how the State Seal looks, mind you. It just amends the statute to refer to the sun behind the hills as “rising” instead of “setting.” I imagine that Reps. Messer & Bischoff have some sort of indication of Hoosier optimism in mind. (I love Hoosiers for many of their characteristics, but I haven’t noticed optimism as one of the defining characteristics of the state. Ask a Hoosier about the weather some fine, sunny day. Like as not, they’ll tell you we’re going to pay for it with some nasty weather in the future.)

Introduced Version, House Bill 1004: The tax amnesty bill (discussed here) passed out of Ways & Means last week and is up for second reading on Monday. The speed on that bill is surprising.

According to the House Calendar, Monday’s agenda on the floor of the House also includes:

PunchtheBag has a good entry about Daniels’ decision to appoint a Kentucky man to head up Indiana’s prison system. I think it’s probably a prelude to privatization. As PunchtheBag puts it:

So for fresh ideas we go to Kentucky? It’s bad enough that Kentucky has reduced the IU Hoosiers to nothing more than a scrimmage opponent, but why not raid Maine, Vermont, or even North Dakota for jail expertise? According to this ranking, those states barely have shoplifters.

Introduced Version, House Bill 1081 Phases out inheritance taxes between now and 2009. More or less a duplicate of SB 10. Shouldn’t we just phase out income tax or sales tax instead?

Introduced Version, House Bill 1076 States that only a named insured or someone seeking insured status can bring an action for declaration of coverage prior to judgment being entered on the underlying claim.

Can’t say I like this one very much. This would apparently stop someone who has been injured by a tortfeasor from obtaining a determination of whether the tortfeasor has any insurance coverage. So, let’s say someone blows a red light, T-bones your car, and causes you a whole lot of injuries. Maybe the driver’s insurer says that the latest premium was received a day or two late and there’s no coverage. The driver says he paid it on time. The insurer defends the driver under a reservation of rights. So, to obtain your judgment, you have to fight through the insurer-paid attorneys, but at the end of the day, there might not be any money to pay your judgment. Knowing whether your judgment is worthless or not could very well affect how much you put into your case, paying experts, taking depositions, etc.

Contrast that with a potentially much cheaper action against the insurer for determination of the question of whether they cover the driver or not. You lose that one, and you probably cut your losses, figuring a judgment against the driver is worthless. You win that one and you expend whatever resources you can afford and your injuries justify.