Here is a bill that is a decade or two overdue. HB 1146 concerns the effect bankruptcy has on judgments pertaining to motor vehicle accidents.

Indiana has a nice little legal feature designed to encourage folks who operate motor vehicles to comply with the motor vehicle insurance laws. If you have a civil judgment entered against you because of a motor vehicle accident (up to the minimum insurance required) and you fail to pay the judgment within 90 days (presumably because you don’t have the money and were not properly insured), the judgment holder can apply to have your license suspended until you pay up. I do this routinely in my subrogation collection practice against uninsured motorists, and it provides much better leverage against debtors than I have in my average collection case.

When implementing this tool, Indiana tried to hedge against bankruptcies. Currently IC 9-25-6-7(b) says that a bankruptcy discharge won’t lift a license suspension. A court case from, seems like, 15 or 20 years ago essentially said, “nice try, but federal bankruptcy law trumps Indiana state law and, it doesn’t matter what the state law says, the discharge voids the license suspension.”

So, it’s nice of the Code Revision Commission to recommend cleaning up this code provision. Such a thing can’t really be included in the technical corrections bill because it’s not purely technical. But, it should be an uncontroversial clean up. Carrying this sort of legislation is, by the way, mostly thankless. So, I’m happy that Rep. GiaQuinta has taken it upon himself to move this legislation through the process.

HB 1152 by Rep. Richardson would limit access of sexually violent predators or offenders against children to primary and secondary schools in cases where the offenders either attend such a school or are the parent or guardian of someone who attends such a school. In the former case, there would be a prohibition against the sex offender/student from being on the grounds of other primary or secondary schools. In the latter case, the offender would have to provide written notice to the school that the person is an offender, and the offender would not be able to be on school grounds unless attending a meeting with a teacher or administrator and escorted while on school grounds.

[tags]criminal code, sex offenders[/tags]

Let the madness begin. After all the build up, all the hype; it’s finally here. Oh, wait . . . that was the Presidential primaries, or perhaps the NFL playoffs. In any case, the General Assembly will be convening for the 2008 session today. Tax restructuring will be the topic of the day. I invite you all to cringe along with me every time you hear it referred to as property tax “reform.” In a different context, my U.S. history teacher taught us that “today’s ‘reform’ is usually tomorrow’s corruption.” By the same token, when the General Assembly is tinkering with taxes, somebody’s ox is going to get gored. So, I think “restructuring” is a much more accurate description than “reform.”

The Kernan-Shepard local government reform restructuring plan is also on the agenda. I’d expect most or all of that to get relegated to a study committee simply because I think property taxes *and* major local government overhaul is a bit much to bite off in a short session before a major election year. But, what do I know?

HB 1056 would impose a $25 fine for motorists who smoke in a passenger vehicle while it is occupied by a child, 13 years old or younger.

Boy, that would’ve made some of my childhood vacations more pleasant. As the youngest child, my seat was always in the way back of the station wagon. My folks were smokers. I remember the conversations occasionally going like this:
Doug: “Can you open a window, please?”
Parents: “Nope, we have the air conditioner on.”
*Cough* *cough*
Somehow the smoke traveled to the back of the Impala wagon a lot faster than the cool air.

The Indy Star has a nice little write-up on Sen. Kenley who will probably be the most influential legislature during this session’s property tax debate. I’d know a fair amount about his background but there were some new bits. I knew he’d gone to law school at Harvard but hadn’t known he got his B.A. at Miami University, my alma mater. That doesn’t surprise me as I had run across his son, John, at Miami while I was there and then again at IU-Bloomington when we were both in law school. (Incidentally, John was a credit to his father in that he seemed to be one of the hardest working guys at the school — he was always in the library). I hadn’t known that John was half of a set of Kenley twins.

With SB 71, Sen. Kruse addresses the problem of the ever-earlier school year. It prohibits school from starting before Labor Day and ending later than June 15.

I have no strong opinions on this one. I know that for the past 30 years I’ve heard my elders lament the fact that school starts before Labor Day. For me, normal is something like the last week in August. And, I’ve noticed myself getting to be one of those elders, shaking my head when school starts around August 15. For some reason, the opinions never seem as strongly held about the appropriate ending of school — though, I guess I’ve heard Memorial Day suggested.

SB 65 introduced by Sen. Nugent limits the ability of state and local governments to restrict possession of firearms in public buildings, including schools and courthouses.

Provides that a person who possesses a valid Indiana license to carry a handgun may not be prohibited from possessing a handgun on land or in buildings and other structures owned or leased by: (1) the state or a political subdivision of the state; or (2) a nonpublic elementary school, nonpublic secondary school, or nonpublic postsecondary educational institution. Provides exceptions for airports and penal facilities.

I guess this is a fighting fire with fire kind of bill. Initially, I thought this was a completely wacky bill. And, on balance, I think I’m still against it. But, it’s not as stupid as it looks. I’m not passionate about the right of disgruntled ex-spouses to tote firearms into divorce and custody proceedings in the courthouse. But, I think the security measures we have to implement to keep guns out of public buildings are expensive and diminish us as citizens. Our ability to prevent the harm that will be caused by nutjobs is limited. To even make a small dent, we have to expend great sums on security forces and machinery. And, we have to consent to routine searches in order to enter our public institutions and participate as citizens.

Still, Sen. Nugent doesn’t come at what I view as the benefits of this bill directly. So, I suspect he has different benefits in mind. This bill probably comes from the perspective that views the solution to Columbine and Virginia Tech as more guns. I don’t really see it this way. I view those tragedies as a lamentable price we pay for living in a free society.

And, as a final note, as a pro-local government guy, I don’t like the State telling local officials what they can and can’t allow into local government buildings.
[tags]guns[/tags]

Another state legislative seat is opening up. Senator Tom Weatherwax will not be seeking re-election.

State Sen. Thomas K. Weatherwax announced Monday that he would not seek re-election in November, ending a 24-year career in the General Assembly.

The Logansport Republican, elected to the Indiana House in 1984 and the Senate in 1988, said he wanted to spend more time concentrating on his private life and family and less time on public policy and politics.

“I have been blessed with productive careers both in and out of politics,” Weatherwax said. “But for a citizen legislator, a father and grandfather, there comes a time when a person wants to focus on family and pass the baton to another public servant willing to continue the good fight.”

Senate staffers said Weatherwax has served on and chaired more committees than any senator in recorded state history.
Weatherwax, whose District 18 consists of all or parts of Cass, Fulton, Kosciusko, Miami, Pulaski and Wabash counties, said he will continue to seek further property tax reforms, job creating measures and school improvements during the 2008 General Assembly.

I’m having a lot of trouble remembering all of the seats that will be up for grabs come November 2008. It seems like well above average. Perhaps the number of legislators not worried about re-election will give the legislature more freedom this session.

Sen. Boots has introduced SB 54, an interesting bill about paying for mandate attorneys. From time to time, Judges will issue mandates – for example telling boards of county commissioners and county councils that the County needs to pay court staff more than other county employees. Often times this will lead to a legal fight between the county government and the judge. Adding insult to injury when the Supreme Court upholds the prerogatives of its fellow judges over a competing branch of government is the fact that the county then has to foot the bill for the court’s private attorney.

Sen. Boots would change the second part of the equation. Instead of allowing the court to hire a private attorney to defend the mandate action, with the huge legal expenses that can sometimes entail, the Attorney General’s office would provide legal services to the court — in the same way the Attorney General defends judges and prosecutors when they get sued in their official capacities.