Rep. Charlie Brown’s HB 1207 which would require food establishment with 20 or more locations in Indiana to make certain nutritional information available was defeated on a 48 – 48 vote. Since it did not fail by more than 50 votes, I believe it is still eligible for reconsideration if Rep. Brown can figure out how to flip a couple of votes. But, I imagine this sort of bill would face tough sledding in the Senate in any case.
Local Government Restructuring
This is going to be much shorter than the topic deserves, but I am sure I will revisit it later. The Senate passed SB 506 which provides for restructuring the county executive in all counties except for Lake and Marion County. It requires the county commissioners to adopt a resolution that
the voters of the county shall: (1) elect a single county chief executive officer to serve as the county executive and a county council that has the legislative and fiscal powers and duties of the county; (2) elect a board of county supervisors that is a combined county executive, legislative, and fiscal body that has the executive, legislative, and fiscal powers and duties of the county; or (3) provide that the voters shall choose, in a public question to be held in 2010, the structure of county government. Provides that if a public question is held in 2010, the voters shall choose one of two options for the structure of county government: (1) the county shall elect a board of county supervisors that is a combined county executive, legislative, and fiscal body that has the executive, legislative, and fiscal powers and duties of the county; or (2) the county shall not reorganize county government.
Meanwhile, other parts of the Governor’s efforts to restructure local government have apparently been gutted; most notably the effort to do away with township government.
I have mixed feelings on the subject of restructuring local government, but I would say that townships strike me as being further up the list of likely targets for modification than the board of commissioner approach to a county executive.
HB 1057 – Collective Bargaining for Executive Branch Employees
HB 1057 passed the House by a vote of 51 – 46. It creates collective bargaining rights for executive branch employees and generally rolls back Gov. Daniels’ decision to eliminate collective bargaining rights of those employees. (Under Governors Bayh, O’Bannon, and Kernan, they were allowed collective bargaining rights by executive order.)
I imagine this doesn’t stand a chance in the Senate.
HB 1027 – Prekindergarten Grant Pilot Program
HB 1027 passed the house by a vote of 57-41. It delays the expiration Prekindergarten Grant Pilot Program from 2014 to 2016 and takes $0.65 from current riverboat admissions currently destined for the general fund and allocates that money to the prekindergarten grant pilot program fund. It appropriates $8 million for 2009 and $16 million for 2010.
HB 1014 – Age Discrimination
HB 1014 concerning age discrimination passed the House on a 58 – 37 vote.
It adds age to existing public policy declarations and prohibitions on discrimination with respect to race, religion, color, sex, disability, national origin, or ancestry. “Age discrimination” potentially kicks in at age 40. (Wuhoo! I’m almost a protected class!) It also adds new prohibitions against an employer, employment agency, or labor union discriminating against someone because he or she is over 40.
HB 1181 – Arbitrary Motor Vehicle Video Ban
HB 1181, introduced by Rep. Blanton, would prohibit a person from operating a motor vehicle with a video monitor, computer, or device capable of providing a visual display is somewhere in the motor vehicle that can be seen by the driver. The bill then proceeds to exempt cell phones and PDAs being used for voice communication, displays of radio controls, dashboard display information, navigation information, maps, the area surrounding the vehicle, or of the people in the back seat.
The exceptions pretty much swallow the rule here. Or, at least, they legitimize so many other distractions that one has to wonder whether there is any true guiding principal to the distractions that are banned. At some point, you just have to fall back to the general principle, “drive with care” and hold the driver civilly liable for damages caused because he or she wasn’t doing so.
SB 191 – Alternative Placement for Student
Passing the Senate 42 – 8 was SB 191 which allows a school to boot a student because of the student’s disruptive behavior or frequent unexcused absences. The superintendent trying to get rid of the disruptive student can move the student to, among other places, another school corporation. It is unclear from the text of the bill whether the alternate school corporation has the right to refuse, but I suspect they do. In any event, the removing school cannot stop serving the student until he or she has been successfully placed and the removing school has to pay tuition for the student up to a certain amount.
For a good number of the disruptive students out there, I suspect the tuition part of the equation is no sweat. I think one of the mostly unspoken facts about educating kids is that some are far more expensive to educate than others. It doesn’t take too many disruptive kids to cause a whole class room to fall apart. Seems like lawmakers are struggling for a balance between, on the one hand, trying hard to make sure kids don’t fall through the class and become adults who don’t contribute to society; and, on the other hand, making sure that a couple of bad apples don’t spoil the barrel.
SB 89 – Physicians Performing Abortions
Passing the Senate 44 – 11 was SB 89 requiring physicians performing abortions to have admitting privileges at a hospital in the county or in a county adjacent to the county where the abortion is performed and notify the patient where the physician has admitting privileges for the patient to receive follow up care.
Can’t ban abortions, but they can probably be regulated to death. (At least the legal kind.)
HB 1472 – Elimination of the Office of Management & Budget
On a 52 – 47 vote, the House passed HB 1472 which eliminates the Indiana Office of Management and Budget and transfers its duties to the budget agency.
The fiscal impact statement gives at least a little background to this bill. The OMB was created by the 2005 budget bill when the Republicans controlled both houses of the legislature and the Governor’s office. The OMB reviews executive department budgets and functions and reports directly to the Governor. The State Budget Agency gives some information about itself at its website, then directs the reader that “more information about the State Budget Agency can be found in Article 12, Chapter 1 of the Indiana Code;” cleverly neglecting to disclose the proper Title of the Indiana Code. (It’s IC 4-12-1).
The short version seems to be that the budget agency has more direct ties to the legislature and has at least one deputy directory who is of a different political party than the budget director. A turf war between the House and the Governor that probably won’t survive the Senate. In any case, I’d welcome corrections if I’m missing the real dynamic of this bill.
HB 1235 – Poll Closing Time
On a vote of 52 to 46, the House passed HB 1235 which mandates that polls close at 8 p.m. rather than 6 p.m. on election day. (Title 3 is such a messed up part of the Indiana Code and state election law is so hopelessly garbled, it took an 8 page bill to say this.)
The roll call vote is here. Do Republicans actually have data that shows greater access to the polls harm them or do they routinely vote against greater access simply as a matter of faith? Because to me, it seems like this extra two hours wouldn’t necessarily benefit one party more than the other.
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