I’m afraid I may have maligned Senator Jackman inappropriately with respect to Engrossed Version, Senate Bill 0089 regarding agricultural equipment which is long and tedious (see previous entry) and incomprehensible to me. Seems that a lot of the garbage seems to have been thrown in by the House. The Conference Committee has adopted a report that strips away the House amendments and leaves the original Senate bill which simply “provides that an implement of husbandry or a farm tractor manufactured after June 30, 2006, must be fitted with equipment that meets certain national standards when operated on a highway and requires the criminal justice institute to adopt rules for the design of a slow moving vehicle emblem.” The House adopted the conference committee version 88 to 1.

By a vote of 60 to 30, the House concurred in the Senate’s changes to House Bill 1004 Tax Amnesty (or, if you prefer, the Cheater’s Rights Bill). The bill requires the Department of Revenue to set up a tax amnesty period for taxes due and payable before July 1, 2004. During that period the taxpayer can pay the principal balance only OR set up a payment arrangement “acceptable to the Department”. The amnesty program is to be available during an 8 week period established by the Dept. of Revenue ending not later than July 1, 2006.

I don’t know that this will happen, but from reading the bill, there doesn’t appear to be anything preventing the Department of Revenue from entering into an interest free payment arrangement whereby tax cheats pay their tax obligation at a nominal sum per month for the next hundred years. There also doesn’t seem to be any requirement that the Dept. of Revenue treat all debtors the same with respect to the payment arrangements. Seems like an awful lot of discretion. I hope there is some way to review Dept. of Revenue agreements with specific tax debtors.

A couple of editorials I came across implore the General Assembly to “just do it” with regard to Daylight Saving Time. Well, actually, as I review the link, the Indianapolis Star piece isn’t labeled an editorial, it just reads like one. The Lafayette Journal and Courier piece urges the legislature to get on with it, then try to get the time zones right.

This urging that legislators pass a bill to get everyone to shut up about it already is just horrible logic. Sometimes squeaky wheels should be removed and replaced rather than getting the grease.

Apparently the conferees signed off on a compromise version of the DST Bill: Filed House Conference Committee Report, Senate Bill 0127. This happened only after Speaker Bosma removed Representative Crooks (D-Washington) as a conferee and replaced hiim with Representative Borror (D-Fort Wayne). According to this article Representative Crooks said:

81 percent of constituents in his southwestern Indiana district oppose Eastern Daylight Time, and the state should seek federal hearings on possible time zone changes before considering statewide daylight time.

“The reason we don’t have a consensus on this issue is because Hoosiers don’t have a consensus on this issue,” Crooks said.”

The bill will go to the Senate Rules Committee and, if it passes there, it will get a full vote in the Senate and the House. The Conference Committee amends the original by removing the provision that required signs to be erected on highways alerting drivers to the fact that they were entering a new time zone and by removing the provision that would allow county executives to exempt their counties from Daylight Saving Time. The bill is also changed so that both the legislature and the governor petition the U.S. Dept. of Transportation to hold hearings on changing portions of Indiana to Central Time, advising that those counties already in Central Time should change to Central Time and that Clark, Dearborn, Floyd, Harrison, and Ohio Counties should all remain on Eastern Time.

On a personal note, I hadn’t realized how far east the Central Time Zone stretches. However, on vacation, I drove I-65 about 800 miles south from Lafayette, IN to Mobile, AL and with the exception of Louisville, KY, I believe my entire journey (more or less headed due South) outside of Indiana was in the Central Time Zone. If you take a look at this time zone map you can see that the eastern border of Alabama is at roughly the same longitude as the eastern border of Indiana. The entire state of Alabama is in the central time zone. I’m not generally inclined to follow the lead of Alabama on things, but purely in terms of geography and our longitudinal situation, it seems fairly clear that Indiana should be in the central time zone if we insist on observing Daylight Saving Time. (Of course, as I’ve said before, I think we’re a bit too far east for CST and a bit far west for EDT, so we should just stay on Eastern Standard Time year around.)

Kevin Corcoran has a good article on the state of the budget entitled Budget bill moves front and center. It looks like we have something of a three-ring circus going on. The Governor wants a balanced budget, first and foremost. And if that means a modest increase in taxes, so be it. The Republican legislators are first and foremost against raising taxes; balancing the budget isn’t of particular importance to them:

“A balanced budget is not an important issue to most lawmakers or even most Hoosiers. It is to the governor,” said House Ways and Means Chairman Jeff Espich, a Uniondale Republican and chairman of the budget conference committee.

The Democratic legislators are willing to raise taxes, but are not willing to support a proposal that includes significant cuts to school budgets.

Cast in that light, I’d say I support the Governor’s position first, the Democratic legislators’ position second, and the Republican legislators’ last. A budget deficit means that the past is limiting the options of the future. The Republican lawmakers fetish against taxes goes beyond reason. Taxes are unpleasant but necessary. As long as the money is being used responsibly and expenditures are actually improving the common good, additional taxes should be a consideration. Dogmatic rejection means a legislator isn’t doing the hard work of thinking and making hard decisions about what is best for the state and the legislator’s constituents.

The article mentions other issues such as Daylight Saving Time that could make the final week of the session a pretty rough and tumble affair.

Other big bills pending are: tax amnesty, open container, Colts Stadium, Speed limits, human cloning, further consolidation of Indianapolis/Marion County government, judicial pay, telephone deregulation, methampetamine restrictions, and a new agency for child welfare issues.

The Indiana Law Blog: Ind. Gov’t. – Evolution flap riles East Porter The Indiana Law Blog has a post up concerning a dust up over the lack of creationism in a biology textbook being considered by the East Porter County School Board.

The East Porter County School Board has delayed the adoption of biology textbooks because they don’t mention creationism, a theory that a divine being is responsible for the creation of life. * * *

Board member Tim Bucher said he wished the books were more balanced and mentioned there were other theories besides evolution.

“I believe it’s a theory of evolution, not a fact of evolution.”

Bucher, who described himself as a fundamentalist Christian who believes the Bible literally, said he hasn’t seen the recommended texts from Prentice Hall and Holt yet. “I’m trying to be a realist along with my Christian faith. At least let the kids know about it,” he said of creationism.

Bucher is correct, of course, that evolution is a theory. But he doesn’t seem to acknowledge that creationism isn’t a theory in the scientific sense. (There is a pretty nice summary of the conflict, here.) The problem with teaching creationism in science is that it’s not science and not based on the scientific method. I don’t mind kids being taught that people disagree with the theory of evolution. But they should probably be taught about the disagreement in classes about religion or humanities or other classes teaching the disciplines that form the belief in creationism. Science has one set of core principles: 1. Discovery of truth through observation; 2. Hypotheses that are falsifiable and experiments that can be repeated; etc. Religion has another set of core principles: Infallibility of the Bible for some branches of Christianity.

Some have made arguments with which I respectfully disagree about Daylight Saving Time. The Muncie Star Press is not one of those. I have no respect for the arguments put forth in its editorial entitled DST vote says state is willing to change

The daylight-saving time issue is like a persistent cough that won’t go away. A growing number of Indiana legislators seem to realize they must treat the symptoms – by passing DST during this session – or it will continue to plague them next year. By doing so, lawmakers would be doing themselves and Indiana residents a huge favor. They could get on to more important issues,

What kind of logic is that? We should give in and give the kid a cookie because he’ll just keep whining about it until we do? Maybe we should shoot a little more heroin so that monkey on our backs will quit chitterin’. Maybe we should just turn the U.S. into an Islamic Theocracy so Osama will just shut up about it already. You pass it if it’s a good idea, you don’t pass it if it’s a bad idea or a mediocre idea. You don’t pass it “to get it out of the way.”

The editorial continues:

and they could give the state what it needs – proof that it can change in a way that fits with national and international economic priorities.

Look. If you’re so concerned about the international community thinking you’re a hick backwater, you don’t fix that by changing your clocks. Japan keeps the same time year around, and nobody thinks they’re “out of step”. If you’re concerned about being regarded as a hick backwater, you don’t label the supposed scourge of homosexual marriage as your “number one priority.” You don’t brag about agriculture being your economic priority. And you don’t cut funding to your schools.

The Indy Star has an editorial entitled: Keep Statehouse safe but accessible leading with:

The recent arrest of a man accused of threatening to set off bombs in the Indiana Statehouse should serve as a final wakeup call to take Statehouse security more seriously. No more hitting the snooze button.

The editorial suggests that the State House needs to run people through metal detectors before they enter the building. I understand the sentiment. It just makes me cringe a little every time I see a new metal detector. I’m not really convinced they make me any safer. Have incidents of violence decreased with more and more metal detectors going up?

If there is objective evidence that tells us these things are making us safer, then I could be convinced to change my tune. But, otherwise, I think we’re just creating the illusion of safety and getting ourselves in the habit of being searched and scanned and generally being treated like suspects instead of citizens.

The House concurred with the changes the Senate made in a number of bills, thereby avoiding the need for a conference committee and sending the bills to the Governor.

House Bill 1008 Department of agriculture; office of rural affairs. Provides that the lieutenant governor is the secretary of agriculture and rural development. Establishes the office of rural affairs. Establishes the department of agriculture. Transfers the functions of various state agencies relating to agriculture to the department of agriculture. Moves the soil and conservation division from the department of natural resources to the department of agriculture.

HB 1039 Interfering with drug or alcohol screening tests. Makes it a Class B misdemeanor for an incarcerated person or a person under court supervision to interfere with, or to possess a device or substance intended to be used to interfere with, a drug or alcohol screening test.

HB 1052 Lottery commission audit. Requires the state board of accounts to annually audit the operations of the lottery. Requires the lottery commission to pay for the audit.

HB 1224 Aerospace initiative. Establishes the aerospace and aeronautics initiative to be administered by the Indiana economic development corporation.

HB 1288 Recodifies Title 20 concerning elementary and secondary education to reorganize and restate the law without substantive change.

HB 1325 Medicaid prescription drugs. Allows the office of Medicaid policy and planning (office) to provide a prescription drug benefit in the Medicaid risk based managed care program. Allows a managed care provider contract or provider agreement to include a prescription drug program. Establishes the mental health quality advisory committee. Allows the office to place restrictions on the certain prescription drugs under specified circumstances.

HB 1736 Bail law amendments. Provides for reinstatement of an expired bail agent license or recovery agent license upon payment of a $100 reinstatement fee. Specifies educational requirements for bail agent and recovery agent licensure. Provides for approval of educational courses and instructors.

And a mildly interesting dissent from Senate amendments with regard to HB 1525 POW/MIA flags. The Senate provides for the POW/MIA flag to be flown at the state capitol building for so long as the Indiana dept. of veterans affairs determines that there are residents of Indiana listed as MIA from the Vietnam conflict. The House version called for the POW/MIA flag to be flown at all facilities operated by the department of administration and at interstate highway rest areas. It also upgraded a tax exemption for tangible property owned by certain veteran’s organizations. Under current law, those organizations had a tax exemption for such property if it was used for the purposes and objectives of the organization. Under the House version, simply owning the property would be enough to get the exemption, even if it wasn’t used to advance the purposes and objectives of the organization.

The Washington Post has an article entitled Erosion of Estate Tax Is a Lesson in Politics (washingtonpost.com)

It shows what slick marketing and a pile of cash can do for you. The Mars, Campbell, and Gallo family fortunes have been used to lobby for repeal of the estate tax, which nobody but the richest of the rich paid much of for the past century. Political marketing consultant Frank Luntz advised Republicans to rebrand the estate tax as a “death tax”. And, presto!, the rubes were suckered into voting against their economic self interest to the great benefit of the genetic lottery winners who stand to inherit the immense fortunes created by their great grandfathers. Other than simple ignorance, it baffles me why a middle-class citizen would think it is a good idea to run up gargantuan debts funded by their Social Security investments so that we can repeal a tax that has a substantial impact only on the very largest fortunes and that does a bit to inhibit the creation of an American aristocracy. Nobody has ever given me a good explanation why, if we are committed to reducing taxes, we should start with the estate tax rather than reducing payroll taxes or income taxes. Even if an heir has a moral claim on the fruits of daddy’s labor, certainly it cannot be a greater moral claim than an individual has on the fruits of his own labor.