Senate Bill 0217 Increases the speed limit from 65 to 70 on Interstate Highways. But that’s not all. It goes on to take a fairly elegant bit of legislation and turn it into a mishmash of speed limits.

Current law is: 1) Default of 55 mph; 2) 30 mph in an urban district; 3) 65 mph on an Interstate outside of a metropolitan area; 4) 60 mph for heavy trucks; and 5) 15 mph in an alley.

Proposed law is 1) Default of 55 mph; 2) 30 mph in an urban district; 3) 70 mph on an Interstate outside of an urban area; 4) 65 mph for heavy trucks; 5) 15 mph in an alley; 6) 65 mph for US 20 between C.R. 17 in Elkhart County and US 31 in St. Joseph County; 7) 65 mph for a road classified as an INDOT freeway; 8) 70 mph for light vehicles and buses on a highway that is the responsibility of the Indiana transportation finance authority; 9) 65 mph for heavy vehicles on a highway that is the responsibility of the Indiana transportation finance authority; and 10) 60 mph for a highway that is a) not an interstate, b) has 4 or more lanes, c) is divided by a barrier, and d) is outside a metropolitan area.

Senate Bill 0201 Emergency Management. Passed 53-42.

Requires the state emergency management agency to establish a program to certify emergency management organizations and professional emergency managers. Requires a county emergency management organization or interjurisdictional disaster agency in which a county participates to be certified as an emergency management organization. Requires a county emergency management director to be certified as a professional emergency manager. Establishes an interim study committee to study certain public safety and homeland security issues.

It didn’t strike me as a party line vote, in particular. I’m not sure what the breakdown was. Possibly a philosophical split between those who think county emergency managers need to be better prepared and those who think the state shouldn’t meddle in county affairs any more than is absolutely necessary.

Senate Bill 0100 Local option income taxes. Passed 80-14.

Provides that a civil taxing unit’s distributive share of county option income taxes may be used for any lawful purpose. Expands the use of the county economic development income tax to any lawful purpose of a county, city, or town. Authorizes Miami County and Howard County to increase their respective county option income taxes by 0.25% over the maximum rates for county jail purposes.

It now returns to the Senate. Looks like the primary changes made by the House had to do with giving Howard and Miami Counties special dispensation. Previously, local option income taxes receipts were primarily limited to use in capital projects and economic development projects.

I know, I know. It’s all-DST-all-the-time with me. But a thought occurs to me as I re-read Mary Beth Schneider’s Indy Star Article entitled Time-change bill takes surprise turn. One of the changes Rep. Grubb’s bill made to the Daylight Saving Time (DST) legislation was to make it effective starting April 2006 rather than June 5, 2005 as originally proposed by Rep. Torr. A later start date seems to make sense to me. After all, the economic development argument is that out-of-state businesses just don’t locate here because changing their business sytems to accommodate Hoosier Standard Time (HST) is too burdensome. Asking thousands of Hoosier businesses to change their business systems by June 5 would, by that logic, seem pretty unreasonable. However, Rep. Torr is reportedly going to try to push the start date back to June 5, 2005. I wonder if he and DST supporters are worried about a potentially nasty electoral backlash at this. The state seems fairly evenly divided between pro-DST and pro-HST factions. However, I don’t see anyone voting for a candidate because they enacted Daylight Saving Time. I can certainly see a fair number of rabid HST supporters who will discard other issues and vote against a legislator solely based on the legislator’s support of Eastern Daylight Time. If that potential backlash is likely, I can see where Rep. Torr would like to get the switch accomplished ASAP to give DST opponents time to forgive, forget, and get used to it. If they have to go messing with their clocks and possibly have their business systems screw up in April ’06 — that’s awfully close to election season. A primary challenger could certain make a lot of hay out of the issue. And it may still be relatively fresh in people’s minds come November ’06, shortly after the switch back to standard time in October.

The Richmond Palladium-Item has an editorial concerning brain-drain in Indiana. “An annual census survey released the other day shows that Indiana slid to 46th last year among the 50 states in terms of the percentage of residents 25 and older who have earned bachelor’s or graduate degrees. With about 1 in 5 Hoosiers holding advanced degrees, the state ranks well below the national average for college graduates.” Their position: brain-drain is bad. Courageous, really. Standing up to the powerful pro-brain-drain lobby. Their solution:

Where Indiana must do a better is in creating both the jobs and the degrees to fill current voids in, say, technology, information, health and medical science fields, to name a few of the areas of growth employment.

I agree with the Palladium-Item. In previous commentary, I suggested that the Daniels’ Administration was missing the boat by targeting farm growth as a as a major component of its economic plan. Another problem that occurs to me is Indiana’s intellectually backward social climate. Evidence of such a climate is SJR 7 which amends the Constitution to prohibit gay marriages or any benefits of civil unions for gays. This is not just an incidental bill. The House Republicans, you will recall, described this Amendment last year as the “most important” issue facing Indiana. A state where the “most important issue” is banning gay marriage and benefits of civil unions for gay couples cannot be a very attractive location to settle down for young, educated Hoosiers.

Senate Bill 0127 – Daylight Saving Time. Just passed Second Reading with a couple of amendments. One amendment calls for the Dept. of Transportation to put up signs on highways when you enter a new time zone. The second amendment, proposed by Rep. Grubb, does two things.

First, it has a provision that seems to be moral support for counties seeking to be put into a different time zone, but doesn’t really do much: “The state supports the county executive of any county that seeks to change the time zone in which the county is located under the procedures established by federal law.” Absolutely no indications about what form that support might be expected to take.

Second, it has a provision that I don’t think is legal under the federal law concerning Daylight Saving Time. The language in the amendment applies to a county that is either 1) adjacent to the boundary between the Central Time Zone; or 2) adjacent to a county that has exempted itself from observation of DST. Such a county can exempt itself from observation of Daylight Saving Time if the county executive adopts a resolution providing that Daylight Saving Time is not required to be observed in the county.

Back in January I commented on the federal law (also here.) As I read the federal law, it allowed the following:

If a state lies entirely within 1 time zone, it can exempt the whole state from DST.

If a state lies over two time zones, it can exempt the entire state or the part of the state in one time zone.

The Dept. of Transportation has responsibility for determining the bounds of the various time zones.

So, in the past, Indiana has exempted its Eastern Time Zone from DST but has provided that its Central Time Zone will observe Daylight Saving Time. In addition, several of the Eastern Time Zone counties around Cincinnati and Lousville, I believed were grandfathered in under Pub. L. 89-387 and were allowed to observe DST despite the all-or-nothing language of 15 USC 260.

SB 127 which, as currently written, allows for a county-by-county patchwork approach does not comply with what I understand to be the all-or-nothing requirement of federal law.

Update: The Indianapolis Star has an article about Rep. Grubb’s amendment. The article quotes Reps. Torr and Bosma as seemingly disappointed by the prospect that this amendment has to go to conference committee. I get a little hazy about the Conference Committee process, but wouldn’t SB 127 have had to go to conference anyway? Originally the bill was a speed limit bill, but the House yanked the Senate text out and jammed the DST stuff in. So the Senate has never had any deliberation on this topic. (Not that the conference committee process allows for a great deal of reflection, but at least it’s something.)

Senate Bill 0088 Passed 96-0. Returned to the Senate without Amendments. Allows a retired judge who receives a state salary for services currently performed, except for services performed as a regular judge or a magistrate, to also receive a judge’s retirement benefit.

The Indy Star has an AP story on DST entitled Yet more debate added to daylight-saving time. In it, we get a bit of editorial comment from Mike Smith, the AP writer:

But putting off the effective date much beyond that would delay the boost in economic commerce Indiana is sure to reap by joining 47 other states and much of the world in observing daylight-saving time.

With no apparent evidence, Mr. Smith can state unequivocally that Indiana is “sure to reap” a boost in economic commerce.

No thought is given to the trouble and expense that Indiana businesses will have to undergo to switch their business systems from Hoosier Standard Time to Eastern Daylight Time. No thought is given despite the fact that it is that very trouble and expense which allegedly keeps foreign business out of Indiana under the current system. And, no thought is given despite the fact that, according to the article, the switch apparently has to take place after Memorial Day to avoid causing trouble for Indy 500 related business.

The article does mention critics who point out that Candidate Daniels stressed Central Time as the way to go. Something that Governor Daniels seems to have forgotten. This points out a weakness in the recent reporting of a poll finding that, “56 percent of Hoosiers favor turning Indiana’s clocks ahead one hour each spring and back in the fall, with 37 percent opposed and 7 percent unsure.” These numbers are meaningless if we do not know the time zone preference. We really have three choices here: Eastern Daylight Time, Central Daylight Time, and Hoosier Standard Time. A meaningful poll would tell us how Hoosiers fall in those three categories.

The poll article also says this about DST:

“Many legislators have told me they see a shift in favor of daylight-saving time, that they can tell a difference,” he said. “More people have heard the economic argument.”

The poll found that while a majority of urban and suburban residents support the time change, rural Hoosiers oppose it.

Hoosiers have heard the economic argument. But, I wager they haven’t seen any actual evidence to support that argument. Instead, they get articles like the one by the AP’s Mike Smith which simply accepts the “economic boost” as some sort of revealed truth and print it as gospel, rather than actually requiring any evidence that the assertions being made are true.

When I first came across the Flag bill (SB 332) requiring a United States Flag in every class room, I mentioned that flag manufacturers might be happy about the bill. The Indianapolis Star has a story that looks into just that. Too bad HB 1024 never made it anywhere. It would have exempted state and U.S. flags from the sales tax. Guess that really would have made it a banner year for the flag people. (Then again, every year is a banner year for flag people. — Sorry, couldn’t resist.)