Hot Reform and a Short Session

Bill Ruthhart, writing for the Indianapolis Star, has an article suggesting that legislators contemplate making the short session even shorter. They got off to a fast start, so maybe they’ll leave Indianapolis early.

This is an election year, and legislators are eager to get back to their district to raise money and run their campaigns as soon as possible, particularly in the closely contested House.

It also doesn’t hurt that lawmakers on both sides of the aisle will be able to laud passing the constitutional property tax caps before Gov. Mitch Daniels gives his televised State of the State speech Tuesday.

“I don’t care what causes it. It’s results always that matter to us,” Daniels said of the legislature’s fast start. “I’d like to think they simply want to continue a hot streak of reform that Indiana’s been on, and everybody’s gotten with the program. But if there’s some political calculation, that’s just fine.

So, Gov. Daniels is still going with the “hot streak” thing. If this is a “hot streak,” I’d hate to see what merely making the best of a bad situation looks like. Gov. Daniels offers the opinion that the legislature is off to a strong start and, that being the case, he’ll just “stay out of their way.”

If memory serves, he stayed out of the way long enough last session that they couldn’t meet his budget demands without a special session. Seems like he stayed out of the way as the property tax debacle was coming to a head as well. And, so far as I can tell, he is still staying out of the way of the unemployment insurance fund shortfall. He’s not the only one, of course. A number of lawmakers have tried to steer clear of leadership on tough questions. Since his first session in 2005, Daniels’ M.O. has been to mostly disappear while the legislature is in session. Given the “car bomb” incident, that might make some sense. But, I just thought I should make a note of that in case he does decide to run for President and start making claims about what a leader he is. Selling a road and screwing with our clocks is no substitute for getting your hands dirty when the legislature is in town.

In any case, I suppose the General Assembly might clear out earlier than they have to, but it probably won’t be as early as the fabled year when they were gone by Valentine’s Day. I suspect that year is still remembered fondly by legislative staffers.