A peek into the upcoming Indiana legislative session from Richmond’s Palladium-Item in this story.
Among other things, an interview with Tom Saunders (R-Lewisville) shows Rep. Lewis as wanting to address the definition of pickup trucks:
He also wants to rewrite the formula that classifies pick-up trucks so the state has a clear definition of a passenger vehicle. In trucks, passengers don’t have to wear seat belts, and some of the money
registered owners pay is not put back into the local tax disbursement. Saunders said he’s just trying to get more money put back into local economies.
I happen to believe that the application of current law has been faulty in this respect. As I recall, the Indiana Code defines pickup trucks by their primary use. Basically, it shouldn’t be regarded as a pickup truck for taxes and seatbelts unless it is used primarily to haul material and not as a passenger vehicle. But, there is no doubt that it could and should be much clearer.
Another issue is Daylight Savings Time. This is one that Mitch Daniels has said is a priority. Maybe he can get a change in the law, but he’s going to run into the same problem everyone runs into on this issue. The state is divided about 50/50 pro-DST and anti-DST. Pretty much everyone has a strong opinion on the subject. However, the pro-DST crowd is divided into Eastern Time and Central Time camps. Folks in the west want to stick with Chicago and central time. Folks in the east want to go with New York and eastern time. Geographically, there is no really good answer. As a matter of actual daylight, I think Indiana is situated such that we’re better off year ’round on eastern standard time. (With no daylight savings time.)
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