Jennifer Whitson, writing for the Evansville Courier Press, has an article entitled “Now it’s crunch time for state lawmakers.” According to House and Senate Rules, legislators have to get their bills out of committee within the next week. Otherwise the bills are dead. (Well, mostly dead, there are usually ways of resurrecting things if you have enough clout.) The week after next is reserved for getting committee-passed bills through second and third reading. And the week after that is for conference committees where the House and Senate try to hash out a final form for bills that passed the respective chambers with differences.
Ms. Whitson’s article notes that, still under consideration, are:
- The Toll Road lease bill (which gives the Governor authority to close similar deals without consulting with the legislature).
- Two government consolidation bills (one is specific to Evansville and Vanderbugh county, the other provides a more general route for consolidation of overlapping units of government.) Some sort of IndyWorks provision might be tacked into one or the other.
- An omnibus property tax bill.
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