A Citizen's Guide to Indiana

Masson's Blog

3/7/05 General Assembly

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Not much action today. Mostly bills were assigned to committees and a few resolutions were passed. For example, the Senate passed Senate Concurrent Resolution 34 urging Congress to pass multiple emissions legislation that reduce sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide emissions. Seems to me Congress might take the Indiana General Assembly more seriously if it wrote it complete sentences: “Whereas, The Indiana General Assembly urges the United States Congress to work to make multiple emissions legislation achievable and balanced and to enact federal legislation now. Do not disadvantage Indiana coal or the economies that thrive on that industry.” Passed by voice vote.

You can learn some interesting things from resolutions. For example, in today’s society, 60th wedding anniversaries are exceptional. See, I would have thought that, even in our hallowed past, 60th wedding anniversaries were exceptional, what without penicillin and flush toilets and so forth.

That’s not all: From the towering dome of the Court House of the city of Wabash, Indiana On March 31, 1880 burst a flood of lights that made world history. Houses and yards were distinctly visible for a mile around and the Wabash River glowed like a band of molten silver.”

Like I said. Slow day.

Bayh gearing up for Presidential bid

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I saw a story in the Journal & Courier about Evan Bayh gearing up for a Presidential bid. I don’t have any particular problem with the guy but he strikes me as far too bland to capture the popular imagination enough to capture a nomination or the election. Blandness wouldn’t be as big a problem if he were some sort of genius at policy, but I haven’t gotten that sense either. As far as I can tell, he got elected as the boy-Governor because he was Birch Bayh’s son. He did an adequate job as Governor and got elected Senator. Now the Senate seat is probably his as long as he wants it, and he’s doing an acceptable job. But, I don’t see him as being a compelling Presidential candidate. Certainly, I don’t think the Democrats want to run another Senator’s son if they want to push a middle/working-class message.

HB 1002 – Inspector General

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Since it has been cited as one of the main reasons for the Democratic walkout last week that killed a gross of bills (give or take), I thought I’d take a look at the inspector general portion of House Bill 1002.

As written, the Inspector General (IG) would be an attorney appointed by the Governor and serve entirely at his pleasure. The salary of the IG would be set by the Governor and approved by the budget agency, but could not be reduced while a particular IG was in office. He would be responsible for addressing fraud, waste, abuse, and wrongdoing in agencies; would be required to initiate, supervise, and coordinate investigations (presumably with regard to waste in the agencies of state government, but no limitation is specified) and recommend policies and carry out activities designed to “eradicate” fraud, waste, abuse, mismanagement, and misconduct in state government. He would also be required to receive complaints concerning the code of ethics he is required to create as well as complaints concerning bribery, official misconduct, conflict of interest, profiteering from public service, or violating executive branch rules or purchasing rules. (Again, one presumes that his purview would be limited to state government, but no such limitation is contained in that section of the statute.)

In the course of an investigation, he can take testimony, issue subpoenas and issue requests for production of documents. There is no indication as to whether these powers are limited by the Indiana Trial Rules as I believe most other subpoena power is — though the IG’s remedy is to apply to a court for a contempt citation if someone fails to comply with a subpoena. I don’t know if a recipient of a subpoena would be entitled to apply to the court for the subpoena to be quashed in appropriate circumstances (say, if the information is privileged or the request is unduly burdensome) or if the IG would be required to reimburse the recipient of the subpoena for the costs of complying with the subpoena.

If the IG decides, in his ultimate wisdom, that there has been a violation of the Code of Ethics he creates, he is supposed to file a complaint with the ethics commission. He can then either prosecute the ethics violation before the commission (for whom the IG provides rooms and staff, incidentally) or negotiate a settlement and apply to the ethics commission to rubber stamp its approval.

If the IG decides that there has been misconduct that has resulted in financial loss to the state or unlawful benefit for an individual in the conduct of state business, the IG can file a report with the Attorney General. If, after 180 days have passed, the Attorney General decides not to file a civil suit, then he is required to refer the matter back to the IG who gets a second crack at filing the civil suit himself. (Interestingly enough, the way the statute is written, if the Attorney General recovers the lost money without ever filing a civil suit, the IG is still permitted to proceed with suit. Obviously, the defendant would have a pretty good shot of prevailing in that circumstance.)

If the IG decides there has been criminal activity, he is required to file a report with “the appropriate prosecuting attorney.” I don’t see that the IG’s prosecutorial powers are limited to misconduct by state employees. I think public misconduct at the local level can be prosecuted by this appointee of the governor. If the prosecuting attorney decides to proceed with criminal charges, he can have the IG prosecute the case. If the elected prosecutor exercises his discretion and decides not to prosecute the case, the IG can then go to the governor and ask to be appointed as special prosecutor. If the governor agrees, he asks the Supreme Court to appoint an appellate court judge foreign to the district in which the crime was allegedly committed. The prosecuting attorney to whom the case was originally submitted must file a response either for or against the IG’s appointment as special prosecutor. The prosecutor is apparently not permitted to take no position on the issue. The appellate court judge is then required to determine whether the IG should be appointed as special prosecutor. The IG is required to get a grand jury indictment to bring charges. An attorney in the IG’s office can serve as a deputy prosecutor on the case. The identity of the person who files an accusation with the IG is required to be kept secret, even from the person being charged with wrongdoing.

The term “law enforcement agency” as used in parts of the Indiana Code is amended to include the IG’s office.

Just a thought, and I’m probably wrong, but I wonder if the IG’s prosecutorial powers are even Constitutional. Article 3, Section 1, specifies that the powers of government are divided into executive, legislative, and judicial and that no person charged with duties of one department shall exercise any of the functions of the others except as the Constitution specifically provides. Near as I can see, the prosecutorial function of government is set forth in the judicial section of the Constitution. (Article 7, Section 17 – 18.) The IG is very clearly a creature of the executive branch.

SB 327 – Property Tax

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Senate Bill 0327 Passed 48 – 0. (I’m not even pretending to analyze this one.)

Delays the next general reassessment of real property by two years and requires general reassessments every five years thereafter. Delays until 2006 implementation of annual adjustments of real property tax assessments. Amends the factors to be included in the annual adjustment rule of the department of local government finance (DLGF). Allows assessors to employ professional appraisers to assist with annual adjustments. Requires the DLGF to: (1) review and certify annual adjustments; (2) establish local deadlines in the determination of annual adjustments; (3) provide training to assessors and county auditors in the verification of sales; (4) approve a determination by assessors to not employ a professional appraiser for a general reassessment; and (5) adopt rules for the establishment of a statewide integrated property tax management system. Allows the DLGF to take over local assessment, reassessment, or annual adjustment activities if it determines that the activities are not being performed properly. Allows the filing of an assessment registration notice with the county assessor or the area plan commission. Renames the assessment training fund as the assessment training and administration fund, extends for four years the $10 sales disclosure form filing fee, requires deposit of 40% of the revenue from the fee in that fund instead of the state general fund, and allows the Indiana board of tax review to use money in the fund to conduct appeal activities. Eliminates the county property tax reassessment fund and provides for funding of assessment activities through the general fund. Directs the department of state revenue to withhold state property tax replacement fund distributions to counties for various reasons. Prohibits an appraiser or a technical advisor that serves a township or county from representing taxpayers in the county. Authorizes a refund of property taxes paid by an exempt sorority that meets certain criteria.

SB 324 – Geologist licensing

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Senate Bill 0324 Geologist licensing. Squeaker – passed 27-21.

Allows geologists to form professional corporations. Redefines “geology” and “public practice of geology” in the geologist licensing statute. Provides that failure to pay a renewal fee for a licensed professional geologist results in suspension of the license. Makes conforming changes. Repeals a statute defining “survey” as the geological survey.

SB 171 – Personal Property Tax & Repossessions

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Senate Bill 0171 – Personal Property Taxes. Requires a creditor that acquires and transfers personal property on which the creditor holds a lien and on which personal property taxes have been adjudicated delinquent to pay all or part of the delinquency from the proceeds of the transfer according to a formula that apportions the proceeds between the lien amount and the delinquency amount. Allows a creditor to deduct from the proceeds of the transfer any direct, out-of-pocket expenses that the creditor incurs for the repossession, maintenance and disposition of the personal property before applying the formula and paying the delinquent personal property taxes. (Sale*tax/(tax+lien)) Passed 38-10.

Less than a Day or a Week?

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My memory is faulty and I’m having trouble figuring out how long House Republicans boycotted the House last year when they were in the minority. According to this article they were out for a week:

Near the end of the 2004 session, Republicans boycotted the House for a week, killing dozens of pieces of legislation, because Democrats refused to let them debate a gay marriage ban proposal.

(According to news reports earlier in the week their walkout killed about 80 bills.)

According to Rep. Tom Saunders, quoted here by Rebecca Helmes in the Palladium-Item, the Republicans weren’t gone for even a day:

“There was a real difference here,” Saunders said. “We never stayed gone for an entire day. Basically, we’ve wasted two months.”

I’d be much obliged to anyone who can reconcile the statements for me, or at least tell me when the Republicans were gone last year and whether the House was in session those days (and, if not in session, whether the House didn’t convene solely because the Republicans were gone.)

(And the Republicans are spouting nonsense when they say that their boycott was different because they were trying to force consideration of a bill whereas the Democrats were trying to stop consideration of a bill. By this logic, the Democrats would be justified in walking out any time a committee chair declines to hear a bill. And that, seems to me, makes for a ridiculous distinction. Either they’re both deserving of praise or both deserving of condemnation, and in approximately equal amounts. Less legislation doesn’t bother me. Hypocrisy does.)

Minor adjustment

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This page was loading slowly for me for the past couple of days. My best guess is that it has something to do with the number of entries being displayed. So, I cut it back to displaying entries for the past 15 days. Prior entries are available in the archives, month-by-month. We’ll see if this helps any.