Introduced Version, House Bill 1038 Provides that a child who is a passenger in a vehicle operated by the child’s parent, guardian, or custodian while the parent, guardian, or custodian is intoxicated is: (1) a victim of child abuse or neglect; and (2) a child in need of services.
HB 1030 The “Drunks First” License Plate
Introduced Version, House Bill 1030
Requires OWI convicts to surrender plate & registration. Upon reinstatement, you get a license plate that identifies you as an OWI convict. Makes it easier for cops to hassle you. This one’s been kicking around for at least 7 years. Not necessarily a bad idea, though it has some troubling privacy aspects. I’d probably not want this to kick in until it was a second offense.
HB 1034 – Daylight Savings Time
Introduced Version, House Bill 1034 This bill repeals the legislation Indiana passed way back when that exempts Indiana from the Daylight Savings Time provisions. So, knowing what it does requires some knowledge of the U.S. Department of Transportation’s regulations on daylight savings time. I don’t have that.
But, my best guess is that Indiana is in the Eastern time zone. USDOT doesn’t allow the state to be split, otherwise, some of Indiana would more naturally be in the Central Time Zone. In fact, the legislation being repealed says that the part of Indiana that would fall in the Central Time Zone would observe daylight savings time if the state could be split.
If this passes, then folks in Gary and East Chicago won’t be able to share Chicago’s time, and folks in Covington and Attica will find that in April, it won’t be getting light out until 9 a.m. or so and won’t be getting dark out until 10pm in June. On the other hand, I guess the folks in the eastern part of the state will be happier. This has been the basic problem with daylight savings time legislation in the past. The state splits about 50/50 as to whether to have it or not. Most folks who think about it have a fairly strong opinion one way or the other. The folks who are in favor of it are divided between Eastern time and Central time, so they have been losing the fight for decades. Now, we have one party rule and a governor who apparently thinks it’s a good idea, so maybe it has a chance.
DNR PILOT from state to county
Interesting. Basically requires a “payment in lieu of taxes (PILOT)” to be paid by the Dept. of Natural Resources to the various counties based on the number of acres of DNR land in the county. The payments come out of the state general fund.
Introduced Version, House Bill 1026
Representative Koch has also introduced HB 1025 which authorizes a municipality to charge the DNR for public safety protection provided to DNR property. So, I’m going to go out on a limb here and speculate that Rep. Koch represents an area that feels like DNR is freeloading and draining its resources.
FLAGS! (Exemption from sales tax)
Introduced Version, House Bill 1024 Exempts sales of the U.S. flag and state flag from state sales tax. This is like reverse war bond mentality. Back in WWII, folks on the homefront showed their patriotism by giving their money to the government. Guess it’s an honor to die for your government, but god forbid you have to fund it.
HB 1029 – Another License Plate bill
Oh, super, another license plate bill. Like we don’t have enough different kinds of license plate. Introduced Version, House Bill 1029 This one is “in God We Trust”. Watch this and every other special interest license plate get put into a super license plate Christmas tree bill before, hopefully, dying a horrible death.
HB 1028 – Attorney’s fees on medicaid liens
Introduced Version, House Bill 1028
I like this one! Increases the attorney’s fee to be paid by the Medicaid office in personal injury recoveries. It’s not limited to PI recoveries, but basically what happens is that Medicaid covers the medical costs for an injured person. The injured person thinks someone else is responsible. Let’s call him a tortfeasor. So, injured person has a cause of action against the tortfeasor. The Medicaid office has a lien on the claim against the tortfeasor. Usually what happens is that the injured person hires an attorney on contingency to pursue the tortfeasor. This bill just increases the amount the Medicaid office has to pay the attorney as its “fair share” for benefitting in any recovery against the tortfeasor. It’s 25% before suit & 1/3 after, up from 7.5%/10%. Since contingency fees are usually around 1/3, the Medicaid office has been getting a free ride to the tune of about 25%, coming out of the hide of either the attorney (don’t cry) or the already impoverished injured party.
SB 39 – STATE INSECT!!!
Introduced Version, Senate Bill 0039 Provides that the Karner blue butterfly is the state insect. Come on! I thought the firefly was Indiana’s state insect!
Maybe with new leadership in the House and the Governor’s Office we can get some much needed resolution on this vital issue.
SB 10 & 11 Phase out and elimination of inheritance tax
Introduced Version, Senate Bill 0010 and Introduced Version, Senate Bill 0011 SB 10 provides for the elimination of the Indiana inheritance tax in 2009. In the meantime, it reduces the tax owed by 20% in 2005-2006, 40% in 2006-2007, 60% in 2007-2008, and 80% in 2008-2009. SB 11 just gets rid of it in 2005.
Now, I’m all in favor of reducing taxes to the extent possible. But, the fact is, government is necessary for certain purposes. And it has to be paid for. My proposal is to reduce government as much as possible. Then, if we have more tax money than we need, get rid of sales taxes, gas taxes, property taxes first. You know, taxes that ordinary people pay. Once those taxes are gone, then you go after the inheritance taxes. My position is that a person has a greater claim to his paycheck and money he’s actually earned than an heir has a claim on someone’s estate. That being the case, it’s more fair to deprive the heir of some portion of his claim on the estate than it is to deprive the common laborer of some portion of his earnings.
SB 7 – Proposed Legislation concerning seatbelts
Introduced Version, Senate Bill 0007
Requires every occupant of a motor vehicle to wear a safety belt, with certain exceptions. Prohibits retail sale of automobiles without seatbelts.
(Basically, it would require backseat passengers and occupants of trucks to wear seatbelts, which they are not currently required to do.)