The Journal Gazette’s Niki Kelly (and a variety of other news sources) reports from the State House on the special session. There appear to be three bills so far – the budget, the Indianapolis Capital Improvement Board bill, and a bill to review the Family and Social Services Administration’s modernization efforts.
The main point of contention so far has to do with the C.I.B. bailout. It is likely to become a vehicle for gambling legislation to benefit Lake County, the horse tracks, French Lick, and, possibly, Fort Wayne.
Rep. Charlie Brown, D-Gary, said he will offer an amendment to the capital improvement bill that would allow one of Gary’s two riverboat casinos to move to a more profitable, possibly on-land location in Lake County.
Other likely gambling provisions include help for the state’s two struggling horse track casinos and a change in the admission tax for the casino in French Lick.
And Fort Wayne officials are still trying to gain approval for a referendum on whether gambling should be allowed in the city.
If the C.I.B. is on the table, I don’t see why gambling shouldn’t be on the table. But, personally, I think both should be left alone in the special session.
The FSSA audit is also probably something that will be a distraction from the budget, but it’s an interesting bill. It requires an independent audit of the FSSA’s contract with IBM to perform eligibility determinations for public assistance. Among other things, it would require the auditor to assess document handling concerns, including the presence of unattached documents in the process, the number of documents received by mail, the number of documents received by fax, the number of incorrectly classified or indexed documents, and the number of complaints about documentation. It would also look into call wait times and other sorts of delay. These are good things to look into. I suspect that these bureaucratic inefficiencies are regarded more as features than bugs: if you can get a person to forgo benefits through bureaucratic snafus, you’re saving money. Why would you spend more money to make the process more efficient and thereby cost yourself more money in benefits? Lose-lose, right?
There’s suddenly $27 million in savings to be had in CIB operating expenses, now that Mayor Gomer has gotten around to asking someone who knows–it’s funny, Candidate Gomer had a real nose for budgetary fluff, but in six months of staring at the CIB’s books he never suspected their expenses-to-revenue ratio exceeded any comparable operation’s exponentially–and that’s with a reported $30-$32 mil in red ink, minus the Pacers’ demand for $15 large. Put a band-aid on the rest and tell the Simons there’s no food left in the larder. Problem solved, at least for another year or two.
Shame on you, Doug, for failing to report the really most important item of the first day: The introduction by Representatives Eric Turner and Dave Cheatham of House Joint Resolution 3. Not quite sure what that is? The Indiana Family Institute is advising its constituency that the two are “keeping the ball of the field”. Why nobody bothers to ask them why their new language completely abandons their old claims (remember SJR-7?) that they were only interested in keeping those ultimate bogeymen, those “unelected activist judges” of the Indiana Supreme Court, from redefining marriage against the “will of the people”. Their spokespersons insisted that even though they would fight legislation establishing domestic partnerships and civil unions, our lawmakers should remain free to do so. They hope nobody notices the significant “bait and switch” in a busy summer when the media is concerned with the other issues.
Damn you Don.. you beat me to this!
Boy did I mess up that last post by clearly identifying HJR-3 as the so-called “Marriage Protection Amendment”. No wonder Hoosier 1 is cussin’ me!