I wanted to give credit to the AP for introducing its readers to the legislative notion of a Christmas tree. It’s a bill with a strong central legislative goal from which legislators can hang lesser pieces of legislation that were unable to stand on their own. The article cites the budget bill as the prime example. (But, then, it goes on to repeat that old chestnut about how the budget is the one bill they “must pass.” Yeah, there would be hell to pay if they didn’t pass the state budget; but, contrary to popular belief, there is no constitutional provision that makes passage mandatory before sine die.)
The article mentions “ornaments” from years past — the Planned Parenthood defunding, a mobile home tax credit, tax increases to pay for Lucas Oil Statdium. This year, potential candidates include financial consideration for the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, gambling expansion, state voucher expansion, Common Core education standards, and review of the Rockport gas contract.
The advantage of the “Christmas Tree” approach is that, if you can manage to get your pet project tacked on to the budget or other major legislation; it’s less likely that other legislators will vote against it even if they don’t much care for the substance. (And they have a lot more cover and plausible deniability if they’re simply embarrassed to vote for the substance.)
And way too many people focus on a particular ornament and go:
“Ooh! Shiny!”
And then they vote.