For immediate release:
Feb. 15, 2008
Statehouse Report from State Rep. Russ Stilwell
INDIANAPOLIS —— In many ways, these are the busiest days of a legislative session.
While the number of bills still under consideration in the Indiana General Assembly is lower than at the start of this session, lawmakers have to keep their attention focused on what is happening in both chambers.
House members serve as sponsors of the bills that came over from the Senate, so we speak on behalf of these measures in committees and on the House floor. We also must appear in Senate committees to testify on the bills we authored in the House.
Sometimes all of these meetings take place at the same time, which gives us a chance to get a workout rushing from one end of the Statehouse to the other.
At times, it's difficult to keep track where you are supposed to be at any one point in time. I'll be on the first floor to vote on bills in one meeting, then rushing up to the fourth floor to speak to senators about a bill I authored, then it's back to the basement to testify on a bill I'm carrying for someone in the Senate.
Now is also when the legislative maneuvering begins. If it appears that a House bill isn't going to make it through the Senate, a representative starts looking for a Senate bill to serve as a vehicle for his or her proposal. The whole idea is to keep it alive until we get to the final phase of the process, the House-Senate conference committees.
We will continue to meet in House committees to review Senate bills until next Thursday (February 21). Here are some highlights from the past few days in the House.
On the property tax front, members of the House Ways and Means Committee continue to debate Senate Joint Resolution 1, which would amend the Indiana Constitution to cap homeowner tax bills at 1 percent of their home's assessed value. Bills for rental properties would be capped at 2 percent and business properties at 3 percent.
These caps, often called circuit breakers, are a part of the tax relief packages that have been under consideration in both the House and Senate as proposed by Gov. Daniels. The resolution before Ways and Means would begin the process of making the caps permanent.
According to the Legislative Services Agency, the caps would save property taxpayers more than $630 million by 2010. It also means that local units of government and schools would have to find other means to raise that revenue to finance critical operations. It is a difficult dilemma.
Recent Ways and Means meetings have focused on the potential impact of these changes at the local level. Committee members heard from city, county and school officials, many of whom contend the loss of revenue would cause them to lay off teachers, police officers and firefighters and either reduce or eliminate programs and other services.
Their participation demonstrates that this debate is not as cut-and-dried as everyone would like. We want to reduce property taxes, but we also want to make sure that we get the services that keep our families and homes safe. We want to see governments and schools tighten their belts, but not at the cost of depriving our children of the education they deserve.
I remain confident that the Legislature will approve tax relief this session, but it is important to remember that any debate on this topic also must examine the long-range impact of what we do now.
It makes no sense to approve something now, only to come back a few years down the road to take care of problems that could have been easily foreseen. By ignoring the impact of a one-party state budget passed in 2005 that shifted a large chunk of the property tax burden to local taxpayers, the state helped pave the way for the problems we face today. We need to make sure we don't repeat past mistakes.
In other action this week, the House Elections and Apportionment Committee approved a plan to improve voter turnout and accessibility.
Senate Bill 235 would allow Indiana counties to set up a system where people could cast a ballot at any of several vote centers located around a county. These vote centers—which would replace neighborhood voting precincts—would be located in easily accessible places like malls, grocery stores and government buildings. The bill also would allow any person to submit a vote through the mail, a concept commonly called "no excuse" absentee voting.
If you need to reach me while the Legislature is in session, you can call using the toll-free Statehouse telephone number of 1-800-382-9842, email me, or write to me in care of the Indiana House of Representatives, 200 W. Washington St., Indianapolis, IN 46204.
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