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Wednesday, January 11, 2006

Ind. Law - A bill to end legislative branch health perks appears doomed; budget agency refuses to approve acturial study of costs of perks

Jennifer Whitson has a lengthy story in today's the Evansville Courier & Press, headlined "Lawmakers' insurance perk under fire." Some quotes:

Legislative leaders are considering changes to a lifetime subsidized health insurance perk for lawmakers, but a bill that would end the program appears doomed.

In 2001, then-Speaker John Gregg and President Pro Tem Robert Garton, R-Columbus, added a benefit for lawmakers, spouses and some staff who have served at least six years and one day on the job to be able to lock in their state-funded health insurance plan for life.

So if, for example, a lawmakers retires after serving eight years, he can sign up for the state health insurance plan and lock in the current employee rate of contribution for monthly premiums for life.

As health care costs go up, those premiums would not. And the retired lawmaker would never lose that insurance.

In 2004, a handful of Republicans, including Troy Woodruff of Vincennes, ran against Democrat incumbents decrying the benefit as a luxurious perk. In 2005, Woodruff filed a bill to eliminate the perk. The bill never got a hearing.

Now, a change in national accounting standards is forcing states to publicly estimate the cost of these unfunded perks in their books by 2008. State Auditor Connie Nass put out a bid to get an actuarial study done on what this lifetime health insurance perk could cost taxpayers in future years.

Nass chose a bidder and drew up a contract, but the Indiana State Budget Agency announced Tuesday that they would not sign off on the study.

More from the story:
Woodruff on Tuesday again filed his bill to get rid of the benefit. House Speaker Brian Bosma, R-Indianapolis, said he's sending the bill to the House Rules Committee again.

Members of the Indiana Senate and House, under a convoluted series of provisions tucked in several bills stretched over years, became employees of the Senate president pro tem and Indiana House speaker. As speaker, Bosma could administratively eliminate the perk immediately, but the provision in the law that gives him the power to offer the perk would still exist. Bosma said he's reviewing changes now to the benefit.

"I haven't announced those (changes) yet," Bosma said. "But I will be announcing them in the near future." * * *

Woodruff said that any proposal to change the perk without eliminating it all together, including revoking it for the 25 people who are currently enjoying it, wouldn't be enough. "Anything other than zero (getting rid of it completely) is still egregious," he said.

In the Senate, Garton said he's also reviewing changes to the benefit. "Will we do them? I'm not promising," Garton said. "My presumption is we will." But he said changes will not "betray anyone's faith and confidence." "You have expectations and you live up to them," Garton said. "We don't intend to break trust. In fact, we won't break trust."

He said the Senate has gotten an actuarial study on the potential future costs of the benefit but declined to share the results. Asked whether he will face pressure to change the benefit for senators if Bosma does that in the House, Garton said: "Only in terms of the reaction from the general public."

See this entry from yesterday, Jan. 10th, 2006 (or scroll down one), for more, plus an index to all previous ILB entries on this topic.

Posted by Marcia Oddi on January 11, 2006 07:38 AM
Posted to Indiana Government | Indiana Law | Legislative Benefits