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Thursday, February 02, 2006

Ind. Gov't. - For most bills, it's a short life; Bill to abolish legislators' health care perks among the dead

"For most bills, it's a short life" is the headline to a Mary Beth Schneider story today in the Indianapolis Star. Some quotes:

The deadline for bills to pass the Indiana House or Senate in the first round of legislative action is today, but many already have fallen by the legislative wayside, not even getting a hearing, much less a vote. * * *

This is the short legislative session, which must end by law on March 14. That left little time for dealing with the 394 bills filed in the 50-member Senate or the 440 bills filed in the 100-member House. * * *

The majority of bills that did get hearings and votes are sponsored by Republicans, who control the Senate 33-17 and the House 52-48. In the House, only 18 bills with Democratic authors survived. In the Senate, there were 10 -- and all had Republican co-authors.

A notable dead bill, not mentioned in the story, is Rep. Troy A. Woodruff's (R-Vincennes) HB 1309, to repeal the statutory authority under which the taxpayers pay much of the health care premiums for eligible former legislators and their wives, children under 25, etc., which was assigned by Speaker Bosma to the Committee on Rules and Legislative Procedures and never received a hearing.

That leaves only Rep. Bosma's statement that he will administratively abolish health care perks for those legislators with more than 6 years service who are reelected next year.

Those representatives already receiving the benefit (projected to be worth an average of $250,000 for each legislator and his kin), and those with more than 6 years of service who retire or are defeated this year, will be unaffected by Bosma's change. And the program may be reinstituted at any time by a simple memo of the Speaker.

Not publicly available, as far as I am aware, are either the "two-page memo" of the Speaker and Pro Temp that grants these benefits, or Bosma's modifications thereof.

Senator Garton has totally stone-walled the public outcry and the program will continue in the Senate as in the past.

Posted by Marcia Oddi on February 2, 2006 01:06 PM
Posted to Indiana Government | Indiana Law | Legislative Benefits