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Thursday, June 09, 2011
Ind. Law - Surprises from the 2011 Indiana General Assembly
Time to begin the list of "surprises" in bills passed by the 2011 General Assembly. The ILB has become aware of two so far:
- This 2011 budget bill "surprise" is a surprise to those who did not know about it, or at least about the interpretation some are giving it ... SECTION 190, on p. 237 of HEA 1001, creates a new IC 20-31-9.5, Turnaround Academies. It is effective July 1, 2011.
Section 5 of the new law provides:
Sec. 5. (a) The executive of a city or county in which one (1) or more turnaround academies are located may petition the state board to oversee the special management team. The petition must include the following:
From today's IndyStar, a story by Scott Elliot reports:
(1) The names of one (1) or more turnaround academies located within the executive's jurisdiction for which the executive wishes to conduct oversight.
(2) The functions the executive wishes to perform.
(3) Information on how and by whom those functions will be carried out.
(b) The state board may approve or not approve a petition under this section in whole or part.In a speech to the Greater Indianapolis Progress Committee, Ballard proposed a "charter-like" system, in which he would deal directly with the chosen turnaround school operators.
He invoked a new law that he lobbied into the recently passed state budget allowing the mayor to ask the state Board of Education to allow his office to administer those takeovers.
The mayor oversees a successful charter school system where he contracts directly with organizations to run the schools independently and is the final arbiter of their success or failure.
Bennett said that Ballard's interpretation is not exactly the process outlined in the law. Under state takeover, Bennett said, the state board will decide which schools will be wrested free from IPS and will choose organizations to operate them. Then the mayor can petition to play the role of supervisor of those reform efforts.
- The second is apparently a surprise to all, resulting from a drafting error. Niki Kelly reports today in the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette:
A mistake in a bill meant to loosen construction wage requirements in Indiana will force all public works projects – regardless of the cost – to go through a process establishing wage rates.
The problem is near the end of SECTION 1, on p. 3 ("subsection m") of HEA 1216. SECTION 1 amends the existing IC 5-16-7-1, effective July 1, 2011.Senate President Pro Tem David Long, R-Fort Wayne, said legislative leaders only recently discovered the error in House Bill 1216 that will affect state and local projects costing less than $150,000 for six months.
“There was a drafting error. It was not caught, and (the legislative services agency) has apologized to us,” Long said. “It should have been caught.”
Indiana’s Common Construction Wage Act establishes labor rates in construction projects contracted by state and local government.
Supporters say it will ensure that government does not upset the market equilibrium in the private sector, while opponents think it will drive up construction labor costs on public projects.
The intent of the bill was to increase the threshold level at which a project must use a common construction wage to $250,000 starting Jan. 1, then $350,000 starting Jan. 1, 2013.
But an error deleted the threshold for all projects between July 1 and Jan. 1. That means public projects – even those costing less than $150,000 – will need to have a common construction wage. * * *
Lawmakers have day built into their schedule to vote on technical corrections, but they rarely use it. [ILB: I don't recall it ever being used ...]
Last Tuesday was the scheduled date, but the error wasn’t found in time to call all the members back to fix the bill. And Long said it wasn’t worth the expense anyway.
Posted by Marcia Oddi on June 9, 2011 09:31 AM
Posted to Indiana Law