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Sunday, February 19, 2006

Ind. Gov't. - More on legislative perks

The Evansville Courier& Press had an editorial titled "Lawmaker Benefits" on Friday that the ILB covered here (2nd item). It began:

The Issue: Indiana Senate tinkers with health insurance for members.
Our View: It's not enough.
Today the paper published some of the readers' comments on the article.

Last Thursday the Wabash Plain Dealer reported, via the AP, on the Senate effort to "scale back" some of its benefits.

Today Lesley Stedman Weidenbener of the Louisville Courier Journal has a column headlined "Legislators have reform on their minds." It begins:

The Indiana Senate voted last week to ban its members from taking out-of-state trips paid for by lobbyists.

The ban is part of a Senate rule, which means that if a lawmaker does it anyway and gets caught, he or she could be publicly reprimanded or censured. That might not seem like much of a punishment, but for someone who must stand for office every four years, it could prove more effective than a fine or some other penalty.

The column concludes:
Will Indiana ever go further than banning out-of-state trips? Probably. But I wouldn't look for it immediately.

The Indiana House just eliminated a lifetime, state-subsidized health-care benefit for its retirees, and the Senate scaled back a similar plan. Now, the Senate has acted to end the lobbyist-sponsored travel.

That's probably all the reforming that will take place in 2006 -- barring some yet unforeseen motivation.

Meanwhile, Matthew Tully of the Indianapolis Star has a column today on "questionable political moves." Among the items listed:
Disastrous news conference: I can't stop thinking about the news conference Senate leaders held Wednesday. They were there to announce changes to their lifetime health-care program. But the changes were minimal, and the senators did nothing more than remind everyone about the overly generous perk. I can't understand why senators -- from both parties -- thought drawing more attention to the issue with a no-news conference was a good idea.
Tully wrote about the Senate plan in this column Friday, headlined "Senators' perks come with lifetime hypocrisy."

Posted by Marcia Oddi on February 19, 2006 07:48 AM
Posted to Indiana Government | Indiana Law | Legislative Benefits