« Ind. Decisions - Supreme Court decides two today re ex post facto challenges to the Indiana Sex Offender Registration Act | Main | Courts - "Justice David H. Souter plans to retire at the end of the term in June" »

Friday, May 01, 2009

Ind. Gov't. - Editorials chastise General Assembly

Nearly all the major Indiana newspapers today have editorials chastising the General Assembly for its sorry performance over the past four months. Here is the editorial in today's Evansville Courier & Press. It concludes:

Other than the cost, there is something else bothersome about lawmakers failing to finish on time. Remember the early public interest in the proposed Kernan-Shepard local government reforms, which included the elimination of township government in Indiana?

That necessary reform appeared to have momentum going into the session, but ran into a wall when Bauer said the House had more important bills to work on. What bills? Obviously, it wasn't the budget, because it didn't get done.

And remember the bill that would have allowed penalties against public officials and employees who failed to provide public access to government records and meetings?

That bill faltered after Rep. John Bartlett, D-Indianapolis, chairman of the House Government and Regulatory Reform Committee, said his committee ran out of time for it because it had to spend time on other legislation. Again, that wasn't the budget.

A special session can be expensive. Each day will cost taxpayers a minimum of $12,420 in per diem pay, but there are also travel expenses and the costs of paying staff. That's why that daily cost of a special session could run in excess of $20,000. Perhaps it would make sense — and save some money — to bring back only the budget negotiators for the special session. Let that group reach an agreement before calling back the full body to consider the compromise and vote. Hoosiers should learn shortly when Gov. Mitch Daniels will call them back. The most serious deadline they face is July 1, after which state government would have a difficult time operating without budgeted funds.

Look, most lawmakers feel the frustration in not getting their job done on time. That's why we expect they will convey to their leaders the need to wrap up this costly exercise as quickly as possible.

From the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette, this editorial titled "A Miserable Failure." From the Indianapolis Star, this editorial headed "A sad state of legislative leadership." Fomr the NWI Times, this editorial, headed "Legislative session was a failure." From the Lafayette Journal & Courier, this editorial, headed "Indiana legislators failed their constituents," that reads:
Everyone is entitled to a bad day -- even a bad week and sometimes an off month. But four bad months in a row? State senators and representatives have no one to blame but themselves for their failed 2009 session.

Every two years, the General Assembly has one task that must be completed by the end of the four-month session -- adopt a state budget, preferably a two-year spending plan.

Getting a budget passed was so important that lawmakers hid behind this task to avoid other legislation that many Hoosiers supported, such as giving residents the opportunity to vote in a referendum to cap property taxes.

Lawmakers failed their constituents this year. They couldn't reach a compromise on the budget. So now the blame begins.

The House blamed the Senate -- and vice versa; the Republicans blamed the Democrats -- and vice versa. House and Senate leadership blamed the governor -- and so it goes. It doesn't change the fact that all of our lawmakers failed miserably -- and not just on the budget. They failed to do the people's business.

The Kernan-Shepard recommendations for local government reform, for example, have broad support throughout the state, yet the House killed those reforms.

Now the legislature will be called into special session to finish the work it failed to complete, and all Hoosiers ought to be indignant with their representatives and senators.

In the worst recession in 70 years, facing falling state revenues and with state employees having their wages frozen, lawmakers will now cost taxpayers more than $12,000 a day for a special session.

It's difficult to separate the politics from political process in the General Assembly, and Hoosiers tolerate the gamesmanship as a necessary evil, as long as the work gets done. To the shame of all lawmakers, that didn't happen this year.

Posted by Marcia Oddi on May 1, 2009 08:07 AM
Posted to Indiana Government