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Thursday, March 18, 2010

Ind. Law - "Golf Cart Bill Doesn't Get a Vote in the Legislature"

WKVI Radio reported March 16, 2010:

A powerful Ft. Wayne legislator bottled up a bill that would have allowed counties to create an ordinance that would have allowed golf carts on some county roads.

According to Rep. Nancy Dembowski, a bill with overwhelming support in the House and Senate failed to come out of the Senate Transportation Committee because Chairman Tom Wyss wouldn't allow a vote on it. So, golf cart use at a number of lakes in Dembowski's district will still be prohibited.

The Representative said the bill would have authorized county officials to put language into an ordinance that would have, for instance, demanded a person have a driver's license to operate a golf cart on a county road. Other restrictions could have been a requirement for insurance, turn signals, safety flags, and on which roads the vehicles could be operated.

Here are some earlier entries from the ILB:

• Feb. 16, 2010 - HB 1078, which would remedy a problem with last year's legislation -- see this Jan. 22, 2010 ILB entry for details -- was not scheduled to be heard in today's final meeting of the Senate Homeland Security, Transportation & Veterans Affairs Committee.

• Jan. 22, 2010 - More on: Legislation proposed to remedy Indiana's 2009 golf cart legislation. This is a good background entry.

• Dec. 13, 2009 - Legislation proposed to remedy Indiana's 2009 golf cart legislation:

  The brief list of bills introduced so far in the Indiana General Assembly includes SB 2, which would remedy faults found in the legislation passed in 2009, particular the "corrections" inserted in the special session amendment.

  Background to the new bill can be found in this ILB entry from August 9, 2009, headed "New golf cart laws may need corrective amendments," and this one from August 5th, headed "New golf cart law, as amended, may work a hardship on those outside Culver town limits." Pay particular attention to the latter part of the Aug. 5th entry, re what has turned out to be one of the "special session surprises" the ILB has written about a number of times since.

  SB 2 is authored by Senator Travis Holdman (R, Markle), who has also introduced SB 18, re texting while driving.

  Here is a list of all ILB golf cart entries.

In short, the 2009 legislation included cities, towns, and counties. Wording slipped into the 2009 SS budget bill narrowed the exceptions for golf carts enacted during the regular session to golf carts operating under an authorizing municipal ordinance. This was one of the "budget bill surprises" - language very few knew about until long after the special session was over.

This is one example of how this practice, which subverts the legislative process, is often successful. The ILB will write shortly on the fate of several other 2009 "surprises", including restrictions on out-of-state placement of juveniles by judges, and the designation of the specific locations of certain local curb cuts by Indiana statute.

Posted by Marcia Oddi on March 18, 2010 02:26 PM
Posted to Indiana Law