04/18/11 Nancy Dembowski, Representative for House District 17 talked about the remaining session and some of the bills being considered.

Dembowski said, “The 2011 session of the Indiana General Assembly will be over in two weeks. The end cannot come soon enough for the people of Indiana.”

She noted, “In recent days, we have seen progress on a series of bills that I suspect will be hailed by those in charge of the Legislature as being among this session’s greatest accomplishments when we finish our business on April 29.”

Nancy continued, “As you shall see, I think it would be more accurate to say they are in the public’s worst interest.”

Senate Bill 589 is pitched as one of this session’s best job creation measures. Dembowski said, “Considering that we still have close to 290,000 Hoosiers out of work – and that number itself is lauded by some as a positive sign – it is good to see that those in charge of the Legislature finally show some interest in creating jobs. But will it achieve that goal?”

SB 589 proposes to put Hoosiers to work by cutting the state’s corporate tax by nearly 25 percent. Nancy asked, “Will that inspire big corporations to hire more people or will it simply put more money in the pockets of the shareholders who run these corporations? We shall see.”

She continued by saying, “We do know that SB 589 gives those corporations a tax cut of close to $80 million. We also know that Hoosier families are going to have to make up at least half the revenue lost because of that tax cut. I leave it to you to decide who truly benefits from this legislation.”

Nancy said, “Senate Bill 575 is touted as a way to reform our schools. In truth, it proposes to take the authority for critical decisions involving the salaries and benefits for our teachers away from our local schools and into the hands of officials in Indianapolis. It also removes the ability of classroom instructors to provide valuable input on decisions affecting school safety, class sizes and other education reforms.”

She spoke on their successes saying, “Thanks to your help, we did succeed in making changes to legislation (Senate Bill 473) that was originally designed to give the governor unlimited authority to place tolls on new and existing roads in Indiana.”

She continued, “There was enough public outrage at this potential abuse of power that even those in charge decided that changes had to be made. The governor will not be able to convert an existing road into a toll road.  However, the bill still gives the governor the ability for the next 10 years to put tolls on new roads, as well as any new lanes on existing roads. It also enables the governor to continue giving foreign investors the best shot at taking control of any new toll roads.”

Nancy stated, “ In other words, a bill that was completely bad is only very bad. Any new road built through a public-private partnership over the next decade still could be tolled, and you still would not have much of a chance to stop it.   Considering that these changes still must be approved in the Indiana Senate – where the idea of giving the governor this absolute power over roads got its start – I would say there is a very real risk that unlimited tolling still might become reality before the end of this session.”

There was some positive news this week.

Representative Dembowski said, “We did move quickly to pass legislation (Senate Bill 86) that will keep close to 12,000 out-of-work Hoosiers from being at risk of losing their unemployment insurance benefits. The action was required to allow displaced workers to take advantage of a federal program that can provide up to 13 weeks of benefits so these men and women can continue to support their families while they look for work.”

This measure passed by strong bipartisan margins in both the House and Senate. Nancy said, “It is a shame there wasn’t the same unity shown to strike down the law passed earlier this session that will cut the average weekly unemployment benefits by 25 percent next year.”

She closed by saying, “As we go through this session’s final weeks, please continue to stay in touch about the issues that concern you.”   Here are the best ways to contact me:

Call the toll-free Statehouse telephone number of 1-800-382-9842;

Write to me in care of the Indiana House of Representatives, 200 W. Washington St., Indianapolis, IN 46204; or

E-mail me at H17@in.gov.