Published: November 23, 2009 08:43 pm      

CLERE: Make the most of fowl time

Let's talk turkey. The General Assembly met for Organization Day a week ago today. It was the official — and mostly ceremonial — start of the 2010 legislative session, which begins Jan. 5 and must end by mid-March.

In a typical year, committees would not start meeting until January. Next year promises to be anything but typical. It’s an election year; the state’s finances are looking like the picked-over bird an hour after Thanksgiving dinner; and the legislative agenda is as full and messy as the kitchen sink.

House and Senate leaders have decided it would be a good idea to get a head start on tidying up, so committees will begin meeting in December.

The House Ways and Means Committee is scheduled to meet three times next month, and the Senate Tax and Fiscal Policy Committee once. In all, seven pieces of legislation will be considered.

I just hope we’re starting early for the right reasons. Just as some people might be inclined to rush through Thanksgiving dinner to avoid having to spend any longer than absolutely necessary with relatives they don’t like, it’s possible there’s a similar motivation behind this sudden rush to get down to business.

One of the bills scheduled for a hearing would require contractors and subcontractors on public works projects to ensure at least 80 percent of their employees on the project are Indiana residents. I’m all for employing Hoosiers, but we live in a border area where many people reside on one side of the river and work on the other. This one has caution tape all over it.

Another bill takes aim at Gov. Mitch Daniels’ attempt to privatize the Family and Social Services Administration, which administers Medicaid, food stamps and other assistance programs. Last month, after a year of problems with the new system, Daniels fired the lead contractor and announced changes that combine the best elements of the old and new systems. By acknowledging the problems and making a difficult course correction, the governor showed real leadership, and we need to give the hybrid system a chance to work.

Also up for consideration is a bill that would delay for a year the changes in unemployment contribution rates currently set to go into effect in January. I voted against the changes, which will increase the amount most employers pay for unemployment insurance. The legislation wasn’t all bad, but it failed to solve the problem, which is we have been paying out more in unemployment benefits than we have been collecting in premiums. It’s not a new problem. For a decade, elected officials kept kicking it down the path until the economy’s collapse made us trip over it suddenly.

About a year ago, our unemployment trust fund ran dry and we started borrowing from the federal government to pay benefits. A year later, we’ve borrowed more than $1.5 billion – about $5 million a day – and we don’t have a plan for paying it back. The only good news is we’re not alone. Other states are in a similar situation, and the thinking now is that we shouldn’t worry about paying back the feds if no other states are concerned about it. Delaying implementation of the new rates is the right thing to do. At a time when many Hoosier employers are struggling to avoid or minimize layoffs, we don’t need to be placing additional burdens on them.

In a surprise move, House Speaker Pat Bauer, D-South Bend, recently became a champion of some of the same ethics reform measures he has blocked in the past. Ethics reform is needed, although I question some of the specific reforms that are being proposed. Most folks in and around state government are ethical. Those who aren’t will find a way to work around any new rules. We need to make sure any reforms are meaningful and not just a window display that will disappear soon after the holidays.

I trust the sudden focus on ethics is not a way of diverting attention from other issues, namely constitutional property tax caps. In 2008, the General Assembly voted to amend our state constitution to cap property taxes at 1 percent of assessed value for most owner-occupied homes. Taxes on residential rental property and farmland would be capped at 2 percent, and taxes on other business property would be capped at 3 percent.

To become part of the constitution, the caps must be adopted by the General Assembly a second time. Bauer refused to allow a vote on the caps this year, and if we fail to adopt them in the upcoming session, the process would have to start over. We would still, however, have the 17 percent sales tax increase that was passed with the promise of permanent property tax caps, along with lots of other changes that would be difficult or impossible to reverse.

Now Bauer is pushing a bill that would limit annual increases in property assessment. I’m all for addressing the assessment side of the property tax problem. I’ve said all along that even with caps, property taxes will continue to be out of control as long as assessments can rise on a whim. We need both follow-through on the caps and limits on assessment.

Protecting taxpayers has to be our top priority. As long as legislators make it to January with an appetite for that, we’ll be fine. If, however, the planned holiday grazing leaves them full and lethargic, we could be in trouble.

In the meantime, let’s stop talking turkey and eat some. Happy Thanksgiving!