Big issues facing legislature

Some big issues are going to be facing the Indiana General Assembly next session, no matter what the outcome of the November election.
Former Indiana State Republican Chairman Mike McDaniel, who appears weekly on Indiana Week in Review sparring with former Democratic chair Ann Delaney, told the annual meeting of the Jay County Development Corporation he sees merit in the economic development proposals of both Republican Mike Pence and Democrat John Gregg.
But legislative realities are likely to make those plans difficult to implement.
“Both of these guys are concentrating on jobs,” said McDaniel, who is executive director for governmental affairs for the law firm of Krieg DeVault in Indianapolis.
Key issues facing the next session of the legislature, said McDaniel, include:
•Can the state afford the tax cuts proposed by either Pence or Gregg or should the state make strategic investments in its infrastructure?
•What can be done to help Indiana catch up in the area of early childhood development?
•What will state funding levels be for public schools? “There’s going to be a real fight for more money for K through 12,” he said.
•How will the state respond to questions of Medicaid expansion and the insurance exchange posed by the Affordable Care Act, also known as “Obamacare”?
•What transportation and highway infrastructure funding methods make sense as hybrid vehicles and electric cars make reliance on fuel taxes obsolete?
McDaniel said he expects success at Indiana polls for most Republican candidates — including Mitt Romney and Pence.
Poll numbers from the Howey-DePauw poll indicate a tighter race for Richard Mourdock and Joe Donnelly for the U.S. Senate seat now held by Richard Lugar.
Some Lugar voters, McDaniel believes, are now polling for the Libertarian candidate, Andrew Horning, because of their unhappiness with Mourdock’s ousting of Lugar in the May primary.
The Howey-DePauw poll also showed 59 percent of Hoosiers believe the state is on the right track. “Obviously if you’re an incumbent in Indiana that’s pretty good news for you,” said McDaniel.
The poll, which dates from the second half of September, showed Romney leading President Obama 52 percent to 40 percent and gave Mitch Daniels a 58 percent approval rating as governor.
Both houses of the Indiana General Assembly are likely to stay in GOP hands, McDaniel said.
“What’s at stake … is whether the Republicans will have quorum-proof majorities,” he said.
That’s the case now in the Indiana Senate, but Republicans would have to gain seven seats in the House to have a quorum-proof majority of 67. Such a majority would prevent the kind of work stoppage that occurred in the last session when House Democrats left the state in protest.[[In-content Ad]]