Lawmakers move into crunch time

One of the major issues of the 2016 session is dead, at least in bill form.
But as the Indiana General Assembly returns to session today after getting a break Thursday and Friday, there remains plenty to deal with. Among them are bills addressing road funding and the sale of products that include pseudoephedrine.
Those items are likely to move to the forefront after Sen. Travis Holdman’s attempt at crafting a compromise to grant civil rights protections to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) Hoosiers failed to reach the Senate floor.
“I felt like we could get a compromise. It just didn’t work out,” said Holdman (R-Markle), who represents Jay County as well as all or part of five other counties and authored Senate bills 100 and 344 dealing with the issue. “I think the two extremes just became so entrenched.
“It just became more than what I could lift. I was not able to thread that needle. It was just way too difficult to get it done.”
Holdman considers himself to be part of the “religious right,” but said he felt like-minded legislators carried their arguments to extremes to incite fear. He said each time he added an amendment to try to pick up some votes for his bills, it resulted in him losing support elsewhere.
The biggest challenge was that legislators broke into three factions — those who wanted unfettered LGBT rights, those who wanted LGBT rights only with religious protections built in and those who did not want to grant LGBT rights at all.
“I think almost everyone could see that as the major hurdle,” said Rep. Greg Beumer (R-Modoc), who represents all of Jay and Randolph counties and part of Delaware County. “How do you craft language — and hats off to Sen. Travis Holdman, he put his neck out there and he worked so hard on this — but it’s really difficult to find that middle ground. Fifty-one votes is going to be difficult whether it’s this year or next year, but we’ve got to do something.”
Beumer’s preference would be to rescind the Religious Freedom Restoration Act and the ensuing “fix” passed last year and start over.
House Democrats plan to keep brining up the issue in this session in the form of amendments to other bills.
The House and Senate have been working on similar bills dealing with pseudoephedrine, an ingredient in cold and allergy medications that is used in the production of methamphetamine. Both would allow pharmacists to deny the sale of products that include pseudoephedrine, but would not require a prescription.
The measures — House Bill 1390 and Senate Bill 80 — passed by margins of 92-7 and 41-8 respectively.
What the General Assembly will do regarding road funding is far less clear as the House has favored an increase in the gas tax for the first time in more than a decade while the Senate is backing a plan to provide a one-time
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influx of local income tax funds — about $431 million statewide — that would be earmarked for infrastructure. Gov. Mike Pence has also come out against a gas tax increase.
Holdman noted a preference to hold off on the gas tax discussion in this year’s short session, which must come to an end no later than March 14.
“I just don’t know about the House’s plan on a tax increase for road funding in the long term,” he said. “I think we need to study that.
“I think there’s just a need to have some discussion. I just don’t get the sense that Hoosiers want a gas increase right now.”
An unrelated measure passed that passed the House would provide nearly $445 million, including about $1.5 million to Jay County, in local option income tax funds to local communities. That would be accomplished by reducing the amount withheld by the state to 15 percent from the current 50 percent.
Beumer expressed surprise that a bill to allow Sunday alcohol sales did not make it out of committee, adding that he voted against another measure in part because of what seemed like a double standard. That proposal — House Bill 1247 — would allow the Indiana Department of Natural Resources to receive three-way alcohol permits for state parks regardless of local provisions.
“It seems kind of hypocritical to me that if we can’t get Sunday sales … and yet authorize a state unit of government to be able to put hard liquor in our state parks,” said Beumer of the measure, which passed the house 58-38.
Holdman is looking forward to continuing to work on his Senate Bill 313, which passed the Senate 35-14 and would make it illegal to perform an abortion for the sole reason of sex selection or disability of the fetus. It would also make it illegal to cell fetal tissue in Indiana.
Two of Beumer’s bills — 1046 and 1075 — have cleared the House and been referred to committees in the Senate.
The first, which passed 74-20, would eliminate the sales tax on gold and silver bullion. The second, which passed 72-23, exempts property owners outside of a municipality from being forced to connect to a municipal sewer system if that property has a sewage disposal system that is in working order.
Beumer also noted House Bill 1249, which passed the House 95-1 and would enhance penalties for those we get multiple speeding violations in construction zones within a one-year period. It’s an effort to make those areas safer as the state has averaged 14 highway construction worker fatalities over the last four years, he said.