CFOs, abortion generate feedback

Road funding continues to be the hot issue statewide. But Jay County’s representative in the Indiana House has heard more frequent and passionate comments on two other topics.

Visiting Portland during the Indiana General Assembly’s mid-session break, Rep. Greg Beumer (R-Modoc) discussed bills regarding confined feeding and abortion as well as other major issues that have been on the state legislature’s agenda this year.

While he said road funding has prompted the most overall feedback on the legislative level, Beumer personally has heard more comments on House Bill 1494 dealing with confined feeding operations.

One key component of the bill that has prompted response is a change to who can be listed as the owner of a facility. The concern being raised is that it would allow absentee ownership, meaning the “owner” of the facility might not be directly involved with its operation.

“Many of the folks, I think, who want to have some pretty strict control over CFOs and CAFOs, they don’t want to give anything on that,” said Beumer, who represents all of Jay and Randolph counties and part of Delaware County.

Also, currently those requesting Indiana Department of Environmental Management permits for confined feeding operations must list all major infractions. House Bill 1494 would limit that listing to just the last five years, which opponents fear could allow a “bad actor” to resume operations in the state after a five-year layoff.

Beumer voted in favor of the bill in order to allow it to move forward, he said, expecting that changes will be made in the Senate before it comes to a final vote.

While he received the most feedback on the confined feeding bill, Beumer said he heard the most passionate comments on House Bill 1128 dealing with abortion. It would require women seeking a chemical abortion to “be informed orally and in writing before an abortion obtained through an abortion inducing drug that the abortion may be possibly reversed.”

Beumer was one of 17 Republicans to join Democrats in voting against the bill — it passed the House 53-41 — saying although he is pro-life he had concerns about the lack of medical evidence that a chemical abortion can be reversed.

He noted that testimony consistently referred to the theory as “junk medicine” and said he followed the lead of the general assembly’s only doctor — Republican Tim Brown of Crawfordsville.

“I specifically paid attention to see how he voted on that issue,” he said.

Road funding remains the hot issue statewide in this year’s session. Estimates say Indiana Department of Transportation needs about an additional $1.2 billion annually in order to be able to maintain the state’s more than 19,000 bridges and 98,000 miles of roads.

Based on feedback from across the state, House Bill 1002 has already been modified to move all sales tax money that does not currently go toward road funding to do so immediately rather than being phased in over four years and to limit increasing the gas tax to no more than one cent each year following this year’s proposed 10-cent per gallon bump.

“The legislature listened,” said Beumer. “That feedback was very positive, and I think it did make it a better bill that’s on its way to the Senate.”

The bill also establishes a per-vehicle registration fee of $15 (or $150 for electric vehicles).

Beumer’s biggest disappointment of the first half of the session said that his bill seeking to eliminate a requirement that city court judges be attorneys did not receive a hearing. A similar bill authored by Sen. Travis Holdman (R-Markle), who represents Jay County, met the same fate.

The change, which would reverse a requirement that was put in place two years ago, is opposed by the Indiana Judges Association. In the long run, the requirement would lead to the elimination of city courts in municipalities in which no attorney runs for the position, likely leading to a greater caseload, and a possible need for additional judges, at the county level.

While the city court judges issue was a disappointment, Beumer pointed to House Bill 1617 as the “feel good” bill of the first half of the 2017 session addressing police and firefighter disability funds.

“We do a very good job in our state of taking care of the families of those fallen members who die in action,” said Beumer. “But officers and firefighters who suffer near-fatal wounds and recover but are never able to function in their original capacity, those folks sort of got left behind.”

House Bill 1617 would establish that a police officer or firefighter injured in the line of duty who subsequently cannot work will receive a pension equal to their salary at the time of the injury. The bill authored by Rep. Mike Speedy (R-Indianapolis) passed the House on a 91-0 vote Monday and will now be considered by the Senate.