April 21, 2009

Purdue continues to monitor bills in Indiana General Assembly

The Indiana General Assembly has finished the second phase of the 2009 session, and now the focus turns to conference committee activity.

"Much like a marathon can be divided into the first 20 miles and the last 6.2, the toughest part of the session is just beginning," says Kevin Green, Purdue's director of state relations.

Although the list of active bills has been pared down from the 1,300-plus introduced in January to the 219 that are now left, any language that was included in a bill that passed one of the houses is still alive.

"Now is when we must be ever vigilant to watch every bill in conference committee to see if something we thought was dead comes back to life," Green says. "This is also the time when we can resurrect concepts we support that for one reason or another didn't survive that second round. You have to play offense and defense at the same time, often on the same piece of legislation. Listening to chatter in the Statehouse hallways is critical; you never know when you might pick up on something important. We're always checking with others to find out what they're hearing, too."

Green says pieces of dead bills now begin moving from one possible home to another.

Green offers as an example Senate Bill 232, public access issues, authored by Sen. Beverly Gard, R-Greenfield. SB232 moved through the Senate with a few changes in committee, but did not get a hearing in the House.

Efforts to attach it to HB1280, authored by Rep. Peggy Welch, D-Bloomington, on second reading were unsuccessful. A potential home for the language in conference committee is HB1514, authored by Rep. Phil Giaquinta, D-Fort Wayne.

"You have to make sure that the version being shopped around is still the one you're comfortable with," Green says. "So far, with the SB232 language, the provision we supported to help protect the identity of minors participating in any university programs or activities is still included."

Purdue also has tracked two bills dealing with the jurisdiction of university police officers -- HB1023, authored by Rep. David Niezgodski, D-South Bend, and SB54, authored by Sen. Tim Lanane, D-Anderson. Both bills passed their original houses, but neither survived the second round.

Similar language is now included in HB1132, authored by Rep. Linda Lawson, D-Hammond, although it is not as broad as in the original bills.

Of most importance to the University is the state's budget bill. Now that the revenue forecast update has been made, legislators can begin putting together the pieces of the final version.

The forecast update wasn't good news, reducing the expected state revenue for the two years of the biennium an additional $690 million, Green says. The fiscal leaders now have the challenge to make the expenditures fit within the expected revenue.

"Both the House and Senate budgets treated higher education very well, and for that we're thankful," Green says. "The Indiana Innovation Alliance is important to position the state to take advantage of the life sciences and biosciences opportunities once the economy starts to recover. However, if they're faced with reduced spending, K-12 and higher education are about the only areas left to reduce. The federal stimulus funding can't solve the entire problem, and two years from now, where does the state money come from to replace the one-time stimulus funding?

"We know they'll do the best they can with the resources they have available. The House, the Senate, and the administration all want to protect higher education, so we're in the most favorable position we can be in for the next two weeks."