Court rules 'special laws' unconstitutional

INDIANAPOLIS -- A recent Indiana Supreme Court ruling could make unconstitutional at least 526 state laws that benefit specific communities or counties.\n"It's one of the worst opinions I've ever seen," said House Speaker B. Patrick Bauer, D-South Bend. "If the Supreme Court justices wanted to be state representatives, then they should have run for office."\nThe Indiana Constitution has always prohibited special legislation, but lawmakers for years have skirted the law by using population parameters instead of the specific name of a jurisdiction. For instance, a law meant to affect only Allen County would be written to apply to counties with at least 300,000 in population but not more than 400,000.\nUntil last month, the Indiana Supreme Court sanctioned the approach, reasoning there was nothing stopping another county from growing in population to meet that level.\nBut in a decision handed down Jan. 15 -- South Bend v. Kimsey -- the justices overturned an annexation law allowing a majority of citizens in St. Joseph County to halt an annexation because that law was different from one established for the rest of the state.\nNow the court wants legislators to cite the reasons that a community is inherently unique and deserves a special law.\nSen. David Long, R-Fort Wayne, said he thinks the court failed to give lawmakers guidance about either correcting the existing laws or writing new ones.\n"The decision itself flew in the face of previous Supreme Court decisions," Long told The Journal Gazette of Fort Wayne for a story Sunday. "They gave us population parameters before as an appropriate guideline, and now we have to justify it as unique. They created a chaotic situation."\nLegislators already appear to be adjusting. Several pending bills have been amended or will be amended so they apply to the entire state.\nLegislators also are looking at a long-term fix to the problem. Long is sponsoring a joint resolution for a possible constitutional amendment that would allow for certain special legislation.\nThe process for it to become law, which includes a referendum vote of the public, means it would not take effect until 2007.\n"It's time to change the constitution," said House Minority Leader Brian Bosma, R-Indianapolis. "The prohibition on special legislation made sense 100 years ago, but today we routinely pass special legislation for cities because all our communities are different"