Lawmakers convene for 2007 session

INDIANAPOLIS -- Gov. Mitch Daniels and lawmakers gathered Monday for the start of the 2007 session with plans to tackle some big issues, including property-tax relief and a new budget that provides schools with bigger funding increases than last time.\n"It could be grueling because those are some weighty issues," Rep. Dennie Oxley, D-Milltown, said Monday as lawmakers trickled in for a session scheduled to last until the end of April.\nDemocrats who regained control of the House in the November election planned to gavel in at 1 p.m., while the Republican-ruled Senate planned to officially begin its proceedings at 1:30 p.m.\n"I think it can be productive, I think it can be fruitful," said House Speaker Patrick Bauer, D-South Bend. "I think balanced government with both parties participating guarantees light shining on the process."\nDaniels was also optimistic.\n"I think we can do great things for Indiana and I think there is an interest on both sides of the aisle in doing that," said Daniels, a Republican who spent his first two sessions with a GOP-controlled General Assembly.\nMost sessions begin with pledges of bipartisan cooperation and pleas for harmony, but those rarely last in a House that has been narrowly divided for so many years. Democrats sparred often with Daniels the last two years when they were outnumbered 52-48, but now they wield the speaker's gavel with a 51-49 majority.\nThat gives them control over which bills are heard and makes them an equal negotiating partner with Senate Republicans and Daniels on all bills, including the only one that must be passed this year -- a two-year budget. The parties are sure to differ on funding priorities, including the way money is doled out to public schools.