Ind. General Assembly opens 2014 session

It’s legislation season in Indianapolis.
 
The state General Assembly won’t be looking at a budget this year, but there are hot issues ahead nonetheless during this “short session,” which started Tuesday and continues through March 14. Among them are a constitutional amendment reinforcing the state’s ban on same-sex marriages and an expansion to the school voucher program.

Local elected representatives will be working to see the bills they think are most important enacted this session.

Here’s a look at what they’re focused on.

Rep. Peggy Mayfield, R

Work toward lower unemployment

“The No. 1 priority for, I think, everybody in this session regardless of party is jobs and the skills gap,” Mayfield said. “Jobs, regardless of the economy, is always going to be a top priority.”

She said she’s hoping to see legislation try to increase training for technical skills, but many businesses have told her they’re concerned about soft skills, like punctuality and professionalism as well.

Reform criminal sentencing

Mayfield will take on one of several bills as part of an ongoing effort to reform the state’s criminal sentencing requirements. This is a process that started several years ago, she said, and will continue to be tweaked during the session until being enacted July 1.

Most notably, the new sentencing rules have six categories of felonies, rather than four, which is intended to curb sentences that are “too harsh or not harsh enough,” she said.

“They broke it down even further to try and make the sentence more appropriately fit the crime.”

Allow electronic insurance notification

Believe it or not, in the year 2014, state law often specifies that insurance providers must issue notices via first-class or certified U.S. Mail.

Mayfield has introduced legislation to allow customers to opt into electronic
notification.

“I think we’ll see that more and more, the permissive electronic commerce,” she said.

Rep. Matt Pierce, D

Raise the minimum wage

Pierce said his main concern is that wages aren’t increasing fast enough for many Indiana workers.

“We have a really terrible record when it comes to wage growth,” he said. “We’re really behind the curve. We’ve lost a lot of those manufacturing jobs that not only paid high wages but had good benefits.”

His solution? Increase the minimum wage from $7.25, a decision many states have made in the past year to encourage higher wages.

Keep top science and technology students here

Another way Pierce said he hopes to build higher-paying industrial and manufacturing jobs is by encouraging the state’s top 1,000 graduates in STEM fields to stay in Indiana. STEM fields are the sciences, technology, engineering and mathematics.

He plans to support legislation that would waive the first five years of income taxes for these 1,000 top university graduates.

Increase renewable energy use

Pierce is writing his own bill to encourage building more wind and solar power infrastructure in Indiana.

“Once you get the infrastructure in place, they last for a long time and the cost of that energy doesn’t increase because the wind doesn’t arrive one day and say, ‘I’m going to charge you more to come through here,’” Pierce said.

His bill would require utility companies to purchase energy from individuals who install solar panels and wind turbines.

The goal is to allow people to profit from renewable energy they generate and pump more of that energy into the power grid.

Sen. Mark Stoops, D

Expand the Lifeline Law

Stoops is writing legislation to expand the protections of the Lifeline Law, which currently provides amnesty from underage drinking charges for those who call for medical help when people around them have consumed too much alcohol.

He said he hopes an expanded law would also protect those under the influence of illegal drugs.

“We shouldn’t have people die because other people are afraid they’ll get in trouble,” Stoops said.

Make Medicaid more available

Indiana is one of the handful of states that have chosen not to expand Medicaid using funds made available by the federal Affordable Care Act.

Rather than expand Medicaid, Republican Gov. Mike Pence has promoted the Healthy Indiana Plan, which he says incentivizes preventative care, but Stoops said hasn’t helped many low-income Hoosiers.

“We’re looking at about 300,000 people in Indiana who are not eligible to purchase subsidized coverage on the exchange and are also not low-income enough to be eligible for Medicaid,” Stoops said.

Encourage recycling statewide

Stoops is working on bills he hopes will require recyclables not be put in landfills and make it cheaper for individuals to recycle than to throw away trash.

“In Monroe County, you pay for trash and recycling is free, and that encourages diverting recyclable materials from the landfill,” he said.

He said he hopes to achieve the same effect statewide.

Follow reporter Michael Auslen on Twitter @MichaelAuslen.