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(03/14/03 4:39am)
INDIANAPOLIS -- SBC Communications pledged Thursday to expand high-speed Internet service to 57 more communities in Indiana -- if a bill it has been pushing in the General Assembly passes.\nThe San Antonio-based telecom giant said it would provide the technology, considered crucial for economic development in small communities across the state, within one year of the bill's passage.\n"We will more than double the number of current communities served. We're pretty excited about it," SBC Indiana President George Fleetwood said during a Statehouse news conference.\nThe bill has passed the House and is now pending in the Senate, where it has been assigned to the Utility and Regulatory Affairs Committee.\nIt would require the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission to consider an SBC-supported method for setting rates that former monopolies such as SBC and Verizon charge competitors for leasing their local phone-access lines.\nIt also would remove broadbrand services such as high-speed Internet from the jurisdiction of the commission.\nSBC has said the bill would level the playing field for local service and protect company jobs, in part by allowing it to charge more reasonable prices for leasing its lines. Opponents, including AT&T and WorldCom, say it will stifle competition in the local service and high-speed Internet markets.\nSome lawmakers balked at SBC's pledge, saying it was simply a tactic to win votes.\n"They should have been doing this already," said Rep. Dave Crooks, D-Washington. "The bill should simply die"
(03/13/03 3:44am)
INDIANAPOLIS -- Promising to make openness, accessibility and consensus-building the hallmarks of her administration, Democratic state Sen. Vi Simpson formally announced her candidacy for governor Wednesday.\n"Hoosiers want a governor who knows how to get things done," Simpson told more than 150 cheering supporters at the Statehouse. "And you know what? They want the best man for the job -- even if that happens to be a woman."\nSimpson, of Ellettsville, and former national and state Democratic chairman Joe Andrew are both seeking the Democratic nomination in 2004. Democratic Gov. Frank O'Bannon is barred from seeking a third consecutive term.\nSimpson has served more than 18 years in the state Senate and has carved out a reputation for expertise in such areas as health care, the environment and tax and budget matters.\nSimpson was chairwoman of the State Budget Committee last year and helped win passage of the sweeping tax-restructuring package in the General Assembly last June.\nShe said in January she was strongly considering a run for governor and kicked off her formal announcement Wednesday near her Ellettsville home, just northwest of Bloomington.\nMore than 20 Democratic legislators attended her noon rally at the Statehouse, as did former U.S. Rep. Andy Jacobs Jr. and former state Democratic chairwoman Anne Delaney. They and others greeted her arrival with cheers and chants of "Vi, Vi, Vi."\nIf successful, Simpson would become the first woman elected governor in Indiana. But she said she was not running to make history.\n"We need to transform and rebuild our economy," she said. "We need to invest in highways and bridges and the information super-highway. And we need to make job creation our first, second and third priorities."\nIndiana has lost about 110,000 jobs to the recession over the past two years.\nShe promised in the coming months to develop a specific plan for leading the state and said it would specify how much it would cost and how it would be paid for.\nSeveral Republicans already have announced plans to run. They include former U.S. Rep. David McIntosh, the party's nominee in 2000; state senators Luke Kenley of Noblesville and Murray Clark of Indianapolis; conservative activist Eric Miller; and Petersburg Mayor Randy Harris.\nMany state Republicans are urging White House Budget Director Mitch Daniels, a former Eli Lilly and Co. executive, to enter the race, but he has not announced his intentions.
(03/10/03 4:51am)
INDIANAPOLIS -- When the Indiana House broke for the midway point of the 2003 legislative session, House Speaker Patrick Bauer thanked members for a smooth, cooperative, mostly bipartisan first half.\nIt was no exaggeration.\nIn the Democrat-led House and Republican-controlled Senate, partisan tensions were kept in check and all sides went home for a five-day respite feeling positive. Gov. Frank O'Bannon was in a good mood, too.\nThe House had passed a two-year budget and a retooled version of his Energize Indiana economic development plan and sent them to the Senate on time.\n"I think as long as Energize Indiana and the budget keep moving, they're doing a great job," O'Bannon said with a wide smile. "I think on other bills of substance, they have been very responsible."\nAt the prompting of a reporter's question, O'Bannon added, "That would include many gambling bills dying."\nGambling issues are usually not partisan, but they are almost always contentious. They were proving so again and grabbing headlines when Bauer suddenly sent the most controversial bill -- one that would authorize slot-like machines at horse racing venues -- to an early grave.\nBauer said he was taken by surprise when he learned that a major contributor to his campaign last year was trying to buy an equity interest in a company that owns part of the Hoosier Park pari-mutuel track in Anderson.\nHe said the sale created an air of impropriety because there was pending legislation that would make Hoosier Park much more valuable, so he killed the bill. Another bill to legalize video gambling machines in bars was killed the same day.\nThe House overwhelmingly approved a bill to establish a casino in Orange County, but unlike last year, it was not tied to other pro-gambling measures.\nRegardless, it likely faces a tough road in the Senate, since Senate President Pro Tem Robert Garton, R-Columbus, and Senate Finance Chairman Larry Borst, R-Greenwood, are opposed to it.\nThe House passed a two-year, $22.8 billion state spending plan on a straight 51-49 party-line vote, but such partisan tallies on budget bills are common.\nThe Democrat plan would transfer more than $800 million from teacher pension savings, tobacco-settlement funds and other accounts to help pay for itself. Spending on Medicaid and prisons would be frozen at current levels -- something Senate Republicans say is unrealistic.\nDemocrats said such steps were necessary to preserve a surplus at the end of two years and provide enough money for public schools. The bill would increase basic funding for schools by an average of 2 percent and give slight increases to public universities.\nBorst credited the plan for not raising state taxes, not delaying the unfolding property tax reassessment or dismantling the tax-restructuring package passed last year.\nBut he and other Republicans who control the Senate are sure to make some major changes to the bill, which they say is $800 million out of balance. They also fault the plan for shifting tens of millions of dollars in state expenses to local property tax rolls.\n"We need to solve the problems embedded in state spending instead of simply pushing the burden onto local governments," Borst said.\nSenate Republicans hope to pass their version of a budget by early April. That would give House and Senate negotiators about three weeks to strike a compromise, since the regular session adjournment deadline is April 29.\nMost Democrats and Republicans in the House claimed a victory on March 4 by passing a scaled-back version of O'Bannon's economic development plan. Democrats accepted some GOP additions to the plan to keep it alive, then members passed it by an overwhelming 90-9 vote.\nThe cornerstone of the plan would borrow against future tobacco-settlement payments to fund research-and-development ventures and move products to market. It also includes money for rural development and so-called technology parks -- high-tech versions of industrial parks.\nThe GOP additions included tax breaks to manufacturers that use old equipment, an extension of tax credits for money businesses spend on research and development, and tax credits for some college students who remain in Indiana after graduation.\nDemocrats also agreed to formation of a commission that would do an in-depth study of state government to find waste and duplication among agencies, and a new advisory panel on state economic-development efforts.\nHouse Minority Leader Brian Bosma, R-Indianapolis, called the compromise a major feat.\n"If someone had stated six months ago that a minority caucus could establish an economic development and fiscal restraint plan and have a significant portion of it pass on a bipartisan vote, I think all parties would have said, 'You need to get your head on straight,'" Bosma said.
(03/06/03 5:22am)
INDIANAPOLIS -- When the House passed a retooled version of Gov. Frank O'Bannon's economic development plan, the governor and his legislative staff could only celebrate so much.\n"They are already working in the Senate," O'Bannon said of his administrative lobbyists.\nThe package could face a darker future there. Republicans control the chamber 32-18, and many are opposed to the bill's primary plank -- borrowing against any portion of future tobacco settlement payments to fund economic development initiatives.\nSenate President Pro Tem Robert Garton has likened the idea to taking out a high-interest payday loan.\nPassing the bill in the House was no easy task, but Democrats and Republicans in that chamber close a weeks long divide in just hours Tuesday.\nDemocrats who control the House 51-49 accepted some GOP additions to the plan to keep it alive. Then, after congratulating each other for coming together, members passed it by an overwhelming 90-9 vote.\n"Ninety to nine is just a great vote for the people of the state of Indiana," O'Bannon told reporters.\nThe cornerstone of the plan would borrow against future tobacco-settlement payments to fund research-and-development ventures and move products to market. It also includes money for rural development and so-called technology parks -- high-tech versions of industrial parks.\nThe House faced a midnight Tuesday deadline for advancing the bill to the Senate, but its passage heading into the day was in question.\nThe parties had spent weeks arguing about the plan, and it was clear Monday that Democrats did not have the 51 votes to pass the bill by themselves. That is because Rep. Craig Fry, D-Mishawaka, said it was laden with pro-business provisions he could not support.\nFailing to pass the plan would have dealt a blow to O'Bannon. He has spent months promoting his Energize Indiana proposal as a vital step toward economic recovery, creating jobs and diversifying the state's economy.\nWith just hours to spare Tuesday, Democrats agreed to include some proposals that House Republicans had been seeking for weeks.\nThe compromise included the addition of tax breaks to manufacturers that use old equipment, an extension of tax credits for money businesses spend on research and development, and tax credits for some college students who remain in Indiana after graduation.\nDemocrats also agreed to formation of a commission that would do an in-depth study of state government to find waste and duplication among agencies, and a new advisory panel on state economic-development efforts. Only hours earlier Monday, Democrats had rejected those ideas.\nHouse Speaker Patrick Bauer, D-South Bend, said a deal was needed to keep a good bill alive.\n"The art of legislation is compromise, and in this state that art is raised to the highest level because we are a divided government," he said, urging members to vote for the plan.\nHe suggested later that Republicans "had a meeting of the minds" and decided to support the overall plan because they did not want to be tagged as obstructionists who killed the bill.\nHouse Minority Leader Brian Bosma, R-Indianapolis, offered his own suggestion for why Democrats waited until Tuesday to include some GOP planks.\n"My assessment of it is they wanted to get right up to the eleventh hour to see if there were enough (Democrat) votes for the Energize program to pass on its own," Bosma said.\n"When it became extraordinarily clear today that was not going to happen, there was no alternative but to compromise on some of our economic plan."\nRegardless, Bauer said the House had sent a strong message to the Senate.\n"It's now not only the governor's program, but an overwhelming bipartisan program sent over from the House," Bauer said. "So certainly, men and women and reason will have to calculate that into what they want to do"
(03/05/03 4:19am)
INDIANAPOLIS -- Party leaders in the House struck a tentative deal Tuesday that could steer parts of Gov. Frank O'Bannon's economic-development package to passage and send them to the Republican-controlled Senate.\nHouse Minority Leader Brian Bosma, R-Indianapolis, said Democratic leaders agreed to amend some GOP proposals into the bill in hopes of keeping it alive. Lawmakers faced a midnight deadline for passing bills from their House of origin.\nBosma said Democrats agreed to include tax breaks to manufacturers that use old equipment, an extension of tax credits for money spent on research and development and tax credits for businesses that provide internships.\nThey also agreed to formation of a commission that would do an in-depth study of state government to find waste and duplication among agencies, Bosma said.\nThe plan was to vote on the amendments later Tuesday and then pass the overall plan.\nDemocrats, who control the chamber 51-49, rejected GOP amendments to the plan Monday, putting their Democratic governor in an awkward position.\nThat is because Democrats did not have the 51 votes to pass the bill by themselves, since at least one Democrat -- Rep. Craig Fry of Mishawaka -- said he would not vote for it. Even though Democrats scaled back parts of the plan, Fry said it was still laden with pro-business provisions he could not support.\nDemocrats already had scaled back parts of O'Bannon's plan, but it would still borrow against some future payments of Indiana's tobacco settlement payments to fund research and development grants and other initiatives.\nFailure to pass the plan would emphasize O'Bannon's status as a lame-duck governor. He is in the third year of a second term, cannot seek a third in 2004, and the economic-development plan is his top legislative priority.
(03/04/03 5:06am)
INDIANAPOLIS -- House Democrats rejected Republican changes to a version of Democratic Gov. Frank O'Bannon's economic-development plan Monday, even though some GOP votes might be needed to advance the plan to the Senate.\nHouse Republicans, who are outnumbered 51-49, offered to provide votes for the package Tuesday if Democrats accepted some of their amendments. Tuesday is the deadline for passing bills out of their house of origin, and O'Bannon's plan seemed to be in danger.\nO'Bannon met privately with House Democrats on Monday to plug the package, but it was still unclear whether Democrats alone could muster all 51 votes needed for House passage. O'Bannon acknowledged Friday that he did not know whether he had the votes needed to keep the plan alive.\nAmong other things, the GOP amendments would have provided tax breaks designed to create jobs, and restored funding for research and development efforts to levels O'Bannon proposed before House Democrats scaled it back. House Democrats cut that funding from $360 million over 10 years to $250 million.\n"Give us a handprint on this bill and we can support it," Rep. Jeff Espich, R-Uniondale, told Democrats during floor debate on the amendments.\nBut Democrats rejected them on party-line votes, saying that many had price tags the state could not afford during the lingering budget crunch. Although some of the tax breaks might be good for economic development, they also would cost needed state tax revenue, Democrats said.\n"I think we have to be careful at how fast we move," said Rep. Earl Harris, D-East Chicago.
(02/28/03 4:12am)
INDIANAPOLIS -- The Indiana House overwhelmingly approved a bill Thursday that would allow a casino in Orange County.\nThe bill passed on a 84-13 vote and now goes to the Senate for consideration. It faces a difficult future, though, as some Senate leaders are opposed to any expansion of legalized gambling.\nThe proposal would transfer a dormant riverboat casino license to a new historic-preservation district that would cover West Baden Springs and French Lick in southern Indiana.\nThe bill's sponsor, Democratic Rep. Jerry Denbo of French Lick, said the casino was needed to keep the economically depressed area from becoming a ghost town.\nDenbo and several lawmakers credited the bill's strong support to the dozens of Orange County residents who have come to the Statehouse for several sessions plugging the proposal.\nThe Democrat-controlled House backed a bill authorizing the casino last year, but it was rejected by the Republican-controlled Senate.\nSupporters have argued the bill meets the original intentions of legislators when they passed the 1993 law that legalized Indiana's 10 riverboat casinos -- five each of Lake Michigan and the Ohio River.\nBut an 11th license for Patoka Lake remains dormant because the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which oversees the lake just south of French Lick, has refused to allow the casino.\nPlans are for the riverboat to operate on a yet-to-be constructed waterway between two historic hotels.
(02/26/03 4:29am)
INDIANAPOLIS -- House Democrats proposed more changes to Gov. Frank O'Bannon's economic development plan on Tuesday, including reductions in potential funding for his research and scholarship initiatives.\n"It might not go as far as the governor would like to go, but it's at least a step forward," said House Ways and Means Chairman William Crawford, D-Indianapolis.\nThe committee was expected to vote on the revamped plan later Tuesday and send it to the full House for consideration. Democrats control the chamber 51-49, while Republicans control the Senate 32-18.\nUnder the changes Crawford's committee proposed, the state would sell off 35 percent of its future national tobacco settlement payments in bonds for a lesser lump sum up front. O'Bannon had sought more than $600 million by selling off 40 percent of future payments.\nO'Bannon, a Democrat, wanted to spend $360 million of that money over the next decade on research and development deals between private companies and universities and bringing resulting products to market. He considers it a cornerstone of his plan to create jobs and diversify the economy.\nBut the Democrat Ways and Means plan would only direct $250 million to such efforts, with $141 million raised through tobacco bonds going to the state's main checking account for unspecified purposes.\nThe revamped plan would fund O'Bannon proposals to aid rural development and create or expand so-called technology parks, which are essentially high-tech versions of industrial parks.\nBut it would gut O'Bannon's proposal to spend $135 million over four years to provide scholarships for as many as 22,000 students who pursue studies in four areas deemed vital to Indiana's economic growth -- advanced manufacturing, life sciences, information technology and high-tech distribution.\nUnder O'Bannon's plan, students could receive up to $4,000 a year but would have to pay some of that money back if they did not remain in Indiana after graduation. Students also would have to work at internships, and businesses would receive tax credits for providing them.\nThe Ways and Means plan would only fund the tax credits for internships, costing about $21.5 million over four years.
(02/25/03 4:38am)
INDIANAPOLIS -- If you're an unemployed gambling lobbyist from another state, you might look to Indiana to put new roots down.\nRecent history is on your side here, and if you want action, you can find it at the Indiana Statehouse these days.\n"If you step back, you almost have to smile at what has happened in conservative Indiana," said Senate President Pro Tem Robert Garton, R-Columbus. "Gambling is now the growth industry."\nHe's kidding about the smiling. Garton is no fan of how far legalized gambling has come in Indiana.\nAccording to a count by Rep. Eric Turner, R-Marion, there were 108 lobbyists for gambling interests in Indiana last year -- eight more than the 100 members of the Indiana House of Representatives.\nAccording to an Associated Press analysis of new figures from the Indiana Lobby Registration Commission, gambling interests spent more than $2.4 million lobbying the General Assembly last year. That's more than one-tenth of the total recorded tab.\nSince 1988, when Hoosiers changed the Indiana Constitution to legalize gambling and a lottery, there has been no turning back.\nCharity gaming such as bingo was legalized shortly thereafter, as was pari-mutuel horse racing. Then came riverboat gambling in 1993. Then came dockside gambling last year, and now this year, more proposals have life.\nThat is especially so in the Indiana House.\nVirtually everything is still on the table there, from an Orange County casino to charity gaming changes to slot-like machines at horse tracks and off-track betting parlors to legalizing video poker machines in bars.\nDemocratic leaders who control the chamber and its agenda put another proposal on the table themselves. They wrote a provision into their two-year state budget plan that orders the Hoosier Lottery to offer the fast-paced gambling game keno. It would be available in hundreds of bars.\nThey killed it themselves, two days later, because all the fuss it stirred was overshadowing their overall budget plan.\nTheir own party's leader, Democratic Gov. Frank O'Bannon, didn't like it. Neither did many House Republicans, and some House Democrats, who considered it an expansion of gambling.\nBut some other pro-gambling legislation is still alive in the House.\nThe bill to establish a casino in Orange County is before the full House, and is expected to pass. Authorizing slot-like machines at horse racing venues seems likely to reach the floor. Legalizing and regulating video machines in bars is still a question mark.\nThose bills all started in the House Public Policy Committee chaired by Rep. Markt Lytle, D-Madison. He makes no apologies for giving them hearings.\n"It's not a question of whether we have gambling or not, it's a question of whether we continue to allow illegal gambling going on or regulate gambling," Lytle said.\n"I felt like if we discussed the total concept of all gaming, it would allow some of the members to be more educated and have better knowledge before they vote on some of the issues that have been before the House for several years."\nHouse Speaker B. Patrick Bauer, D-South Bend, also said that gambling deserves to be debated. Whether this proposal or that passes is up to the General Assembly, whose 150 members are duly elected by 6 million Hoosiers.\n"The judgment call on that is 51 votes in the House and 26 senators," Bauer said.\nNot dealing with it or not debating it does not mean the issues will go away. The "illegal" gambling machines in bars throughout Indiana will continue to exist, Lytle noted, with no take for the state.\n"I don't think we can continue to act like ostriches and put our head in the sand," Lytle said.\nStill, any pro-gambling bill that clears the House is sure to land in hostile territory in the Indiana Senate.\nGarton has strongly suggested that the pull-tab bill, if it passes the House, will see little daylight in the Senate. The video poker bill might meet the same darkness.\nThey might be alive at the end of the session regardless, but by all indications and their words, Garton and Senate Finance Chairman Larry Borst, R-Greenwood, have not softened in their disdain for the gambling movement and their lobbyists.\n"The camel is not only under the tent, the camel is the tent," Garton said. "It has taken over"
(02/21/03 6:29am)
INDIANAPOLIS -- The Democrat-controlled Indiana House approved a two-year, $22.9 billion state budget plan Thursday and sent it to the Republican-dominated Senate, where it is sure to undergo some changes.\nBut unlike some budget-writing years in the past, longtime Senate Finance Chairman Larry Borst, R-Greenwood, praised the House Democrat plan for setting some parameters that Republicans generally agree on.\nHe said the bill spends more than the state expects to take in over the next two years. But he credited the plan for not raising state taxes, not delaying the unfolding property tax reassessment nor dismantling the tax-restructuring package passed last year.\nThe plan, which passed on a straight 51-49 party-line vote, would transfer more than $800 million from teacher pension savings, tobacco-settlement funds and other accounts to help pay for itself. Spending on Medicaid and prisons would be frozen at current levels -- something some lawmakers say is unrealistic.\nDemocrats say such steps were necessary to preserve a surplus at the end of two years and provide enough money for public schools. The bill would increase basic funding for schools by an average of 2 percent, and give slight increases to public universities.\nHouse Speaker B. Patrick Bauer, D-South Bend, said the only other realistic option to adequately fund schools and other vital government services during the state's lingering budget crunch was to raise taxes.\nAnd that, he suggested, was not a politically viable solution since lawmakers raised taxes last June, in part to plug the state's budget deficit.\n"We have been there and done that," Bauer said after the vote. "I think the House Democrat caucus has presented the Senate with a budget that will get Indiana through the worst recession since the Great Depression."\nSaid Democratic Rep. William Crawford of Indianapolis, chairman of the budget-writing House Ways and Means Committee: "Right now, right here, this is the best deal you can get."\nLike Borst, House Republicans also praised the plan for not delaying reassessment. Bauer had suggested for weeks that it be delayed for one year, and $800 million in new revenue from the recent sales tax increase be used to plug the deficit instead of funding property tax cuts to offset reassessment.\nBut House Republicans said the plan does nothing to create jobs -- which they say is the state's most pressing need -- and does not cut government spending even though Indiana has an $850 million budget deficit.\n"Hoosiers have learned to cut their lifestyles to live within their incomes," said Rep. Jeff Espich, R-Uniondale. \nAnd they again criticized the plan for using $280 million that was freed up from the recent discovery of a 17-year-old mistake in the way homestead credits have been calculated.\nOfficials learned last month that the credit was being applied too generously. The governor ordered the mistake corrected, even though it will mean less property tax relief than lawmakers promised to homeowners last year in exchange for paying higher sales taxes.\nDemocrats would use the $280 million in freed-up money for the budget, but Republicans say that money should go for property tax relief as it has in the past.\n"You are picking the pockets of homeowners," Espich said.\nBorst said the Democrat bill would spend between $800 million to $1.2 billion more than the state expects to take in over the next two years. The state would still have a surplus at the end of the biennium, but only because of the one-time account transfers.\nBorst said Senate Republicans would have to decide several things over the next few weeks, including:\n-- Whether to pass a budget that spends more than the state expects to take in.\n-- Whether to increase appropriations for Medicaid and prisons, as the governor has requested.\n-- Whether to transfer money from teacher pension savings.\n-- Whether homestead credits should be applied as they have in the past.\nBorst said the Senate could pass its version of the budget by the first week in April. That would give the House and Senate at least three weeks to reconcile differences, since the deadline for adjourning the special session is not until April 29.
(02/12/03 4:51am)
INDIANAPOLIS -- A state Senate committee endorsed a bill Tuesday that would strengthen Indiana's open-container law and negate millions of dollars in federal penalties.\nMeanwhile, about 300 teenagers from across Indiana roamed the Statehouse and urged legislators to crack down more on drugs, alcohol and drunken driving.\nIan Nixon, a 17-year-old senior at Southmont High School near Crawfordsville, Ind., said the students were being heard, even among the older, professional lobbyists.\n"I think it's really refreshing for (lawmakers) to see this many youth that really do care about issues going on in their communities," Nixon said. "They talk to adults every day, but not every day do they see 300 kids in the Rotunda."\nIn a room about 50 feet away, the Senate Transportation and Homeland Security Committee voted 7-1 to approve a bill that would bring Indiana's open-container law into compliance with federal guidelines. The bill now moves to the Senate for consideration.\nUnder the state law enacted in 1994, a person drinking in a vehicle alone can be charged with an infraction and fined up to $1,000. Stiffer penalties exist for drivers who are impaired or intoxicated.\nBut if there are others in the car with open containers of alcohol, the drivers face open-container fines only if they have a blood-alcohol content of .04 percent or higher.\nSen. Thomas Wyss, R-Fort Wayne, said the law was practically unenforceable because police officers would rarely take steps needed to prove a driver's blood-alcohol content just to issue an open-container ticket.\nThe bill would remove the blood-alcohol provision and subject drivers to fines up to $1,000 if there are any open containers of alcohol in the passenger sections of vehicles.\nBecause current state law does not match federal guidelines, Indiana has been forced to transfer $27 million in federal highway money over the past three years to alcohol-enforcement activities or to specific, hazard elimination activities.\nThrough the bureaucratic process of the transfers, the state lost $1.6 million in federal highway money over the past two federal fiscal years and could lose as much as $3.5 million this year, according to the Legislative Services Agency.\nRepublican Sen. Robert Meeks of LaGrange, Ind., a former state trooper, voted for the bill but likened the federal penalties to blackmailing the state.\n"Sometimes I think we ought to say what is good for Indiana without the federal government standing on top of us with a hammer," Meeks said. "It's our money."\nThe teenagers visited the Statehouse as part of an annual youth summit sponsored by the Youth Division of the Indiana Criminal Justice Institute. Their motto was "26 years of the population, 100 percent of the future."\nThey had their own recommendations for new laws, including tax increases on alcohol, drug testing for students and staff in schools, and requiring ignition interlock devices to be installed in the cars of people with multiple drunken-driving convictions.
(01/30/03 5:25am)
INDIANAPOLIS -- An Indiana House committee on Wednesday endorsed legislation pushed by SBC Communications, despite warnings by the state's top utility regulator that it would stifle local phone competition and erode his agency's authority.\n"You will turn your back on competition. You will see companies dry up and go away," William McCarty, chairman of the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission, told the House Commerce and Economic Development Committee.\nOther companies said SBC was trying to free itself of state regulation so it could crush competition early and retain a monopoly on local service.\nSBC said the bill would level the playing field for local service and protect company jobs, in part by allowing it to charge higher prices for leasing its network lines to competitors. The Texas-based telecom giant employs about 6,000 in Indiana.\n"We are for competition but we are not for subsidizing our competition," said SBC Indiana President George Fleetwood.\nThe committee endorsed the bill on an 11-3 vote and sent it to the full House, which Democrats control 51-49. The bill's sponsor, Rep. Ed Mahern, D-Indianapolis, promised ample time to consider proposed changes on the House floor.\nThe bill would dictate a new method for setting the wholesale rates that former monopoly providers such as SBC, Verizon and Sprint charge competitors for leasing their access lines. Lobbyists for Verizon and Sprint did not testify on the bill Wednesday.\nThe bill also would eliminate the IURC's ability to regulate the deployment of broadband services such as high-speed Internet and restrict its ability to regulate activities that companies use to attract back customers who have switched service.\nSBC has complained that under existing IURC orders, it has to rent out its local access lines to competitors at discounted prices, which it claims are 40 percent below costs. The rate is $12.19 per line now, and SBC said the actual cost of maintaining each line is close to $22.\nFleetwood said the rate is the lowest in the nation, and since it was set by the IURC last March, the company has lost about 10,000 customers per month.\n"It is driving jobs and investments out of Indiana," Fleetwood told lawmakers.\nSBC has eliminated nearly 20,000 positions, or 10 percent of its work force, since late 2001. It laid off about 270 employees in Indiana last year, and cited regulations in the state as part of the reason.\nMahern said current regulations favor out-of-state providers that employ few people in Indiana, and have forced incumbent providers such as SBC to scale-back deployment of broadband DSL technology that many communities are still clamoring to have.\nThe bill also is being backed by the Communications Workers of America, a union that represents about 4,000 SBC workers in Indiana, as well as the AFL-CIO. Many labor unions historically have been big financial supporters of Democrats.\nSeveral companies testified against the bill, saying it would result in higher phone prices by ending the small but growing competition for telephone customers. The IURC expects the current prices will spur competition.\nMcCarty said the IURC was not biased against any company, and had spent months poring over data and testimony before it set the current wholesale prices. To make his point, he brought in stacks and stacks of documents and records the commission considered.\nHe also said the bill would erode IURC authority and effectively sign some of its oversight powers to the Federal Communications Commission.\n"Are you willing to concede states' rights to the federal government, because that's what you're doing," he said. "I've never known an Indiana Legislature willing to do that"
(01/22/03 4:39am)
INDIANAPOLIS -- Democratic Gov. Frank O'Bannon's top legislative initiative will get its first formal consideration in the Indiana House this week, with no guarantees that it will survive unscathed.\nDemocrats who control the chamber divided the $1.25 billion Energize Indiana plan into 15 bills and sent them to seven committees for initial hearings and possible changes.\nSix bills went straight to the budget-writing House Ways and Means Committee, and others that survive are expected to end up there before getting any chance for consideration by the full House.\nThe plan would free up about $692 million by borrowing against a portion of the state's national tobacco settlement, tap another $195 million from a tobacco trust fund, and invest those and other dollars in business research, job training, college scholarships and schools.\nThe efforts would be targeted to creating high-skill, high-wage jobs in four industry sectors -- advanced manufacturing, life sciences, information technology and distribution.\nAlthough some spending would occur over 10 years, the plan envisions using $200 million over the next two years to supplement funding for schools.\nThe centerpiece of the proposal would sell off 40 percent of Indiana's future tobacco-settlement payments for a lesser, $692 million lump sum up front. Bondholders would assume the risk of future payments coming in, but would reap big dividends if they did.\nThe plan is scheduled for a hearing Wednesday before the House Public Health Committee, whose chairman, Democratic Rep. Charlie Brown of Gary, has had little positive to say about it. He says all tobacco-settlement money should be spent on health care efforts and programs.\nBrown said Monday that he would give the bill a fair hearing, allowing proponents and opponents a chance to testify.\nBut, he said, "They may be calling me Dr. Brown after the surgery I might do (on the bill)." Among other things, he suggested that selling off 40 percent of future payments was borrowing too much.\nSome of the plan's other components, including those that would extend research and development tax credits and help local governments create technology parks, are to get an initial look Wednesday by the House Technology Committee.\nThe plan also would use federal dollars for job-training programs, modernize the state's unemployment insurance system and extend unemployment benefits. Some of those provisions will be considered Wednesday by the House Labor Committee.\nThe proposal also would invest $135 million from a tobacco-settlement trust fund to provide scholarships to as many as 22,000 students who pursue studies in the four targeted areas of advanced manufacturing, life sciences, information technology and distribution.\nThe students would have to serve internships and remain in Indiana after graduation at least one year for each year they received a scholarship. If they did not, they would have to repay the scholarships.\nHouse Speaker B. Patrick Bauer, D-South Bend, sent that plank directly to Ways and Means.\nSome in the O'Bannon administration have grumbled privately about the plan being broken into so many pieces, but Bauer has defended the move.\n"We think spreading it to 10 different authors and giving it full-body hearings will help some of those elements rise up, and it's a better way to try to get something through that is positive," he said.
(12/13/02 5:35am)
INDIANAPOLIS -- With little fanfare and few supporters on hand, Republican David McIntosh formally announced Thursday that he would run for governor again in 2004.\nMcIntosh raised and spent more than $8 million as the GOP nominee in 2000, only to lose by 15 percentage points to Democratic Gov. Frank O'Bannon. He said Thursday that times had changed, but his core messages of fiscal restraint and job-creation have not.\n"We ran three years ago on a vision for this state of conservative fiscal policy, strong family values, getting jobs created in high-tech and other sectors, and I feel called on to run again on that same platform," McIntosh said in his announcement in the Statehouse Rotunda.\nMcIntosh formally joined a crowded field of Republicans who are running or exploring a run. But unlike the announcement of his 2000 bid, there was no crowd on hand Thursday.\nReporters appeared to outnumber backers, and McIntosh was repeatedly interrupted by the sounds of renovation work being done on the third floor of the Statehouse.\nMcIntosh promised to cut property taxes by 25 percent during his last bid and made the "guarantee" the centerpiece of his campaign. He later acknowledged that falling revenues and other state budget problems would have forced his plan to be delayed or diluted.\nThe 44-year-old former congressman did not make the same pledge again on Thursday. But he did say that he would run a more grassroots campaign, and suggested that name identity built up during the last campaign could give him an advantage over other GOP hopefuls.\nBrian Vargus, a political pollster at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis, put the chances of McIntosh getting the nomination at "little to none."\n"Basically, David McIntosh has tattooed on his forehead the scarlet 'L' for loser," Vargus said. "It's a combination of the property tax promise, and, quite frankly, he lost. His name has been around for a long time, but it's attached to a losing race that everyone thought was eminently winnable. Even most Republicans didn't like what he did in the last race."\nHistory, too, is not on McIntosh's side.\nNot since Democrat Thomas Hedricks was elected in 1872 has a major party gubernatorial nominee lost an election for governor and subsequently come back to win the job.\nMcIntosh said he intended on waiting until after the holidays to announce his bid, but moved it up after Democratic Lt. Gov. Joe Kernan dropped out of the race Monday.\nTwo other Democrats who had been mentioned as possible candidates -- Indianapolis Mayor Bart Peterson and retiring U.S. Rep. Tim Roember -- also said they would not run. U.S. Sen. Evan Bayh, a former two-term governor, has said another run for governor is unlikely.\nRepublicans already had four people seeking their party's nomination: State Senators Luke Kenley of Noblesville and Murray Clark of Indianapolis; conservative activist Eric Miller; and Petersburg Mayor Randy Harris.\nHowever, the person most touted by Republicans has been White House Budget Director Mitch Daniels.\n"David is a great guy with a great record, but I am not sure there will be any real action until Mitch Daniels makes a decision," state GOP Executive Director Luke Messer, a former McIntosh congressional aide, told The Star Press of Muncie.\nMiller said Thursday he was in the race for the duration.\n"The more candidates that are involved, I think the better off it is for me because if you split 400,000 or 500,000 votes five or six different ways, it takes fewer votes to win the primary," Miller said.\nDaniels, Messer said, was "the 800-pound gorilla" in the 2004 Republican field.\nMcIntosh said he would run a different campaign this time. That would include talking more about his record in Congress and taking a more grassroots approach.\n"I'm thinking of it as 92 different sheriff's campaigns, where we do county-by-county efforts," he said.
(12/10/02 4:18am)
INDIANAPOLIS -- Lt. Gov. Joe Kernan announced Monday that he would not make a widely expected run for the governor's office in 2004.\nKernan, a former South Bend mayor who has held the state's second-highest office since 1997, said he and his wife had decided it was time for him to step aside after what will have been 18 years in elected office.\n"We just believe that at this time in our lives it is the right thing to do," Kernan said during a Statehouse news conference.\nHe said he had no plans for what he would do after his term ends in January 2005, although it was unlikely he would again be a political candidate.\n"I just don't see it, but I learned early on not to rule anything out," Kernan said.\nKernan's decision leaves Democrats without their expected nominee to succeed Gov. Frank O'Bannon, who cannot seek a third term. Kernan was considered the Democrats' best candidate to continue the party's hold on the governor's office, which it has won in each election since 1988.\nKernan, 56, had long been raising money for a possible gubernatorial run. His campaign committee's most recent finance report showed that as of the end of 2001 it had more than $1.85 million.\nKernan said he would be active in the last two years of the O'Bannon administration and work to support the Democratic nominee in 2004.\n"I will do all that I can to elect a Democrat as the next governor of the state of Indiana," he said.\nHouse Speaker Pro Tem Chet Dobis, D-Merrillville, said the decision shocked Democrats "since everyone thought Joe would be our unopposed nominee."\nDobis said the name of Indianapolis Mayor Bart Peterson came to mind immediately as someone who could fill the void.\n"But quite frankly, I see the party floundering at this point," Dobis said Monday. "At least Joe has given the party sufficient time to rally around a nominee."\nKernan was first elected South Bend's mayor in 1987 and was that city's longest-serving mayor until O'Bannon asked him in 1996 to join him on the Democratic ticket as lieutenant governor.\nRepublican leaders said they were equally stunned.\n"I am sincerely shocked," said House Minority Leader Brian Bosma, R-Indianapolis. "It leaves a huge void for Democrats."\nBut it also, he said, "opens the door for a lot of people on both the Republican and Democrat side" to run for governor.\nSeveral Republicans already are running or exploring a run. They include conservative lobbyist Eric Miller and state Sens. Murray Clark of Indianapolis and Luke Kenley of Noblesville, and the 2000 GOP gubernatorial nominee, David McIntosh.\nMany Republicans said they hope White House Budget Director Mitch Daniels will run, and he has not ruled it out.\nBesides Peterson, other Democrats being mentioned as possible candidates included outgoing U.S. Rep. Tim Roemer; former state and national party chairman Joe Andrew; and former Indiana House Speaker John Gregg.
(12/06/02 4:37am)
INDIANAPOLIS -- The proposal was not timid, and neither was Gov. Frank O'Bannon's prediction about its fate in the General Assembly.\n"Together we can do this. We must do this. We will do this," the Democratic governor said after detailing an economic development proposal that some members of both parties called bold and ambitious.\nGetting most or even parts of it passed during the upcoming legislative session, however, likely will prove daunting.\nHouse Speaker B. Patrick Bauer, D-South Bend, said it was so multi-faceted that several committees in his chamber must review it. And it is only one piece of a complicated political and fiscal puzzle.\n"It's welcome because it's their duty to make proposals, but it's our duty to evaluate them and make them work within a balanced budget," Bauer said.\nThe plan announced Wednesday would spend up to $1.25 billion over 10 years in hopes of creating jobs and boosting Indiana's lagging economy. It would be the centerpiece of the Democratic administration's legislative package.\nIt would free up about $692 million by borrowing against a portion of the state's national tobacco settlement, tap another $195 million from a tobacco trust fund, and invest those and other dollars in business research, job training and schools.\nBusiness and research grants, college scholarships and other parts of the plan would be targeted to creating high-skill, high-wage jobs in four industry sectors -- advanced manufacturing, life sciences, information technology and distribution.\nAlthough some spending would occur over 10 years, the plan envisions using $200 million over the next two years to supplement funding for schools.\nO'Bannon and Lt. Gov. Joe Kernan called the proposal the "next logical step" to the tax-restructuring package passed during the special session in June, and said it would not cost any state taxpayer dollars.\nDespite passage of the tax-increase and tax-restructuring plan, Indiana still faces a $760 million budget deficit and has lost about 120,000 jobs to the recession -- worst in the nation on a percentage basis.\n"We have a choice: We can sit and wring our hands and bemoan a recession, or we can act assertively, decisively, deliberately so that when the economy turns Indiana will be ready to explode," O'Bannon said.\nNearly all elements will require approval by the General Assembly, and it will take bipartisan support to pass, since the House is controlled by Democrats 51-49 and the Senate is controlled by Republicans 32-18. Lawmakers convene the 2003 budget-writing session on Jan. 7.\nMany lawmakers and lobbyists welcomed the proposal. House Minority Leader Brian Bosma, R-Indianapolis, called it "the best program I have seen brought forward in six years of the administration."\nBut some said the plan would do little to immediately address the state's budget shortfall, and Bosma and some others are wary of the plan's most controversial plank -- borrowing against future tobacco settlement payments for a lesser, lump sum up front.\nSome social services advocates decried it as a raid on tobacco money that should be used for health purposes. Republican state Treasurer Tim Berry said it was simply bad business.\nInstead of borrowing against 40 percent of future tobacco settlement payments to get $692 million up front, as the plan calls for, the state could take in $1.6 billion over the next two decades, Berry said.\n"Essentially you are mortgaging your home to pay for this week's groceries, and then realizing that next week you still have to buy groceries and you have no funding source to do so," Berry said.\nO'Bannon and Kernan said 60 percent of tobacco-settlement payments would still be used for health programs such as prescription drug benefits for low-income seniors.\nThe other portion would be used to sell bonds and generate $692 million. Of that, $360 million would be spent over the next decade on research-and-development grants for companies and universities that help bring new technologies to market.\nOther money would be used to establish regional technology centers, boost rural-development efforts and build more university research buildings.\nThe plan would invest $135 million from a tobacco-settlement trust fund to provide scholarships to as many as 22,000 students who pursue studies in the four targeted areas of advanced manufacturing, life sciences, information technology and distribution.\nStudents would have to serve internships and remain in Indiana after graduation at least one year for each year they received a scholarship. If they did not, they would have to repay the scholarships.\nThe plan also would use federal dollars for job-training programs, modernize the state's unemployment insurance system and extend unemployment benefits.\nKernan, who is widely expected to be the Democratic nominee for governor in 2004, said the plan would put Indiana on offense in addressing the state's economic woes.\n"The prevent defense doesn't work," he said. "All it does is prevent you from winning"
(12/05/02 5:15am)
INDIANAPOLIS -- Gov. Frank O'Bannon proposed a sweeping economic development and education plan Wednesday that would spend up to $1.25 billion over 10 years in hopes of creating jobs and boosting Indiana's lagging economy.\nThe proposal will be the centerpiece of the Democratic administration's legislative package, but passing most or even parts of it could prove daunting.\nThe plan would free up about $692 million by borrowing against a portion of the state's national tobacco settlement, tap another $195 million from a tobacco trust fund, and invest those and other dollars in business research, job training and schools.\nBusiness and research grants, college scholarships and other parts of the plan would be targeted to creating high-skill, high-wage jobs in four industry sectors -- advanced manufacturing, life sciences, information technology and distribution.\nAlthough some spending would occur over 10 years, the plan envisions using $200 million over the next two years to supplement funding for schools.\nO'Bannon and Lt. Gov. Joe Kernan called the proposal the "next logical step" to the tax-restructuring package passed during the special session in June, and said it would not cost any state taxpayer dollars.\nDespite passage of the tax-increase and tax-restructuring plan, Indiana still faces a $760 million budget deficit and has lost about 120,000 jobs to the recession -- worst in the nation on a percentage basis.\n"We have a choice: We can sit and wring our hands and bemoan a recession, or we can act assertively, decisively, deliberately so that when the economy turns Indiana will be ready to explode," O'Bannon said.\nNearly all elements will require approval by the General Assembly, and it will take bipartisan support to pass, since the House is controlled by Democrats 51-49 and the Senate is controlled by Republicans 32-18. Lawmakers convene the 2003 budget-writing session on Jan. 7.\nMany lawmakers and lobbyists welcomed the proposal, saying it was innovative and bold. House Minority Leader Brian Bosma, R-Indianapolis, called it "the best program I have seen brought forward in six years of the administration."\nHouse Speaker B. Patrick Bauer, D-South Bend, said it was so multi-faceted, several committees in his chamber would have to review it.\n"It's welcome because it's their duty to make proposals, but it's our duty to evaluate them and make them work within a balanced budget," Bauer said.\nBut some said the plan does little to immediately address the state's budget shortfall, and Bosma and some others are wary of the plan's most controversial plank -- borrowing against future tobacco settlement payments for a lesser, lump sum up front.\nSome social services advocates decried it as a raid on tobacco money that should be used for health purposes. Republican State Treasurer Tim Berry said it was simply bad business.\nInstead of borrowing against 40 percent of future tobacco settlement payments to get $692 million up front, as the plan calls for, the state could take in $1.6 billion over the next two decades, Berry said.\n"Essentially you are mortgaging your home to pay for this week's groceries, and then realizing that next week you still have to buy groceries and you have no funding source to do so," Berry said.\nO'Bannon and Kernan said 60 percent of tobacco-settlement payments would still be used for health programs such as prescription drug benefits for low-income seniors.\nThe other portion would be used to sell bonds and generate $692 million. Of that, $360 million would be spent over the next decade on research-and-development grants for companies and universities that help bring new technologies to market.\nOther money would be used to establish regional technology centers, boost rural-development efforts and build more university research buildings.\nThe plan would invest $135 million from a tobacco-settlement trust fund to provide scholarships to as many as 22,000 students who pursue studies in the four targeted areas of advanced manufacturing, life sciences, information technology and distribution.\nUnder the proposal, the students would have to serve internships and remain in Indiana after graduation at least one year for each year they received a scholarship. If they did not, they would have to repay the scholarships.\nThe plan also would use federal dollars for job-training programs, modernize the state's unemployment insurance system and extend unemployment benefits.\nKernan, who is widely expected to be the Democratic nominee for governor in 2004, said the plan would put Indiana on offense in addressing the state's economic woes.\n"The prevent defense doesn't work," he said. "All it does is prevent you from winning"
(12/04/02 4:18am)
INDIANAPOLIS -- Some key lawmakers expect Gov. Frank O'Bannon to propose that Indiana borrow against its shares of the national tobacco settlement to pay for economic development programs or help plug the state's budget deficit.\nO'Bannon and Lt. Gov. Joe Kernan were expected to announce a major economic development plan Wednesday afternoon. Their media offices declined to discuss details Tuesday.\nTina Dennis, press secretary to Kernan, would only say that the plan will be the Democratic administration's focus in the upcoming legislative session and "is something we're very excited about."\nBut several lawmakers said they expect it to include borrowing against the tobacco settlement -- also known as "tobacco securitization."\nUnder such a scenario, the state would sell a portion of its future tobacco settlement payments for a lesser lump sum. Bondholders would assume the risk of future payments coming in, but they would reap big dividends if they did.\nThis year, Wisconsin sold its entire settlement for the next two decades for about $1.3 billion, compared with the $5.9 billion the state expected to receive in payments over 25 years. Nearly all of the proceeds were used to plug the state's budget deficit. Several other states or counties have sold off parts of their settlement.
(11/13/02 4:06am)
INDIANAPOLIS -- Two Democratic state representatives said Tuesday that House Republican Leader Brian Bosma asked them to consider switching parties so Republicans would have control of the chamber.\nRep. Dave Crooks, D-Washington, and Rep. Peggy Welch, D-Bloomington, said Bosma called them with the request last week after vote tallies from the election showed Democrats with a 51-49 majority in the House. Both said they declined to consider the switch.\nIf Republicans gain a 50th seat, they would control of the chamber through a tie-breaking law enacted in 1995.\nBosma confirmed Tuesday that he made the requests and said there was an open invitation to other Democrats to consider it, although Crooks and Welch were the only two he spoke to individually.\n"They are both in districts that are pretty Republican, they both have conservative philosophies and they are very closely aligned with Republican colleagues in the House," said Bosma, R-Indianapolis.\nCrooks said that after he declined to consider a switch, Bosma warned him that because his district in southwestern Indiana leans Republican, the GOP would target him for defeat in the 2004 election.\nCrooks said Bosma asked him not to say anything about the conversation.\n"But after I thought about it over the weekend and reflected on it, I thought it was safer to let my constituents know the offer was made," Crooks said. "I'm just a bit disgusted by it."\nBosma said he "absolutely did not make any threats to either of them."\n"I did point out to both of them that our campaign folks are already looking to where inroads can be made to give us a majority, and their districts were likely spots to look," Bosma said.\n"I didn't mean that as a threat, only that running as a Republican would be a lot easier in 2004 than running as a Democrat."\nResults from last week's election showed Democrats barely retaining control of the House with 51 seats, down two from the 53-47 majority they had.\nDemocrats claimed victory in a Fort Wayne race by 64 votes, and preliminary results from an Indianapolis-area contest showed them winning by 36 votes. The count in the latter race was expected to be certified by Marion County election officials Tuesday.\nMatthew Kelty, who lost by 64 votes to Rep. Win Moses, D-Fort Wayne, in District 81, said Monday that he would request a recount.\nRepublicans also are considering a recount in the District 86 contest, since preliminary totals showed Democrat David Orentlicher defeating Republican Rep. Jim Atterholt by only 36 votes, and in House District 45, where Democrat Alan Chowning won by less than 300 votes over Republican Bruce Borders.
(11/12/02 4:56am)
INDIANAPOLIS -- The 2002 election season is over in Indiana. Sort of.\nThe tally in Indiana House District 86 has yet to be certified, and even if the 37-vote victory for Democrats holds, recounts in that contest and a 64-vote win an another seem certain to go through recounts.\nIf the end result remains the same, Democrats will still have a 51-49 majority in the state House. But there will still be fallout, and it could take months and months to settle.\nHere is a look back and a look ahead at last week's election:\n• Once again, Rep. Julia Carson showed that polls don't mean a lot in her mostly Indianapolis district.\nIt's numbered the new 7th District now, but despite the new number, (it was the 10th before redistricting), some additional pockets of GOP territory and a well-funded campaign by Republican Brose McVey, Carson returns to Congress.\nLooking back and looking ahead, Republicans must wonder again whether all the time and money and energy they spent for McVey and against Carson was worth it, and whether it's worth going through again with another candidate in 2004.\n• Of course, Carson isn't the only incumbent member of Congress to win again.\nDemocrats in the Indiana House who wielded the redistricting pen tried to draw enough new Democratic territory to knock off conservative, Republican Rep. John Hostettler in the state's so-called "Bloody Eighth" district in southwestern Indiana.\nThey have been saying since 1994 that Hostettler only won that year because of the once-in-a-hundred-years GOP landslide. It was a crazy outcome. A fluke.\nBut it's time for a different claim. Hostettler won again in 1996, 1998, 2000 and this year, November 2002.\nThe southwestern boot of Indiana is largely rural, pro-gun Dixiecrat country. Neither party can stake a lasting congressional claim by virtue of the territory alone.\nFor two more years, however, it again will be Hostettler territory.\n• Lost in the turmoil over control of the Indiana House is the fact that the Indiana Senate is GOP territory.\nRepublicans ruled that chamber going into the election 32-18, and that's still the count. Nothing was expected to change, and nothing did.\nSenate President Pro Tempe Robert Garton, R-Columbus, keeps the top spot he has held since 1980. Senate Finance Chairman Larry Borst, R-Greenwood, keeps the same title he has held for all but two years of the last three decades.\n• Control of the Indiana House is in Democratic hands now, but just barely, and there are recounts coming.\nThe 2002 election season in Indiana seemed to settle some things, but as always, it set up something else -- the 2004 season.