By Abrahm Hurt
and Quinn Fitzgerald
TheStatehouseFile.com

INDIANAPOLIS—In a chaotic and confusing end to the 2018 legislative session, bills that would have provided extra money for school safety and got rid of the sales tax on software died without getting final votes.

House Bill 1230 included $15 million for school safety that Gov. Eric Holcomb requested last week. But as the clock ticked down to midnight Wednesday, the final day of the session, lawmakers rushed to finish committee reports in time for a vote on the floor.

In an unprecedented move, Holcomb proposed extending the session by one hour to 1 a.m. Thursday. But after Senate Minority Leader Tim Lanane, D-Anderson objected, President Pro Tem David Long, R-Fort Wayne, relented and at 12:10 a.m. the Senate adjourned sine die.

Meanwhile, in the House, House Speaker Brian Bosma, R-Indianapolis, said they just ran out of time. He said the Senate was making changes to conference committee reports as late as 10:30 p.m. Wednesday. For the bills to be heard on the House floor, they had to get reprinted, signed and be heard before the House Rules and Legislative Procedures Committee.

Also dying in the waning minutes of the session was House Bill 1316, which would have waived state sales taxes for software delivered over the internet. It was also part of Holcomb’s agenda.

Bosma said there was some scrambling around at the end, but he was pleased that his caucus accomplished their legislative goals, among them two workforce development bills. House Bill 1002 and Senate Bill 50 cleared both chambers.

“I think it is a big step in moving from planning toward implementation,” he said to the media. “There are a few nuances in there that I may have changed if I’d been king for a day, but generally, very good bills bringing incentives to employees, giving incentives to employers to improve the workforce, get people in jobs in which they can succeed and get them well educated.”

SB 50 would replace the state’s Workforce Innovation Council with a new Governor’s Workforce Cabinet, and it also makes certain job training grants available immediately.

HB 1002 would expand the governor’s workforce ready grant program, and it allows Legislative Services Agency to regularly review the state’s workforce programs. The bill would also increase training grants.

Long said Rep. Ed Soliday, R-Valparaiso, made it extremely difficult for the Senate during the last two days of the session. While Long said he is not blaming Soliday for Wednesday’s meltdown, he said Soliday’s behavior was part of the issue.

“I don’t know why he had what appears to have been a meltdown in many of our people’s eyes on various issues, but he was involved in some key pieces of legislation and it slowed us down, and it was very difficult to deal with,” Long said.

Even with the difficult finish, Long said he was pleased with what was accomplished. He also said he was satisfied with the progress made with workforce development.

“This is intended to streamline to get an action-oriented group making decisions dominated by people who have skin in the game, business people,” Long said.

Senate and House Democrats, though, were disappointed that there was no progress made on workforce development, election reform, bias-crime legislation and addressing the Department of Child Services.

Lanane said this year’s session was a disappointing dud and one of the least productive sessions he can remember.

The Republicans, who have a super majority in both the House and Senate, leave little power to the Democrats to promote their agenda. In a press release, Lanane said Republicans refused to give 80 out of 85 Senate Democratic proposals committee hearings.

“In terms of significant legislation that affects the everyday lives of Hoosiers, yes, you can purchase alcohol on Sunday,” he said during a press conference. “How many years did it finally take us to get that done?”

Lanane was also disappointed that nothing was done with hate crime legislation in the state.

“We just can’t seem to get it done,” he said. “I think there might be some proposal to study it again or something but how many years do we have to study something before we realize if you’re only one of five, you need to actually act finally.”

Senate Bill 418 would have allowed judges to increase a sentence if the crime was committed against an individual because of everything from race to sexual identity. It died in the Senate when it was not called for a vote in the Public Policy Committee after members of the Senate Republican caucus, meeting behind closed doors, could not agree to include sexual orientation and gender identity in the bill.

House Minority Leader Rep. Terry Goodin, D-Austin was disappointed with the inaction on the challenges facing the Department of Child Services.

“Instead of fixing DCS, we passed a bill that said you could buy alcohol at Walmart on Sunday,” he said to the media.

In January, the Child Welfare Policy and Practice Group were hired by Gov. Eric Holcomb’s administration to review DCS after the former director, Mary Beth Bonaventura, resigned. She said children in the care of DCS are at risk because of lack of resources to care for them.

Goodin said he would like to see the investigators interview Bonaventura.

“We’re in the third month of this investigation and I’m trying to figure out what’s going on here,” he said. “What are you afraid of to actually bring the lady in and ask her what’s going on? What happened? What’s the problem here?”

Both Long and Bosma mentioned the possibility of having the governor call for a special session to work on bills that did not pass before the end of the session, but Bosma said he did not think that was needed.

FOOTNOTE: Abrahm Hurt and Quinn Fitzgerald are reporters for TheStatehouseFile.com, a news website powered by Franklin College journalism students.

By Abrahm Hurt
TheStatehouseFile.com

INDIANAPOLIS —Legislation that would drop all fees for gun licenses and allow guns in churches that have schools on the property stirred heated debate Monday.

A conference committee for House Bill 1214 heard over three hours of testimony and debate over handgun licensing and the right to carry at a church that has a school on its property.

HB 1214, which originally dealt with THC and hemp products, was stripped and replaced with language from bills that appeared to die in the General Assembly.

The new bill would eliminate the four-year handgun license and get rid of application fees for lifetime handgun licenses. It would also allow a licensed person to carry a firearm at a church with a school on its property.

The original bill, which was authored by Rep. William Friend, R-Macy, would have legalized low-THC hemp extract products if they had no more than 0.3 percent THC. It would have established requirements for manufacturing, labeling and selling CBD products.

Senate Bill 33, which would have allowed guns in a church with a school on the property, was not called for discussion last week before the deadline for bills to be amended. House Bill 1424, which would have dropped licensing fees for lifetime gun permits, also did not get a hearing before the deadline.

However, any bill that has passed out of at least one chamber can be revived in conference committee, where lawmakers from the House and Senate hash out differences in bills or change them completely.

Gun legislation in the General Assembly stalled after a shooting spree at a Florida high school in February sparked a national debate about the availability of guns and whether they should be more tightly regulated.

Senate Minority Leader Tim Lanane, D-Anderson, said he did not support the new language in the bill.

“Given the tragic and senseless gun violence that occurred in Florida on February 14, what we legislate with regard to firearm access, especially access to the types of guns used in mass shootings, calls for extreme care,” Lanane said in a written statement.

Scott Severns, who represented the St. Luke’s United Methodist Church social action committee, said he opposed both aspects of the bill because it would make his church less safe.

“If we pass this law, it seems to me no place is as safe with a lifetime license to carry as if they have to renew it from time to time and have a new background check,” he said during his testimony.

The new bill says licensed persons can carry guns into worship services when conducting business with the church, attending a program sponsored or permitted by the house of worship or when working for the house of worship.

Konnie Couch, founder of Women Armed and Ready, said the bill would allow church members to protect themselves.

“It’s a different world we live in than we did 30 years ago,” she testified. “Gun-free zones, whether you agree with them or don’t agree with them, they are what they are. They’re soft targets.”

Tim Troyer, Steuben County sheriff and president of the Indiana Sheriffs’ Association, said he opposed the removal of the licensing fees because law enforcement departments rely on the funds that come from the license fees.

Money from the fees is currently used to buy ammunition for training and other programs for local law enforcement.

“Although the permitting process remains, the assurances we have repeatedly asked for have not come,” Troyer said. “Crickets in the room are what we hear. We can’t even get a hollow promise from any of you.”

Rep. Matt Pierce, D-Bloomington, said he did not support the bill right now because it did not make sense to pass it when there is no money currently set aside to replace lost funding for training.

“We’re still basically saying trust us,” he said. “We’re going to get money from the budget next year and the people making those promises may not even be here next year.”

Christopher Kopacki, a state liaison for the National Rifle Association, said the NRA was in favor of the proposed policies for licensing.

“An individual really shouldn’t have to be charged a fee to be able to carry to protect themselves and their family in public,” he said. “It is discriminatory to those that may be indigent or may not be able to afford that fee.”

Lawmakers have until midnight Wednesday, the final day of the session, to act on legislation.

Abrahm Hurt is a reporter for TheStatehouseFile.com, a news website powered by Franklin College journalism students.