More talks don’t resolve Indiana House boycott

More talks between the Republican and Democratic leaders of the Indiana House might be inching the two sides closer to resolving the now three-week-long boycott by Democratic legislators.

The lack of any firm breakthrough, however, meant most Democratic members skipped Monday's floor session, continuing to leave the House with too few members to conduct business and the Democratic leader saying the boycott would continue Tuesday.

Republican Speaker Brian Bosma and Democratic leader Patrick Bauer said Monday they spoke by phone several times over the weekend. Bauer called them "fairly good talks," while Bosma said "perhaps" progress was made.

A Republican-backed proposal to allow state vouchers to help parents send their children to private schools has been among the sticking points of education- and labor-related bills that Democrats say they found objectionable and prompted them to leave for Illinois on Feb. 22.

Bauer told reporters Monday that he believed an agreement could be close on amending the voucher bill to further limit its scope, but he didn't provide details.

"I just haven't gotten that all nailed down yet completely," Bauer said. "I think they're amenable to cut out some of the huge fiscal hit on that."

The Republican sponsor of the bill has proposed capping the number of vouchers to 7,500 during the program's first year and 15,000 during the second year.

Bauer said Democrats still had unresolved concerns about a bill on government construction project wages, which includes provisions ending requirements that nonunion companies sign onto agreements involving union rules.

Bill sponsor Rep. Bill Davis, R-Portland, said he would support modifying the bill so that the state's prevailing construction wage law, which now applies to government projects of $150,000 or more, would start at $500,000 rather than the proposed $1 million level. He said he also would agree to delete a proposed complete exemption for public school and state university projects.

Bosma didn't seem certain that the amendments to those bills would be enough to bring back the boycotting Democrats.

"Every time we get there, there seems to be one more thing," Bosma said. "I'm just not exactly sure what they need at this point."

Rep. Terry Goodin of Austin, one of two Democrats representing his party on the House floor Monday, said he thought Bosma would have resolved the impasse by now.

"All we're really seeing from the podium is 'We're not going to compromise and we're not going to negotiate,'"Goodin said. "We don't think that's fruitful to move the state forward at all."

One of the bills being held up in the House by the Democratic boycott is the new two-year budget, which must be adopted by July 1 to avoid a state government shutdown.

Senate Appropriations Chairman Luke Kenley, R-Noblesville, said he'd give the House one more week to pass a budget before amending the budget into another bill and starting hearings in the Senate. He said the Senate would have to eventually move forward so the chamber would have enough time to deal with the bill.

"We're going to have to make some decisions to go ahead and do something," Kenley said.

Senate Minority Leader Vi Simpson, D-Bloomington, said it was appropriate for the Senate to start budget hearings.

"People can start thinking about it and start putting amendments together," she said.