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As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowThe upcoming General Assembly offers a final chance for the Republican-dominated body to team up with Gov. Mitch Daniels to pass another set of sweeping changes.
While the short session isn’t expected to pack the punch of some prior sessions, the to-do list isn’t short. Lawmakers should be able to find common ground with Daniels as the governor looks to put his final signature on eight years in office.
Due to the impending Super Bowl in Indianapolis, the first priority should be to pass a statewide smoking ban. The time for this came a decade or so ago, but the state still prohibits smoking only in government buildings, health care and child care facilities, and a few other places. This one is simple: A wider ban would save a lot of lives.
Another measure to pass before Super Bowl crowds descend is an update to the state’s inadequate human-trafficking law. Prosecutors need more tools to fight prostitution, which led to 133 arrests at last year’s Super Bowl in Dallas.
A lingering embarrassment in the four years since the Kernan-Shepard report on government reform was released is the lack of progress on its many excellent recommendations. IBJ and other newspapers have reported widespread inefficiency in township government, a function the commission called out for elimination.
Lawmakers wanting to protect their farm teams have dragged their feet at a time when cost savings from consolidating government would have been especially welcomed by suffering taxpayers. The report was subtitled, “We’ve got to stop governing like this.” We still do.
Mass transit should be a high priority, too.
The minute lawmakers allow Indianapolis-area citizens to vote on a referendum asking if taxes should be raised to fund better mass transit, political opponents are sure to pounce on them for “raising taxes.” Yet, allowing Hamilton and Marion county voters to decide whether to raise local income taxes 0.3 percent for a rail and expanded bus system is the right thing to do. Mayors are on board, and so is Central Indiana Corporate Partnership. That should be enough political cover for legislators to allow home rule on this important issue.
Perhaps the only regulations flouted more regularly than speed limits are taxes on online purchases, and it’s time for the state to institute the so-called Amazon tax. Forcing online retailers to charge the state’s 7-percent tax would level a playing field tilted in favor of online retailers for too long and add at least $40 million a year to state coffers.
Right-to-work is mostly about Republicans wanting to neuter unions, a major funding source for the Democratic opposition. That said, it’s true that some site selection consultants cross Indiana off their lists because the state doesn’t have a right-to-work law.
The benefits of cracking the door wider on job opportunities only slightly exceed the potential for a larger nonunion work force to put downward pressure on the state’s already-weak average wage. Right-to-work shouldn’t be a priority of the Legislature if it means more meaningful legislation fails.•
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