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As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowState lawmakers are moving forward with a plan to potentially hold parts of the legislative session outside the Indiana Statehouse because of health concerns during the pandemic.
The Legislative Continuity Committee on Wednesday voted to recommend that staff begin to equip several rooms in Indiana Government Center South for the Indiana House to meet there for the 2021 session, which starts in January.
According to plans shared with the committee on Wednesday, the 50 members of the Indiana Senate will be able to spread out in its existing chamber by utilizing the gallery, which is usually reserved for the public, and a seating area typically reserved for media.
But lawmakers are considering moving the 100 House members to three conference rooms that can be combined into one in the Government Center South building, 302 W. Washington St., which is adjacent to the Statehouse.
This setup would allow all of the representatives to have desks. If they spread out in the existing House chamber, only 58 members would be able to sit at the desks. The remaining lawmakers would be seated in other areas normally used by the public and the media.
The government building also includes several other conference rooms and an auditorium that could be used for socially-distanced legislative committee meetings.
House staff also presented to the Legislative Continuity Committee the possibility of using the Indiana Convention Center for the session, but the General Assembly would have to pay rent to use that space, while the government center rooms would be rent-free.
Adam Brown, director of the Office of Code Revision for the Legislative Services Agency, said it will take 10 to 12 weeks to prepare to use the government center rooms for the session, because new technology needs to be purchased and security systems put in place.
Brown said using the government center could still cost about $250,000 to $300,000, because iPad minis would need to be purchased for lawmakers for casting votes, and other audio and visual equipment would need to be installed.
“Those costs are based on if you plan to use those rooms in the same way that you use rooms in the Statehouse,” Brown said.
The committee voted 4-1 to recommend that staff move forward as if the government center will have to be used for the session.
“We can move back here in a day, but we can’t move there in a day,” committee chair Rep. Matt Lehman, R-Berne, said.
State Sen. Chris Garten, R-Charlestown, said he voted against it because of budget concerns.
“I can’t support that at this time,” Garten said.
A legislative personnel committee is also expected to sign off on the plan.
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A part time legislature who are now also ELITIST ! Sad Sad….Spend $$$$ just like drunkin Sailors as they say….Get over all this lock down stuff…Curve long ago flattened…Protect those most vulnerable and the others who may catch it will treat it like the flu or a cold..Enough of this power hungry government ….
The General Assembly will take precautions to protect themselves for COVID but we can’t use mail-in voting to protect ourselves.
You can take as many precautions as you see fit. Wear a mask to the polls. Wear gloves and a plexiglass face shield. Request an absentee ballot so you don’t have to vote in person at all. What you can’t do is have a fraudulent process with no ballot security.
Why are these politicians acting as if getting COVID is a death sentence? We now know that the case counts and the death counts have been wildly inflated. Even the CDC had to admit that only 6% of “COVID deaths” were actually caused by COVID alone. When will this charade, the charade that we have to turn our world upside down or we’re all going to die, ever end?
What a stupid idea and waste of taxpayer money. If they’re concerned, just don’t meet.
Fear mongering
Government is such a joke
.0]05% fatal EVEN WITH INFLATED COUNTS/CO MORBIDITY
To: Jim W, Keith M, John B
Apparently the Indiana Department of Health Statistics fall in the category of:
“Don’t confuse me with the facts, my mind is made up”
Please let me know where you shop, eat, gather for any reason so I can make the decision to to be there.
Oh, and the Holocaust never happened either.
___________
Newly Reported Confirmed COVID-19 Counts
New Tests Administered
62,683
08/08/2020 … 11/11/2020
24,033 New Individuals Tested
New Positive Cases
6,654
11/10/2020 … 11/11/2020
Positivity – All Tests
10.5 %
7-Day Rate
10/30/2020 … 11/05/2020
6.4 % cumulative rate
New Deaths
51
11/05/2020 … 11/11/2020
Whoops:
“not” to be there