INDIANAPOLIS — Indiana legislators returned to work Monday to face several new challenges as they begin a nearly four-month legislative session of the Indiana General Assembly.
The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in House members being relocated to a larger conference space in the Indiana Government Center South building adjacent to the Statehouse.
While the Senate is still meeting in its normal chambers, both the upper and lower galleries will be utilized to seat lawmakers to maintain social distancing, Sen. Greg Walker, R-Columbus, said.
In an effort to reduce overcrowding in hallways and committee rooms, public testimony on legislative proposals will be primarily delivered through video conferencing, Walker said.
In some cases, testimony will be written on paper and distributed to lawmakers, Walker said. But more often than not, teleconferencing will be used to have lawmakers situated in one room, while those providing committee testimony are in another, he said.
Despite a push by House Democrats on Organization Day in November to require lawmakers to wear masks, neither chamber is mandating it, but it is strongly recommended.
Both Democratic and Republican legislative leaders have said they expect to have temporary shutdowns due to COVID-19 outbreaks or individuals having to quarantine between now and the end of April, when the session is scheduled to end.
“I think we have to be honest with ourselves — we’re going to have disruptions,” Indiana House Speaker Todd Huston, R-Fishers, said during an event in December.
New proposals
While several proposals are expected from now through April, Rep. Ryan Lauer, R-Columbus and Walker said there are just two statutory requirements for this session — creating a biennial budget and redrawing legislative maps.
In terms of spending, Walker says he does not believe the Hoosier state has seen the full economic impact of the pandemic yet, so he recommends conservative spending with the two-year spending plan. In May, economic uncertainty prompted Indiana Gov. Eric Holcomb to order all state agencies to cut spending by 15%. In November, economists from Indiana University said it will likely take until the end of this year until the state’s economy is back to where it was prior to the pandemic.
While Walker says he anticipates lawmakers will keep the budgets of most state agencies flat for the next two years, he anticipates Medicaid spending will rise faster than the rate of revenue growth. That development will require budget cuts in other areas, he said.
One of Walker’s biggest concerns is about the possibility of long-term hybrid or blended schools, due to the pandemic.
“I think its going to become a question of if we have the resources for keeping staffing going,” Walker said. “It’s getting to become more problematic.”
While Lauer also urges conservative spending, he is more optimistic about the state’s finances. Indiana is in a very strong fiscal shape, and is recovering faster than the nation as a whole from the 2020 economic downturn, Lauer said.
A revenue forecast released in mid-December predicted that while state revenues are expected to drop 3% during the upcoming year, they should rise by the same amount in 2022. However, Lauer says bookkeeping could get confusing because some revenue in this year’s forecast may not be counted until 2022, due to a shift in the tax deadline last year.
Lauer said his priorities in education include either increasing or maintaining the current funding level for schools, as well as taking steps to return all Indiana students back to their campuses.
In his legislative agenda, Republican Gov. Eric Holcomb called for increasing K-12 spending by an unspecified amount and, at a minimum, restoring previous funding levels for higher education institutions. Holcomb asked higher education institutions to take a 7% cut in fiscal year 2021 to account for revenue shortages caused by the pandemic.
Redistricting
Since the Republicans maintain their super majority in state government, the GOP will control redistricting — the process of drawing new congressional and state legislative district boundaries.
But state lawmakers must wait until federal authorities compile data from their 2020 census before they can draft and enact new district maps, Walker said.
Normally, all census data is submitted to the states no later than March, Lauer said. But since the 2020 census was delayed by the COVID-19 pandemic, Lauer says nobody is sure when that information will be prepared. He anticipates that growth in Indiana’s population over the past decade will have an impact on the redrawing of the legislative boundaries.
About two dozen groups such as the League of Women Voters, Common Cause and the NAACP have sought the creation of independent commissions to draw new legislative districts in recent years. But state law gives the Republican supermajority the authority to redraw those lines themselves.
Critics say that will result in gerrymandering — the manipulation of boundaries to favor one political party over another. But Lauer said he believes the redistricting will be both fair and transparent.
COVID liability
Although the U.S. Senate dropped its COVID-19 liability shield for employers from their recent economic stimulus bill, lawmakers at the Indiana General Assembly are expected to debate the same topic.
“In order to avoid the courts being tied up with nothing by COVID liability law suits for the next four years, it’s probably something we are going to have to put some guidelines to,” Walker said.
But both Walker and Lauer say if any employer acts with gross negligence by putting someone in danger to exposure or increased risk of COVID-19 without adequate protections, there should be no liability shield for the company.
Senate Bill 1, authored by Republicans Mark Messmer of Jasper, Eric Koch of Bedford and Liz Brown of Fort Wayne, would shield businesses and individuals from coronavirus civil liability lawsuits unless it acted with gross negligence or willful or wanton misconduct that could be proven with “clear and convincing evidence.”
The bill would specifically protect individuals, associations, institutions, corporations, companies, trusts, limited liability companies, partnerships, political subdivisions, government entities and “any other organization or entity.”
The legislation would be retroactive to March 1 and in effect through Dec. 31, 2024.
House Bill 1002, authored by Republican Jerry Torr of Carmel, is similar to the Senate version, but it goes a step further and would also shield businesses that produced pandemic-related materials, such as personal protective equipment.
It also specifically includes health care providers as a protected entity.
Like the Senate version, the House legislation would not protect any person or entity whose actions would be considered gross negligence or willful misconduct.
The House bill defines a protected entity as an individual, corporation, health care provider, an approved post-secondary educational institution, political subdivision, limited liability company, partnership, other legal entity or any business or organization referenced in a list elsewhere in state code.
The House bill has a shorter effective period—being retroactive to March 1 and in effect through Jan. 1, 2022.
Also, under the House version, a person who has filed a COVID-19 civil liability lawsuit would need to have a signed statement from a doctor that supports the claim that the business or entity being sued is at fault.
The bill says the physician statement needs to say the exposure or contraction of COVID-19 that resulted in damage, injury or death was “caused by an alleged act or omission of the defendant.”
Other business
Lauer says he’s expects to file a bill that supports local efforts to expand broadband internet access to rural areas, as well as increase exemptions of fees at universities for children of all disabled veterans.
For the past three years, Walker says he has seen potential in a proposal backed by the Indiana Chamber of Commerce that calls for work-sharing — an arrangement that allows employers to temporarily reduce the hours an employee works, rather than lay them off. Advocates says work-sharing allows a company to maintain a well-trained workforce that can be reinstate on a full-time basis when economic times improve.
But Walker also expressed reservations about the proposal, saying he doesn’t want a system that places all burdens on the workers.
“Now, if it’s completely voluntary, that’s another matter,” Walker said. “But I’m afraid there will be a lot more involuntary participation.”
One thing that Lauer and Walker agree upon is that it’s going to be difficult to get non-budgetary bills through the General Assembly during a budget session.
“It’s harder to get legislation passed during a long session because so much attention is focused on the biennial budget,” Lauer said.
