INDIANAPOLIS — The full Indiana House returned to the Statehouse on Wednesday after a five-day break, but partisan differences remained over an unemployment insurance tax bill as a March 14 deadline for adjournment loomed.
Democratic House Speaker Patrick Bauer of South Bend met privately with Republican Gov. Mitch Daniels in hopes that he would help broker a compromise on the issue. He said the talk was constructive and mostly friendly, and that Daniels encouraged the parties to keep talking.
“We agreed to try to agree,” Bauer said.
Lawmakers had hoped to finish business last week, but Bauer decided last Thursday night to put the House in recess because he said Republicans in charge of the Senate weren’t negotiating in good faith. The move outraged Republicans.
Bauer said Wednesday that agreements had been reached on two key bills. One would allow schools to shift some money from accounts funded by property taxes to help offset $300 million in cuts Daniels imposed on general operating expenses.
He also said a compromise was struck on a bill to help shore up the state’s Public Deposit Insurance Fund, which is used to back up bank deposits made by state and local governments.
But he said Republicans were using the impasse over the unemployment insurance bill to hold those issues hostage, and that the school and banking bills should stand on their own merits.
Senate Appropriations Chairman Luke Kenley, R-Noblesville, countered that if the school funding compromise passed without an agreement on unemployment insurance, nothing would prevent Bauer from adjourning the House and ending the session.
“We are concerned about that,” Kenley said.
Senate Republicans passed a bill earlier this session that would delay for one year an unemployment insurance tax increase on businesses scheduled to take effect next month. The increase was approved last year as a way to start shoring up the unemployment insurance fund, which has borrowed $1.6 billion from the federal government so far to remain solvent.
Republicans want at least a one- or two-year delay in the tax increase, which they say would cause employers to layoff workers in a still poor economy.
The House passed a bill that would repeal the tax increase outright, but Democrats included some provisions that Republicans don’t like. They include a new system to crack down on employers who misclassify workers as independent contractors to avoid paying unemployment taxes. Republicans say that would have a chilling effect on the business community.
Senate Republicans offered a compromise Monday that would strike that provision, but they included some tax breaks and incentives that House Democrats want in hopes of creating jobs. Democrats balked at it, saying it didn’t do enough to create jobs or punish employers who cheat the unemployment insurance tax system.
Bauer said other key issues shouldn’t be held up by the unemployment dispute.
“We should continue to work on the unemployment bill and if we can get a compromise that would be good, and if we can’t at least you have solved two or three problems and don’t leave two or three on the table,” Bauer said.
Senate President Pro Tem David Long, R-Fort Wayne, said it wasn’t unusual for lawmakers to head into a session’s last days with a few key issues linked.
“I think much like any session, budget or otherwise, there’s usually a few issues that need to be worked out in a conglomeration to get us out of here,” Long said.
Local News
House returns, but Statehouse impasse continues
Unemployment insurance issues still causing problems
- Local News
-
-
Not forgotten
A plaque in Mount Hope Cemetery near a flagpole dedicated to those from Logansport and Cass County who served in the World War reads: “Let those who come after see that these men shall not be forgotten.”
-
LHS freshmen ace algebra ECA
Logansport High School administrators were “ecstatic” last week over results from the statewide algebra I end-of-course assessment that showed passing marks for all the freshmen who took the exam.
-
Logan man hands Indy 500 winner milk
Logansport resident Dave Forgey remembers listening to the Indianapolis 500 on the radio as a kid while his cousins and siblings would gather for a picnic.
- 2012 Lewis Cass graduation
-
Former LPD officer Leal turns himself in
Former Logansport police officer Carlos Paul Leal was arrested Friday afternoon on charges of theft, and officials Saturday said the counts stem from two separate investigations.
-
9-1-1 dispatchers will soon be able to text
Cass County dispatchers will be able to text callers starting this summer — a move that is reflective of where emergency communication services are heading nationwide.
-
Andersons officials predict consistent demand for corn
Farmers, elevator operators and other business associates joined local officials and community leaders to hear from the company’s president and its ethanol group president about industry progress since the plant was built.
-
Former LPD officer arrested, accused of theft
Former Logansport police officer Carlos Paul Leal was arrested Friday afternoon on two charges of theft, according to information obtained today by the Pharos-Tribune.
-
No jail for driver in fatal hit-and-run
A 25-year-old Logansport man admitted Thursday to leaving the scene of a deadly wreck last year, but he will not serve any time in jail as the result of a plea agreement.
-
Board backs 51 percent spike in utility rates
For Paul Hartman, the issue facing the Logansport Stormwater Management Board is pretty simple.
- More Local News Headlines
-
Air Canada Plane Makes Emergency Landing
Raw Video: 19 Dead in Qatar Shopping Mall Fire
Beryl Makes Landfall on Florida Coast
Service Dogs Help Wash. Soldiers Battling PTSD
Raw Video: Heckler Bursts in on Blair Testimony
Japan Farmers Plant, Seek Radiation-free Rice
UN Blames Syrian Forces for Shelling Houla
Raw Video: Gay Protest Blocked in Moscow
Vatican in Chaos After Butler Arrested for Leaks
Jimmy Carter Endorses Egypt's Election Results
Biden Addresses West Point Graduating Class
Dozens of Children Killed in New Syria Attack
Raw Video: Activists Allege Massacre in Syria
NJ Man Charged With Murder in Death of Patz
Support, Fun for Kids of Fallen Soldiers at Camp
Fugitive Penguin Caught, Returned to Aquarium
50 Years Later, Underground Fire Still Burning
Light Show Transforms Sydney Opera House
Raw Video: Unruly Passenger Restrained in Miami
Raw Video: Robber Uses Drive-thru Window
