Lawmakers pass school, tax bills in special session
INDIANAPOLIS (WISH/AP) — For the first time since 2009, lawmakers were back at the Indiana Statehouse for a special session.
They voted Monday to approve five bills: a school security bill, two tax-related bills, a bill making corrections to statutes that changed or were added to the Indiana Code this year and a bill giving Ball State University control over Muncie Community Schools while reducing the authority of the Gary school board.
Some lawmakers were unhappy about the session having been called at all.
“I am making my protest known. I do not support this process one bit. I am going to be voting no on every one of these bills because I do not believe this is a legitimate way to conduct government business,” State Sen. Karen Tallian, a Democrat from Portage, said.
House Bill 1230 allocates $5 million for school safety in the wake of the deadly Parkland, Florida school shooting.
“An additional safety measure is on a fire safety alarm. An employee may barricade or block a door for not more than three minutes in the event of an unplanned fire alarm and must initiate evacuation after a period unless an active shooter has been verified on the property,” reads State Rep. Wendy McNamara, a Republican from Evansville who authored the bill.
But some lawmakers said the bill was insufficient.
“This bill doesn’t go far enough. This bill talks about $5 million for capital costs that we’re going to extend to school corporations. Five million dollars divided by all the schools that would be eligible for the benefit? $7,352.94 is what that $5 million would be broken down to,” House Democratic Minority Leader Terry Goodin said.
State Rep. Jim Lucas, a Republican from Seymour, was the sole “no” vote in the House, where the measure was approved 96-1.
Lucas explained his vote: “Here, we’re talking about a $5 million addition to do what? There’s over 2,000 public schools, over 71,000 teachers and over 1.1 million students. How far do we expect $5 million to go? I know the intent is good, but we have to consider other alternatives.”
The school security funding bill passed in the Senate later in the afternoon.
Some Democratic legislators were unhappy that the Department of Child Services was not discussed during Monday’s session.
“We know the DCS assessment is in June. This special session could have waited until we were in receipt of that assessment or we could’ve done something today that could’ve at least created forward momentum,” State Sen. David Niezgodski, a Democrat from South Bend, said.
But Republican House Speaker Brian Bosma praised the work lawmakers got done in one day: “We promised transparency; we promised efficiency for taxpayers.
When asked how much the special session cost taxpayers, Bosma said it cost roughly $20,000.
The five bills, which Gov. Eric Holcomb signed into law on Monday afternoon, will take effect July 1.