By Tim Arnett
WABASH,Indiana – Indiana State Senator Jim Banks and Indiana State Representative Dave Wolkins gave a legislative update and answered questions on what is happening in statehouse at the Wabash County Farm Bureau building on South Miami street Saturday morning. Senator Banks ran a little late due to road conditions so Rep. Wolkins began the morning by running through the bills working their way through the house.
Rep. Wolkins said that this year’s short session has been one of the slowest seen in years. Four hundred twenty five bills have been introduced in the house and senate, with 120 having passed so far. He talked about ISTEP and the state’s plan to phase out the test after the contract with the company who creates the exam expires next year. But this creates all kinds of problems with what to replace it with, he said. He said that a new test which meets the state’s criteria must be created which, he added, is quite expensive.
He also detailed a house bill which will allow pharmacists to decide who can buy Sudafed, which is a component in making methamphetamine. Wolkins then switched to the road funding bill which has five versions in the house alone and several versions in the senate. The house’s proposal is to raise the gas tax $0.04 per gallon and release $460 million worth of gasoline out of the state’s reserves, an addition to imposing a special tax on hybrid and electric cars. Some other proposals for fixing the state’s roads including raising taxes on cigarettes $1 per pack. In SB 67, which is the senate’s version of the road funding bill, local counties would get a huge chunk of their own money returned back to them for road repairs. If it passes, the senate bill would provide a total of $3.2 million back to the city and the county. Senator Jim Banks on SB 67.
Rep. Wolkins also touched on the poultry bill which would require small farms who sell directly to businesses and individuals to have all their poultry inspected. The Hawkins Family Farm in North Manchester is at the center of the debate and owner Jeff Hawkins told the Wabash County Council on January 25th they have been selling uninspected poultry to restaurants in the area without a problem for the last 47 years. The poultry bill passed the house but has so far gone nowhere in the senate.
Questions from the crowd of approximately 20 attendees ranged from the recent announcement that UTEC in Huntington is moving to Mexico to the creation of a non-partisan panel aimed to fix the problem of gerrymandered districts in the state. Herb Mullen, VFW Post 286 Commander, asked a question about SB 304 with affects a tax deduction disabled veterans depend on. Sen. Banks voted in favor of the bill which contains an amendment which
changes the Homestead qualification so that very few disabled vets would qualify. Banks said that the bill is still a work in progress and the problem with the bill was only discovered after his initial vote. Banks said that he will vote against the bill of it comes up again for final passage.
Vice-Chair of the Wabash County Council, Bill Ruppel, told MiBash News that he hopes to have another legislative session with Rep. Wolkins and Sen. Banks in March or April when the short session ends.