As midnight fast approached on March 14, 2006, the legislature adjourned “sine die”, marking the end of the 2006 session of the Indiana General Assembly. Although this was a short (non-budget) session, an abundance of substantive issues were in play from beginning to end, making this one of the more action-packed short sessions in recent history.

HEA 1279 (Telecommunications) occupied a large amount of our time at the Statehouse. This massive telecommunications deregulation bill (and its counterpart in the Senate, SB 245) was muscled through the legislative process despite our efforts, in coalition with AARP Indiana and a number of other consumer and media groups, to carve out protections for individual and small business ratepayers from unjustifiable rate increases and service quality decreases resulting from the elimination of Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission (IURC) jurisdiction over basic telecommunications service. Misrepresentation abounded as the bills’ main authors and sponsors, as well as numerous telecommunications industry lobbyists packing the hallways, argued that expansion of broadband was dependent on deregulation of basic telecommunications service.

Our efforts to dispel this and other myths began with the distribution of a 35 page White Paper citing the IURC, Office of Utility Consumer Counselor (OUCC), other national advocacy groups and AT&T’s own reports and statements in support of our argument that HB 1279 and SB 245 were unnecessary and, at the very least, the IURC must retain jurisdiction over basic telecommunications service. We followed up with testimony at hearings on each bill, daily dialogue with legislators and distribution of written commentary at key points along the way. We also generated regular action alerts and mobilized thousands of grass roots advocates to contact their legislators with specific concerns about both bills.

Despite these efforts, legislators voted in large numbers to support final passage of HEA 1279, signifying a willingness to support the interests of mega-monopoly telecommunications companies like AT&T and Verizon over those of their constituents. Only days after the House voted to concur on Senate amendments to HB 1279, AT&T announced its $67 billion acquisition of BellSouth. Meanwhile, HEA 1279 was signed by the Governor on 3/14/06, setting the stage for rate increases that will be available to finance the acquisition while up to 10,000 more workers are laid off, with absolutely no provisions requiring any investment in Indiana.

HEA 1315 (Video Service Franchises) became a “trailer bill” to HEA 1279 in the final day of session, providing additional proof of a pattern and practice by the Indiana General Assembly of placing business interests above the interests of consumers. Until 3/14/06 HB 1315 contained provisions requiring all nursing homes to have automatic fire sprinkler systems installed before July, 2011 and requiring the Department of Health to publish the types of automatic fire sprinkler systems and smoke detectors in nursing homes in its consumer guides. On 3/14/06 HB 1315 was stripped of this language, and language was inserted ensuring that video service (cable) providers who opted to participate in the state video franchise program created in HEA 1279 would not be bound by any obligations to consumers or local units of government under previously negotiated local franchise agreements.

Despite the fact that no Senate conferees had been appointed and no quorum was present when HB 1315 was heard in conference committee on 3/14/06 (CAC testified against HB 1315 at the hearing), hours later a conference committee report signed by all four conferees, including newly discovered Senate conferees Hershman and Hume, miraculously appeared, was adopted in the Rules committees in both chambers and passed the House and Senate by wide margins, sending HEA on its way to the Governor for signature. Meanwhile, key legislation requiring fire sprinkler systems in nursing homes and public disclosure of fire sprinkler systems and smoke detectors in nursing homes is dead, despite countless hours of dedication by consumer advocates, spanning several years, to reach agreement with nursing home industry representatives.

HEA 1001, containing various property tax relief measures, also ranked high on the list of substantive issues debated in this year’s legislative session. Passing in the final hours of the legislative session, HB 1001 will provide homeowners a roughly 4% reduction in property taxes this year, and roughly 6% in reduced property taxes in 2007.

Language from former HB 1081, exempting sales tax from home energy bills for persons who qualify under the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP), remained in HB 1001 upon final passage. The sales tax exemption applies only to LIHEAP assistance between 6/30/06 and 6/30/07, essentially covering next winter’s heating bills. Nevertheless, the exemption provides additional funds to assist more eligible households with their heating expenses.

HR 23 was adopted by voice vote in the House on 3/6/06. HR 23 urges the Legislative Council to assign the issue of renewable energy development to the Regulatory Flexibility Committee. HR 23 was introduced following a hearing on HB 1379 (Renewable Energy Resources) on 1/25/06 in the House Utilities and Energy Committee. The hearing offered evidence of growing support for the requirement that electricity suppliers begin developing and increasing reliance on renewable energy resources for the generation of electricity. CAC helped to secure a hearing on HB 1379, organized testimony and testified in support of the bill at the hearing.

Renewable energy resources include wind, solar photovoltaic cells and panels, fuel cells, hydropower from existing resources, organic waste biomass, dedicated crops grown for energy production, methane recovered from landfills, heat and water without combustion and other similar sources. HB 1379 would have required electricity suppliers to supply electricity generated by renewable energy resources to Indiana customers as a percentage of the total electricity supplied by the electricity supplier, with at least 10% of energy coming from renewable energy resources by the year 2016.

At the hearing, utility companies raised concerns about mandates. An alternative plan, providing tax incentives for producers of renewable energy, was also discussed. Developers argued that tax incentives, without a corresponding requirement allowing interconnection to utility power grids, are insufficient to stimulate investment in renewable energy resources. Representative Lehe, the bill’s author, agreed to introduce a resolution calling for further study of these issues in lieu of advancing HB 1379 further.

The Regulatory Flexibility Committee is one of many study committees that meets on a periodic basis between regular sessions of the Indiana General Assembly. HR 23 recommends that the committee study the potential for various renewable energy resources to be used as a fuel source or to generate electricity in a manner that is economically and environmentally sound, taking various factors into consideration. Efforts to secure hearings this summer on a renewable energy standard are underway.

HEA 1008, the Governor’s Major Moves initiative, occupied center stage throughout the legislative process, ultimately passing by a narrow margin in the House (51-48) along party lines, with the exception of Republican Representative David Wolkins (District 18, Winona Lake), who broke ranks to vote with House Democrats against the bill. HB 1008 passed more easily in the Republican-dominated Senate by a vote of 31-19, with two Democrats joining twenty-nine Republicans in favor of the bill, and four Republicans joining fifteen Democrats against it.

Having passed both the House and Senate, HB 1008 becomes House Enrolled Act (HEA) 1008, where it is signed by the Speaker of the House and the President of the Senate and forwarded to the Governor for signature into law. Another major policy issue, daylight saving time, was not put into play despite the filing of several bills on the subject at the beginning of the session, leaving last year’s decision to place much of Indiana in the Eastern time zone for observance of daylight saving time undisturbed.

Bills that CAC tracked during the 2006 session, including those that died along the way, are listed according to four distinct categories below. A digest and last action report is included for each bill.

If you need additional information for any of the bills listed in this report or other information regarding the 2006 session of the Indiana General Assembly (IGA), please visit the IGA’s official website at www.in.gov/legislative.

Paul Chase, J.D.
CAC Governmental Affairs Liaison

Read the full legislative report in PDF format...