Friday, April 03, 2009

CIB Bailout Language Still Not Online

If you want to read the amendment the Senate Appropriations Committee adopted on Thursday, which raises taxes and diverts revenues to pay for a $47 million bailout of the Capital Improvement Board, good luck. The last updated version of HB 1604 you will find on the General Assembly's website is dated February 25, 2009. The legislature has this practice of not putting adopted committee reports of bills online until the committee reports are approved by the full body. In some cases, it can take days between the day a bill is amended and passed out of committee and it is approved by the full body. The Senate will next meet on Monday afternoon. You'll have to wait until late Monday for an updated version of HB 1604, which is more than four days after its adoption. You can bet there is plenty of surplus language in the amendment that has not yet been vetted.

4 comments:

Jon said...

Oh gee, way should our elected leaders allow us to view pending legislation? Surely they are an esteemed and responsible electorate whose only duty is to serve the citizens of Indiana. We all know that they will act accordingly and diligently in the service of Indiana taxpayers don't we?

Paul K. Ogden said...

Gary,

One thing I thought was very weird was that the bill that came into committee did not have the CIB bailout. In order for that to be amended into the bill there should have been a separate vote in committee on the proposed CIB bailout BEFORE there was a vote on the whole bill. Instead they never held that separate CIB vote.

Gary R. Welsh said...

Paul, The committee probably adopted the amendment on a voice vote. They often do that so quickly when it is first being presented you don't catch it.

Paul K. Ogden said...

Thanks, Gary. I missed that when I was over at the Statehouse. I couldn't even get close enough to the TV to hear what was happening. Finally went back to my office to watch it on the computer.