Statehouse Dispatch

FEIGENBAUM: Remainder of legislative session will be all about jobsRestricted Content

February 13, 2010
Ed Feigenbaum
House Democrats now have their opportunity to tinker with legislation sent to them by the Senate, and they will look for every opportunity to use these miscellaneous bills to preserve and create jobs. Similarly, Senate Republicans will analyze each piece of legislation that crossed the Statehouse Rotunda from the House to determine whether it is a “job-killer.”
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FEIGENBAUM: Legislature's second half will have its share of dramaRestricted Content

February 6, 2010
Ed Feigenbaum
Perhaps it was serendipity that the midpoint of the 2009 legislative session fell just ahead of the Indianapolis Colts’ Super Bowl appearance.
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FEIGENBAUM: Debate rages over the right to bear arms

January 30, 2010
Ed Feigenbaum
House Bill 1065 would bar business owners from prohibiting an employee from keeping a legally owned firearm in his or her locked vehicle at work.
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FEIGENBAUM: Daniels' agenda built on avoiding new taxes, programs

January 23, 2010
Ed Feigenbaum
The State of the State address delivered by Gov. Mitch Daniels Jan. 19 contained no surprises at all, except, perhaps in his optimism.
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FEIGENBAUM: Bills flying through Legislature at Castroneves' paceRestricted Content

January 16, 2010
Ed Feigenbaum
At a torrid pace, major pieces of legislation are flying through the Indiana General Assembly, leaving lawmakers with an envious decision: Adjourn early and make Hoosier voters happy, or stick around and devote attention to other major issues that deserve close scrutiny, but receive short shrift in sessions bogged down by battles over high-profile partisan matters.
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FEIGENBAUM: Democrats start to embrace constitutional amendmentRestricted Content

January 9, 2010
Ed Feigenbaum
What changed over the last year to make House Democrats so eager to allow Hoosier voters to amend the property-tax caps into the Indiana Constitution? The calendar.
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FEIGENBAUM: Early committee hearings were mostly theaterRestricted Content

January 2, 2010
Ed Feigenbaum
The December hearings by Indiana General Assembly committees focused on issues that legislative leaders designated as key session priorities, but the committee work was largely unremarkable, with predictable testimony derived from the usual suspects.
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FEIGENBAUM: Historic milestone in gambling industry approachesRestricted Content

July 27, 2009
Ed Feigenbaum
Indiana has made billions on gambling in nearly two decades, funding key programs, cutting excise and property taxes, and avoiding tax hikes. The state has seen more than $2 billion in investment without any government incentives, and more dollars committed in our history than by any industry outside of steel, power and autos.
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FEIGENBAUM: Education money helped land key Democratic votesRestricted Content

July 6, 2009
Ed Feigenbaum
As both House Speaker Pat Bauer, D-South Bend, and House Republican Leader Brian Bosma, R-Indianapolis, see it, this is definitely a "Republican-flavored" budget. Republican Gov. Mitch Daniels laid the framework, and legislators from both sides of the aisle largely abided by his bottom lines of spending, state agency cuts and surplus.
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STATEHOUSE DISPATCH: Political posturing puts session on strange trajectoryRestricted Content

June 22, 2009
Ed FeigenbaumMore

FEIGENBAUM: Problems pile up as legislators get back to workRestricted Content

June 15, 2009
Ed Feigenbaum
Special session will be longer than all had hoped before because of multiple unresolved issues
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FEIGENBAUM: Let the state budget bickering begin againRestricted Content

June 8, 2009
Ed Feigenbaum
Lawmakers return to Indianapolis June 11 tanned, rested and presumably ready to agree upon a budget that, via gubernatorial assent or a veto override vote, will guide Indiana through fiscal 2010-2011.
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Legislators, governor disagree about special sessionRestricted Content

May 11, 2009
Ed Feigenbaum
Assigning responsibility for what stuck us with a special session is a political post-session must, but playing the blame game usually isn't a productive exercise.
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Deal-making efforts unraveled in session's last daysRestricted Content

May 4, 2009
Ed Feigenbaum
You wouldn't have expected it going into the final week of the Indiana General Assembly, but we're headed for a special legislative session.
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Lawmakers think 'gloomy' in spite of rosy forecastRestricted Content

April 27, 2009
Ed Feigenbaum
Sometimes the news is just so good you can't believe it, and that is just what happened with the state revenue forecast this month.
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Competing interests to collide in final days of sessionRestricted Content

April 20, 2009
Ed Feigenbaum
The two principal matters that all agree must be resolved are the biennial budget and a plan to return the Unemployment Insurance Trust Fund to solvency.
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CIB solution may be wrapped into state budgetRestricted Content

April 6, 2009
Ed Feigenbaum
The Legislature has been behaving as expected lately: little public sound and fury, but action beginning to stir behind the scenes.
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April 17 revenue forecast to drive final days of General Assembly sessionRestricted Content

March 30, 2009
Ed Feigenbaum
Most of the critical work of this state legislative session will occur after April 20, because only then will the General Assembly have a revenue projection for the next biennium.
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Horse trading key to solving unemployment deficitRestricted Content

March 23, 2009
Ed Feigenbaum
In the past, lawmakers ignored the need to fix financing for the Unemployment Insurance Trust Fund, and now they must come up with solutions that will be difficult for both Democrats and Republicans to accept.
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Worsening economy exacerbating legislature's challengesRestricted Content

March 16, 2009
Ed Feigenbaum
Brace yourself, because things in this legislative session are destined to get messy: the politics, the process, the personalities, the context, and the issues and their substance, all at once.
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A few key Senators will mold most-crucial legislationRestricted Content

March 9, 2009
Ed Feigenbaum
The key legislative item at this point remains House Bill 1001, the budget bill.
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Legislators struggling with economic imperativesRestricted Content

March 2, 2009
Ed Feigenbaum
The Indiana state budget will continue to be a work in progress for many more weeks.
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Trickiest legislative issues remain far from resolutionRestricted Content

February 23, 2009
Ed Feigenbaum
Positive action, action for the sake of action, and inaction were all on tap in the General Assembly in recent days as lawmakers prepared to wrap up the first half of the session.
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Activity at Statehouse picks up, but how much is getting done?Restricted Content

February 16, 2009
Ed Feigenbaum
After a surprisingly slow month of January, the pace of legislative action picked up considerably during the first two weeks of February.
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Latest jobs numbers may change state's prioritiesRestricted Content

February 2, 2009
Ed Feigenbaum
Jobs themselves may become "Job One" for our elected officials.
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