INDIANAPOLIS —A pair of major education reforms are expected to win final legislative approval and go to Gov. Mitch Daniels' desk this morning.
House Speaker Brian Bosma, R-Indianapolis, said his chamber will vote on measures that would launch the nation's largest private school voucher program and ease the process for new charter schools to get the green light.
Their passage would mean Daniels has achieved the top item on his legislative agenda, just two days before the current session of the General Assembly is scheduled to end.
"No other state has taken on such an encompassing array of reforms in one fell swoop to address the many concerns facing education today," said State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Bennett, a close Daniels ally on education reform.
Daniels already has signed into law a measure that restricts teachers' collective bargaining rights to wages and benefits a change that will preclude their pushing to have certain education policies and hiring and firing practices included in contracts with local school districts.
And awaiting his signature is a bill that links teacher pay to student performance through data-driven evaluation systems that are to be developed at the local level.
Toll road confusion resolved
The confusion that cropped up Monday over a bill intended to give Indiana's governor the power to sign deals for new toll roads without legislative approval has been resolved.
A joint House-Senate conference committee agreed to changes Tuesday that would ensure roadways that already exist or are currently under construction — such as the Interstate 69 extension from Indianapolis to Evansville — cannot be converted into tollways.
It would, though, allow Indiana governors to sign public-private partnership to build roadways without the General Assembly's approval through 2021.
Senate Transportation Committee Chairman Tom Wyss, the Fort Wayne Republican who is carrying the measure, said it could get final votes and head to the governor's desk Thursday.
Memorial Day gasoline tax proposal
Rep. Patrick Bauer of South Bend, the top Democrat in the Indiana House, on Tuesday proposed eliminating Indiana's gasoline taxes from Memorial Day to Labor Day.
It's a move he said could save Hoosiers about 40 cents a gallon at the pump. But it would also come at a price of about $300 million per year that Indiana now uses to fund road-building projects.
"Government doesn't need this money. Hoosier families do," Bauer said.
The money could be available because a recent revenue forecast shows Indiana is on track to end the next two-year budget period with a little more than $1 billion in the bank.
But Republicans say that money is just enough to qualify as a prudent reserve in case the economy wavers again.
Therefore, Bauer's request that the gas tax cut be included in the budget bill is likely to fall on deaf ears.
"It sounds good, but right now the focus for all of us needs to be fiscal integrity," Bosma said.
Bauer contrasted the Republican opposition of the gas tax cut proposal with the GOP's support for a measure that would reduce the state's corporate tax rate from 8.5 percent to 6.5 percent.
"I suspect what will happen is that the Republicans will take their usual approach. They love cutting taxes for corporations and the rich, but they turn into fiscal conservatives when it's time to do something for Hoosier families," Bauer said.
Planned Parenthood
The Indiana House could vote as soon as today on a bill that would block Medicaid recipients from using the government program to pay for visits to Planned Parenthood clinics such as the one in Evansville.
Bill sponsor Republican Rep. Eric Turner of Cicero on Tuesday agreed to changes the Senate made to the proposal, including provisions to ban federal money the state distributes for health screenings and birth control from going to groups that provide abortions.
The House could vote as soon as today on the bill. House approval would send the bill to Daniels, who hasn't taken a public stance on the proposal.
The bill also would ban abortions after the 20th week of pregnancy unless there is a substantial threat to the woman's life or health. That's four weeks earlier than current law.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.