INDIANAPOLIS | Budget leaders in the General Assembly have temporarily scuttled Gov. Mike Pence's plan to spend nearly $1 million on new Statehouse doors that the administration claims are needed to improve security.
On Friday, the State Budget Committee postponed a scheduled vote on whether to fund the replacement of at least six employee-only doors with turnstyle entrances that would prevent more than one keycard holder from entering the Statehouse at a time.
State Sen. Luke Kenley, R-Noblesville, chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, said he was uneasy about supporting a barely-defined plan that sounds like it could ruin the historical appearance of the Statehouse — completed in 1888 — and is likely to be a daily hassle for state workers.
He also said the Legislature and appellate courts, which share the Statehouse with the executive branch, should have been in on the planning of any major building security updates.
"The inference is we're just supposed to rubber-stamp what you say is the right security procedure, and I'm a little uncomfortable with that suggestion," Kenley said. "I'm not trying to make too much of this, but the Statehouse is the only one that we have."
John Hill, Pence's deputy chief of staff for public safety, said the decision to more strictly regulate entry at the Statehouse's employee-only doors was made in 2010, after a 2007 security review identified workers courteously holding the doors open for others as a potential weakness.
The upgraded security plan was not implemented at the time, but the Republican-controlled General Assembly this year allocated $1.2 million for security infrastructure at the Statehouse and adjacent Indiana Government Center buildings.
Hill said the October 2014 shooting at the Canadian Parliament and the Islamic State encouraging "lone wolf" attacks in the United States create a need for heightened security measures.
He said his goal is to model Statehouse security on the strict access rules used for federal buildings, such as the U.S. Capitol.
"There are people in this state that we need to be concerned about," Hill said. "While we don't have a specific threat ... I can tell you there are young people that are being inspired by foreign terrorists to do these kinds of things."
State Rep. Greg Porter, D-Indianapolis, the top Democrat on the House Ways and Means Committee, said the Statehouse door debate is typical of Pence's misplaced priorities, amid the six-week closure of a key Interstate highway and a 26 percent spike in child abuse cases.
"We have two instances where matters have deteriorated so seriously that it's gone beyond being a crisis, yet we are spending time on how we need new doors for reasons that even proponents of the idea cannot adequately explain," Porter said.
State Rep. Tim Brown, R-Crawfordsville, chairman of the State Budget Committee, said the panel could reconsider Statehouse door funding at its October meeting if the administration comes up with an acceptable plan.