Continuously serving Kosciusko County since 1854
Editor's note: This is the first of three parts.
The Kosciusko County Farm Bureau meeting room was packed with citizens Saturday when State Senator Kent Adams (R-Warsaw) and State Representatives David Wolkins (R-Dist 18) and Bill Ruppel (R-Dist. 22) presented a legislative update.
The lawmakers detailed several bills regarding red light cameras, telemarketing, gambling, the .08 alcohol limit, daylight savings time and a 3-cent gas tax.
They discussed, and were questioned about, reassessment, a pay increase and politics in general.
Adams attended the meeting nursing a "bad back." Unable to travel to Indianapolis for two weeks because of the affliction, he has kept in touch with the state capitol each day by telephone.
The Adams-co-authored Senate Bill 4, otherwise known as the Red Light Camera bill, passed the full Senate by a 35-to-14 vote last week.
Wolkins and Rep. Gary Cook are sponsoring the House version of the bill.
"The transportation committee amended the bill, which tightened it up," Adams said. "And it will tie the hands of local communities.
"I have faith in the Warsaw community, in the Plymouth, South Bend, Elkhart or North Manchester communities to set their own parameters."
Wolkins, a member of the Ways and Means Committee, included the red light issue (House Bill 1751) as a question on his recent survey of constituents.
"Seventy percent of respondents support it and 30 percent don't. The 30 percent who don't, really don't," the representative said.
Costs of the program concerned most citizens because about $10,000 is required to prepare an intersection to support a camera, and each camera has a $50,000 to $60,000 price tag.
"Basically, what they do is prepare three or four different intersections," Wolkins said. "and then move the camera around."
"It can be worked out so no tax money is spent on it," Adams said.
Camera vendors run the program for a percent of the citation revenue (capped at $100 in the current Senate version of the bill).
"It does stop people from running red lights," Wolkins said.
"We have tremendous support for the bill," Adams said. "I think it will pass."
A bill with good intentions (HB 1222), to stop telemarketing calls, has become so heavy with encumbrances it probably won't make it through committee, according to Wolkins.
"Local businesses were afraid they wouldn't be able to call their clients," he said, "and want a 40-mile radius of people they can call."
In a nutshell, the introduced bill requires the consumer protection division of the office of the attorney general to publish a listing of telephone numbers of people who do not wish to be solicited by telephone.
A telephone soliciter is prohibited from calling a number on the list.
"Little by little groups are coming in trying to get exemptions for their calls," Wolkins said. "Their calls are good and others are bad."
Ruppel put another spin on the telemarketing bill
"The problem with the telemarketing bill is it has been watered down," he said.
Ruppel explained that credit card companies have the contractual right to call customers and their affiliates (any company that processes credit card charges).
There is also an amendment to make no exemptions.
Ruppel explained this means if Grandma and Grandpa are on the no-call list, a grandchild cannot call soliciting for a school fund-raiser.
"We want to stop the calls," he said, "but where do you draw the line?"
Ruppel said politicians were exempt from restrictions.
"That's one part they haven't taken out," he said in an ironic tone. "But I'd make sure I had a copy of the no-call list."
Ruppel, a Public Policy Committee member, shuffled through the proposed gambling bill (HB 1729), saying he'd attended an eight-hour hearing attended by 1,500 people.
An amendment supported by Gambling Anonymous and other groups allows people who recognize they spend money irresponsibly in casinos to place themselves on a list barring them from the gambling facilities.
"A person could voluntarily put themselves in a position to be barred from all gaming facilities in Indiana," he said. "They're arrested if they go on the boat."
A petition signed by 750 private clubs in support of paramutual video poker machines was presented, Ruppel said.
"That would allow 750 land-based casinos," he said. "They say don't let land-based casinos come in but let us have video machines tax free, make it legal for us to have them."
That proposal was kept out of the bill.
Another gambling-related bill (HB 1332) allows full-time ingress (boarding) and egress (leaving).
"That means the boats never have to leave the dock," Ruppel said. "The boats have to go out in the water for so long every day and set sailing times.
"They want the door open all the time, so you can come and go as you please. It will bring in a lot more money and create a lot more problems."
The legislators' discussion on other issues continues in parts 2 and 3.
