Indiana lawmakers OK public health plan as session nears end
Indiana counties could start offering broadly expanded public health services under a bill state lawmakers approved Thursday in their final push toward the end of this year’s legislative session. The measure lays out “core public health services” that county health departments would have to provide if their elected officials vote to accept more state funding.
Those services would include required childhood vaccinations, emergency preparedness, restaurant and sewage system inspections, communicable disease prevention and smoking cessation programs.
The House voted 74-21 and the Senate 39-10 in favor of the plan pushed by Republican Gov. Eric Holcomb. Some of the Legislature’s most conservative members opposed the bill on behalf of voters aggrieved by government-ordered COVID-19 precautions, saying they feared creeping state control over local health agencies.
The Republican-dominated Legislature must still decide whether to pass a $44.5 billion two-year state budget. House and Senate votes were expected Thursday night on the deal released by Republican leaders, which would expand eligibility for private school vouchers and speed up planned income tax cuts.
The budget vote appeared to be coming together largely along party lines as Democrats criticized the GOP proposal as short-changing traditional public schools. Expanding the school voucher program could consume more than 40% of the state’s nearly $1.2 billion increase for general K-12 funding over the next two years.
Other less-discussed provisions in the budget plan include extending an automatic inflation-related increase in the state gasoline tax by three years and providing sizeable pay raises for the governor and other statewide elected officials starting in 2025.
The gasoline tax pays for infrastructure projects and currently rings in at 33 cents a gallon after being allowed to go up 1 cent each July since 2017 when Republicans boosted it to 28 cents from 18 cents. The annual increase was set to expire in 2024, but the budget bill extends it to 2027.
Republicans rebuffed calls from Democrats last year to suspend state gasoline taxes. The levy also includes a 7% sales tax that will stand at 20.3 cents a gallon in May. Prices jumped after the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Jeff Thompson called extend the annual increase a “reasonable” step amid rising construction costs.
“It was just a compromise to look at those increased costs,” Thompson said “Also, as you see the amount of collections are going down, with better mileage and other types of vehicles, it’s just to keep the revenue kind of where it’s at.”
The budget bill also would raise salaries for the governor and other officials by linking their pay to that of state Supreme Court justices, who receive annual raises in line with those given to other state employees.
The pay increase, which would take effect after Holcomb leaves the governor’s office, would boost the incoming governor’s pay nearly 50% from the current $133,683 to match the $198,513 paid to the five justices. The lieutenant governor, attorney general, secretary of state, state auditor and state treasurer would all receive pay bumps of at least 39% as their salaries would increase to between 60% and 88% of what court justices get.
“You need to set them to some type of standard,” Thompson said. “It makes sense so that they’re all tied together.”
Democratic Rep. Ed DeLaney said he found it “troublesome” that those proposals had not been previously debated and that Republicans also added budget provisions such as directing $89 million toward an undefined “amateur sports facility” and $37.5 million for construction of a 400-acre local park along the Ohio River between New Albany and Jeffersonville.
“Some of these policy decisions need to be debated,” DeLaney said. “But apparently some people have figured out that not debating them is more likely to lead to success.”